KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — Malaysia should continue using the English text of the Federal Constitution — which is the original language it was created in — as the authoritative...
In Malaysia, there have been multiple cases of an initially non-Muslim parent converting to become a Muslim, and subsequently secretly converting his or her young children — some as young as three years old — to become Muslims without even asking the other parent who remained non-Muslim.
Khoo said the Malay or Bahasa Malaysia translation of the Federal Constitution should not be the authoritative text now or even in the foreseeable future. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng "My personal view is that we have not yet arrived at the point where total and absolute reliance can be placed on the BM translations with confidence,” he said.
"The Federal Constitution was a product of substantial negotiation in 1957, and every word used the subject of much debate and intense study. When Malaysia was formed, further negotiations took place,” he said, referring to Malaysia’s formation in 1963. "I do not think it is developed or complete enough to replace all the words in English whilst retaining the nuances of the English words or phrases. We are still developing legal terminology for the Malay language. It is far from settled and established.
"It is not simply a question of changing the words but what is meant by the Constitution. To translate the Federal Constitution from English to Malay is akin to translating our DNA from one language to another and has every potential to turn it into something different,” he said. Cautioning against making the BM version of the Federal Constitution the authoritative version, Fahri said it could possibly be inaccurate, create more or greater ambiguities, or even risk"corrupting or harming important concepts inherent to the Federal Constitution”.
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