Lost in translation?

ARCHIVES 2009

By MT Webmaster On Apr 15, 2009

Written by Nadia Hassan, The Edge

Was Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's remarks in assessing the lack of support for Barisan Nasional (BN) from the Chinese community in the Bukit Gantang by-election taken out of context or merely lost in translation?

Given that the remarks were made during an interview with Mingguan Malaysia, is it still the case of politicians saying different things to different audiences, as suggested by a commentary on the Malaysian Insider website?

Bear in mind, nuances can differ from one language to another and perfect translations of certain words cannot at times be achieved. Also body language and facial expressions are also important elements in communication.

Here we reproduce the Muhyiddin's remarks in as close an English translation as possible and let readers decide for themselves if Muhyiddin's remarks were taken out of context and what his intentions may be in making those remarks while assessing the lack of support for the BN.

Mingguan Malaysia's leading question was: "Tetapi bukankah setiap kali pilihan raya kecil, permintaan kaum bukan Melayu dipenuhi, malah di Bukit Gantang walaupun peruntukan RM1 juta diberikan tetapi kaum Cina tidak juga menyokong BN?"

Translated: "But isn't it the case at every by-election, the requests of the non-Malays are met; in fact in Bukit Gantang even though a RM1 million allocation was given, the Chinese still did not support BN?"

The following are the Bahasa Malaysia version and the English translation of Muhyiddin's remarks.
Bahasa Malaysia:

Ya, kadang-kadang kita berasa terpedaya juga kerana zahirnya nampak macam 'ok', sambutan dengan tepukan gemuruh tetapi mungkin sudah ada tertanam dalam hati iaitu sesuatu tidak mudah hendak berubah, pokoknya masalah isu Perak terutamanya di kalangan masyarakat Cina yang mungkin telah dipengaruhi dengan sentimen simpati kepada Datuk Seri Ir.Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, kononnya dia 'dijatuhkan', lepas itu kononnya dasar memberi pegangan tanah selama 99 tahun dilihat dasar yang menguntungkan.

Ini yang mungkin menyebabkan sukar BN mendapat sokongan walaupun kita fikir bila mereka hendak sekolah Cina dibantu, kita bantu, sepatutnya mereka membalas budi. Pada waktu itu, kita pun tidak berharap sokongan kaum Cina akan meningkat 40 peratus dan sebagainya cuma kita berharap ada peningkatan sedikit tetapi apa yang berlaku ia mencatatkan penurunan, macam tidak ada penghargaan terhadap apa yang kita lakukan.

Oleh itu kita kena kaji psikologi apa yang menyebabkan masyarakat Cina tidak bersedia untuk berubah, pada zaman dahulu tidak begitu.

Persoalannya apakah mereka melihat dalam konteks senario politik baru ini, selepas kerajaan BN tumbang di lima buah negeri, mereka sudah menjadi kuasa penentu?

Orang Cina rasa sekarang, walaupun mereka kumpulan minoriti, merekalah menentukan kerana kelompok masyarakat Melayu sudah berpecah tiga kumpulan.

Masyarakat Cina tidak berpecah mereka bersatu, setidak-tidaknya dari segi semangat apabila bersama-sama membuat sesuatu keputusan.

Dalam keadaan ini, mereka boleh menentukan keputusan sesuatu pilihan raya dan apabila kesan itu dapat dilihat dalam pilihan raya umum lalu dan beberapa pilihan raya kecil, mereka fikir sekarang mereka lebih ada kuasa penentu, bukan sahaja Cina malah masyarakat India pun begitu, apa tah lagi apabila mendapat kedudukan dalam kerajaan yang ditubuhkan pakatan pembangkang dengan menjadi Timbalan Ketua Menteri, Speaker dan exco kerajaan negeri, jadi ini bagi mereka seolah-olah tawaran yang diberikan oleh pihak sana lebih baik daripada kita pernah tawarkan dalam konteks BN, jadi ini kita harus teliti.

English

Yes, at times we also feel fooled as on the surface everything looks “ok”, given a warm reception but maybe there is an unspoken issue at heart. That is, something that is not easy to change, the root of the problem with the Perak issue, especially among the Chinese community, who may have been influenced by feelings of sympathy for Datuk Seri Ir Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, who they felt had been “toppled”. Then the granting of the 99-year leases is seen a beneficial policy.

Maybe this is what made it hard for BN to gain support… although when we think they want help for Chinese schools we offer it to them, rightly they should be appreciative (literal translation, return the good deed).

In that instance, we are not hoping for support from the Chinese to increase 40% and so on, just that there would be some improvement. Instead what happens is that there is a fall, as if our deed is not appreciated.

Because of this, we need to observe/study the psychology of what makes the Chinese not ready to change, in the past it wasn’t that way.

The question is, do they perceive in the context of this new political scenario, after BN was defeated in five states, that they have become the deciding factor? The Chinese feel now that although they are a minority, they are the deciding force because the Malay community has split into three factions. The Chinese community does not have this issue, they are united, at least in spirit when they make a united decision.

In this situation, they can determine the outcome of an election and when the effect is seen, as was the case in the past general election and smaller by-elections, they now realise that they are the deciding factor. Not just the Chinese, but the Indian community as well, even more when they gain a position in the government established by the opposition party and becoming DPM, speaker and Exco. In this case, it's as if what is being offered by the other party is better than what we in BN have offered them, so this matter deserves a closer look.