LETTERS: The statement by director-general of the Public Service Department that all official government correspondence must be in Malay from now on is an emotional statement.
Imagine a houseman in a government hospital having to reply to a referred case by a general practitioner in "bahasa Malaysia" (BM) when the English equivalent runs like this:
“Your referred case is an anaphylactoid shock similar to anaphylactic shock, but does not require the incubation period characteristic of induced sensitivity (anaphylaxis); it is a non-IgE mediated reaction.Classically, IgE isotype antibodies are produced on an initial exposure to an allergen in susceptible individuals and bind to high-affinity FCεRI receptors located in the plasma membrane of tissue mast cells and blood basophils, whereas lymphocytes, eosinophils, and platelets bind IgE antibodies via low-affinity FCεRII receptors.
“This initial phase of sensitization is clinically silent. On reexposure, the multimeric allergen cross-links two specific IgE receptors, creating a bridge between two IgEs. The two IgE receptors aggregate and induce a signal transduction cascade releasing systemically preformed biochemical mediators, including histamine, neutral proteases (tryptase, chymase), and proteoglycans (heparin) from intracellular granules in cells within tissues and blood.
“Some of these mediators, such as histamine, lead to increased nitric oxide production. Newly formed proinflammatory phospholipid-derived mediators, including prostaglandin D2, leukotrienes, thromboxane A2, and platelet-activating factor, are released soon after.
“Thereafter, mast cells release numerous chemokines and cytokines that initiate recruitment and activation of additional inflammatory cells. Accordingly the prognosis is guarded”.
The doctor would need more than a few panadols to alleviate his self-induced headache to translate this into BM in his reply to the GP.
The poor GP on the other side would be equally baffled by the “BM reply” and probably would need the help of a professional translator who is well versed in both English and BM to do the needful.
All should look at why Acting Education Minister, Tun Dr, Mahathir Mohamad vowed to bring back Science and Maths in English to move beneficially into the digital age especially now that we are on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0).
IR 4.0 will introduce artificial intelligence (AI) into the way we live and communicate and we must be prepared to move in tandem with the world or we will be be left woefully behind.
The director general’s directive is a retrogressive step and should be immediately repealed.
DR A SOORIAN
Seremban
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times