Bahasa Malaysia is the national language of the country and for the longest time, leaders and linguists alike have worked tirelessly to spread the use, importance, relevance and appeal of the language beyond Malaysia's shores.
The language in its varying forms and dialects is used and spoken across the Southeast Asian region in neighbouring Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and even parts of Thailand (South) and IndoChina (Vietnam).
It is estimated that in Southeast Asia, there are more than 300 million speakers of the language.
With this in mind, caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has expressed confidence that Bahasa Malaysia has the potential to become the region's second language.
Ismail Sabri has always prioritised the importance of using the language for all means and in forms of communication, so much so he made history back in September by becoming the first Malaysian prime minister to deliver a speech in Bahasa Malaysia at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, which is the world's largest diplomatic convention.
Ismail Sabri is a known language activist when it comes to Bahasa Malaysia.
To elevate the language further, he has proposed that the national language be used for official forms of communication on the international front, such as by the country's diplomats.
Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Teo Kok Seong, a fellow with the National Council of Professors, is on the same wavelength as Ismail Sabri when it comes to advocating the use of the national language.
He believes if given the chance for expansion of usage, Bahasa Malaysia will appeal to a wider audience.
ECONOMIC APPEAL
"In order for us to intensify the quality and number of people using the language, we must ensure that Bahasa Malaysia is associated with economic strength.
"Economic strength, especially a superior one, is actually the main factor for a language to gain international importance."
This means that it needs to become an important economic language with its language community being strong economically, because this will make the learning of the language by outsiders all that more rewarding.
"Economic strength enhances the international importance of a language.
"This is a fact and can be seen with the Japanese and Koreans.
"The language of the Japanese and Koreans are more rewarding to learn due to the considerable economic strength of the Japanese and Korean communities, as compared to Thais and Malaysians," said Teo.
LANGUAGE PRIDE
Apart from this economic appeal factor, Teo believes Bahasa Malaysia must also be able to hold its own against other dominant languages.
He said first and foremost, Bahasa Malaysia must maintain its loyalty and pride among its speakers on the home-front, and not lose its footing regionally where it can be picked up as a valuable second language.
"For Malaysians, there must be language pride when speaking Bahasa Malaysia.
"Malaysians and anyone who speaks the language must have a strong, positive attitude about it, both when they are in Malaysia and abroad."
Teo said over time, this would eventually bring about language loyalty, and it will maintain Bahasa Malaysia's stature in the face of competition from other dominant languages.
He said on a global stage, the Malay language must be recognised as another important language for international communication.
This must be practiced by people from different nations and lead to situations where it is used formally and not merely used informally by people who studied Bahasa Malaysia as a foreign language.
"The extent to which Bahasa Malaysia is studied as a foreign language is another indicator of how important it is as an international language."
"Currently there are no less than 100 institutions of higher learning the world over that offer Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia as a foreign language."
IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH
Teo firmly believes that Malaysia can continue to progress in becoming a fully developed nation without relying heavily on English, where focus, relevance and importance can shift to the national language instead.
He said the East Asian powerhouse economies of Korea, Japan and China have proven that there was no need to rely solely on English for success in nation building.
"France, Germany and Russia are the best examples of nations that have progressed with little or no reliance on English."
He said, despite English being the most important international language, Malaysians should strike a balance with their national language and the globally recognised lingua franca, which is English.
"A realistic, nationalistic balance is important in this regard.
"This is because English is the language of education, where it is the medium of a great deal of the world's knowledge, especially in vital areas such as science and technology.
"In other words, the educational value of English is immense."
Teo said in Malaysia, 'Memartabatkan Bahasa Malaysia, Memperkukuh Bahasa Inggeris' (upholding Malay and strengthening English ) — known by its Malay acronym MBMMBI — is a policy to strike a balance between these two vital languages.
Such a policy and others like it are steps in the right direction to elevate Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction and discourse at all levels, and in all knowledge fields.