KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Education (MoE) has proposed to provide incentives to individuals named as national laureates as an effort to recognise their services as well as to safeguard their welfare.
Its Minister Dr Maszlee Malik (pix) said that for that purpose, he would arrange a meeting between the country’s national laureates and the representatives from the Ministry of Finance in the near future.
“Insya-Allah (God willing), either the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) or MoE can act as the intermediary to make this meeting a success.
“I am confident that our national laureates are not asking for this and that, so let me do the asking on their behalf as they have served and upheld the country’s literature and national language,” he said in his speech at the DBP’s 63th anniversary celebration at the Wisma DBP yesterday.
Maszlee said in other developing countries, their national laureates were celebrated individuals for their services in upholding the language.
He also called on public universities to appoint the national laureates as their guests with monthly allowances as a form of recognition.
Meanwhile, in another development, Maszlee suggested that official publication issued by the government by any ministry to obtain approval from the DBP first before being published.
“Because currently each one of them published their own publication with their own control system, and not via DBP. So where is DBP’s position as the guardian of the national language?
“If the halal food quality standard seal issued by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim), the quality control of the national language is under the purview of DBP,” he said. — Bernama
