Bahasa?

Please bear my nationalistic bent. It irks me each time people who do not speak Bahasa Malaysia as their first language (usually those from non-malay background), but when dealing with issues of using that language as a medium of education, communication, church life, even blogging or translation work, refer the language as "Bahasa" for convenience without respectfully using the term Bahasa Malaysia, or at least BM.

By using the short-term Bahasa as a single-word reference comparable with Tamil, English, Spanish, Maori (full term is Te Reo Maori), it doesn't reflect nor respect its real reference to the specific language. "Bahasa", when used alone, is referring to any 'language' at all, and by using that to refer to the national language is almost a disrespect of its dignity as a language on its own.
Language is part of one's identity and culture, and using it carelessly without considering its meaning and significance risks disrespect for any person or culture.

Why don't we start calling the English Language, "Language" or Hua Yu as "Yu" or Hokkien Wa as "Wa". It shows our insensitivity to the identity and essense of that particular language.

It may also reflect our failure to truly understand our neighbours in their social and cultural contexts, especially when at least 60-70% of our fellow Malaysians speak Bahasa Malaysia as their first language, and almost the rest use it as 2nd or 3rd language. Except of course those in cultural-linguistic ghettos, and wonder why everyone else is not speaking the same language as they do.

We communicate with others and assume as if everyone uses English or our mother tongue, as much as we do and conveniently disregard others, putting to them into our linguistic context.

It makes no sense if we ask people, it can be insulting!

Awak reti bahasa tak?
Can you speak "language"?
Lu kong "wa" bo?

I feel shameful that as Malaysians, we still can't differentiate the simple difference between Bahasa Malaysia and bahasa.

p/s: There are also some senior citizens who just simply blame their inability to speak BM on the education system, saying that "Oh in the past we do not have KBSM, we had MCE. How we long for our good old days!", rather than blaming their laziness to learn how to communicate with their neighbours and adapting to the changing dynamics of the newer generations.

Or in contemporary setting, some people would overrate their global mobility without acknowledging the society and culture of which they come from, and without realising that almost every Ah Beng, Muthusamy, Ahmad, Takeshi, Zhuge Liang, or Budi Purnomo today are as capable as they are. Mastery of the English language in itself is nothing special, without necessary skills, knowledge, cultural networks and ability to interact with diverse cultures. "These days who wants to learn BM? We just need to learn English and we can study and work anywhere in the world."

Or those who claim that the "real" corporate and global world do not use BM. Its true to a certain degree, but hey, there is another real world, the world where your multicultural colleagues, mamak stall workers, schoolchildren, taxi drivers, your local pasar malam hawker and our local Rukun Tetangga members roam (or we have started employing Nepalese security guards?). Instead of looking upwards all the time, we should sometimes glance down to the grassroots. Its a good relief for neck pain.

Or more rampantly, those who learn BM for the sake of pragmatic reasons to pass their SPM or to get straight As. They do not do justice to the spirit of learning. By the end of their schooling, they start to go to the "real world" described above, and forgot the Ah Seng, Muthusamy, Abu and Kitingan that they used to sing "Rasa Sayang" together.