Stop politicising language issue in official press statements: DPM

SHAH ALAM: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail called on all quarters to stop politicising the issue of Bahasa Malaysia should only be used in official press statements.
The nation's first woman deputy prime minister explained that she did not see anything wrong for any government statements to be translated into other languages.
"Though it has always been the government policy that the official language is the national language, it is also not wrong for any government statement to be translated into another language.
"Furthermore, I see this issue of translation as something similar to when you see subtitles in any movies or drama," Wan Azizah said to reporters on the sideline of the Darul Ehsan Institute (IDE) Aidilfitri open house celebration today.
Wan Azizah was asked to comment if the Pakatan Harapan administration has made any decision with regards to retaining Bahasa Malaysia as the official language for official government duties.
Recently, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had received flak from politicians and Malaysians alike after he had issued a statement in Chinese to defend his use of trilingual statements for certain ministerial matters.
In defence, the former Penang chief minister said that there is nothing wrong for a statement to be distributed in Chinese or another language.
Lim added that he would not bow down to criticism and would continue to publish his statement in BM and English, and if necessary, a Mandarin translation will also be made available.
"I hope that other high-ranking government officials will follow suit," he added.