It’s no secret that there are a lot of Bangladeshi people in Malaysia. After all, they are here to take on (3D – dirty, dangerous and demeaning) jobs that most Malaysians wouldn’t take on themselves.
Over the Hari Raya weekend, popular locations like KLCC was allegedly filled with Bangladeshi people, probably because they were enjoying the festive season too. But this sparked an entirely different conversation online.
The term ‘Bangla’ is now trending on Malaysian Twitter after a huge crowd of Bangladeshi people were spotted at KLCC. People are now debating if the word ‘Bangla’ is offensive.
“KLCC is full of ‘Banglas’ and ‘Nepals’,” one Malaysian wrote.
This sparked the debate of whether the term ‘Bangla’ is offensive, where many believe that Malaysians using the word is purely for insulting purposes
Though, others disagree
“It is our culture to abbreviate words here, Bangladesh becomes Bangla. If you come to Malaysia, you have to follow the culture here. There is no intention to insult. Eh, we have to follow their ways?”
“Wanting to short form (words) is a difficulty? For Bangladesh, we call them Bangla, Indonesia we call ‘Indon’, why is that so hard to understand? We are not insulting anything, just shortening it.”
What do you think? Is using the word ‘Bangla’ an insult and derogatory?
Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
This post first appeared on WORLD OF BUZZ.