Malay songs with English lyrics banned By ZIEMAN PETALING JAYA: One of P. Ramlee's classic hits Madu Tiga may end up being banned on RTM due to the Information Ministry's latest ruling which disallows the airing of Malay songs with lyrics that are intertwined with a sprinkling of English words. The current batch of songs that have been “taken off the air” include Anita Sarawak's Seksis and Diva, Ruffedge's Tipah Tertipu, Too Phat's Alhamdulillah and KRU's latest song Bade. The ever-popular Madu Tiga song, from the movie of the same name, has got the line “I Love You”.

First, the ridiculous rule of not allowing couples to hold hands at the KLCC park and now this. I think we are getting overboard with such nitty gritties! What are we hoping to achieve here? Or do we want to emulate Singapore with their rule of social dictatorship!? It puzzles me!

I am bewildered by such incomprehensible decisions. Is using another language in a song diluting the national language? I do not think so.... Bahasa Malaysia itself has plenty of borrowed words. It remains a fact that B. Melayu is a young language and the power of its vocabulary remains much to be desired. But that is besides the point.

A song is an artistic expression of the artiste. It is not about the language but the emotions and the messages that a song hopes to express and relay to its listeners. Barring the use of certain languages can stunt the expression of an artiste.

The other question is why only English? As mentioned in the article, why not arabic or chinese? Why English?

I can offer no explanations except that these idle policymakers have wandered off into another world. There is no logic in their actions. This will certainly pull Malaysia back a few steps in our forward direction towards being a developed nation!