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Datuk Ahmad Nadzri Mohd Hassan

KUCHING (Nov 1): Federal government departments in Sarawak will entertain official letters written in English, confirmed Sarawak Federal Secretary Datuk Ahmad Nadzri Mohd Hassan.

He said the federal government recognised Sarawak’s special rights as well as the common understanding between the state and Putrajaya.

“We accept letters written in either in Malay or English. Even if the letters are written in other languages, we would also entertain them. We would get them translated,” he said when met after the launch of the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) Disaster Preparedness for the Northeast Monsoon here today.

He explained the situation would be different in Peninsular Malaysia because Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had made his wishes on the sole use of the Malay language for official correspondence very clear.

“(Over there) heads of departments need to do things accordingly,” he said.

However, he said federal government offices in Peninsular Malaysia would entertain letters written in English or other languages from Sarawak.

“I do not think that it would be a problem. You can write in the language that you are comfortable with. And we cannot force you (to write in Malay). For instance, members of the Chinese community may write in the language that they are comfortable with. The federal government has the capability to get services to translate them accordingly,” he explained.

Ahmad Nadzri was responding to Anwar’s directive in Cyberjaya on Oct 25 for all government departments not to entertain letters written in a language other than Malay.

Anwar had said letters received in other languages should be returned to sender.

The Prime Minister’s remarks had attracted criticism from various quarters both in the peninsula and Sarawak.

Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala recently pointed out Sarawak never gave up the right to use English as an official language.

He said this right is stated in the Federal Constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), while the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) is the only august house in the country where English is still used in its proceedings.

Sarawak Federal Secretary confirms no issue with official letters in English from state