The Star Gets A Warning, Again

The Star newspaper today carried a news item that it has been reprimanded by the Home Ministry over an article on the impounding of 5,000 Bahasa Malaysia Bibles. The letter, signed by the Ministry’s Secretary General (incorrectly reported as Chief Secretary), reminded owners of printing presses to comply with directives from the Ministry.

 

This is not the first time the paper was ticked off by the Ministry. A few months ago, its business managing editor was given a warning over his article that bordered on ridiculing Islam. In fact the paper has been known to be very fond of publishing articles that belittle Islam albeit subtly.

During the Kerling incident in 1978 when Muslims extremists were killed by the Hindus following desecration of a Hindu temple by the Muslims, The Star still published letters from their readers in the letters to the editor column making accusations that none of the government leaders had condemned the act by the Muslims despite the fact that the then Deputy Prime Minister, (now Tun) Mahathir Mohamad had a few days before the publication of those letters condemned the unacceptable act of the Muslims extremists.

It seems it is very hard for it to learn a lesson.       

The Bane of Translation

I work as a translator in a law firm. In the course of translating legal documents from English into Bahasa Malaysia and vice versa, the BM version always contains more ambiguities than the English version. Similarly if you read news reports in our English Language newspapers and compare them with the translated versions in their BM counterparts, you will sometimes face problems with the BM versions as far as accuracy is concerned. 

However, the two reports I am quoting below seem to be the exception.

Quote:

KUALA LUMPUR— Persidangan Dewan Rakyat hari ini meluluskan Rang Undang-Undang Perbekalan 2011 (Bajet 2011) berjumlah RM212 bilion tanpa sebarang masalah.

Berbeza dari tahun lepas, Bajet 2011 diluluskan kira-kira 7.25 malam apabila bacaan kali ketiga oleh Timbalan Menteri Kewangan Datuk Husni Hanadzlah menyaksikan lebih suara menyokong berbanding membantah.

[Bernama 14 Disember 2010]

KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat passed the Supply Bill 2011 (Budget 2011) involving RM212bil without any fuss.
It was passed at 7.25pm yesterday after the third reading by Second Finance Minister Datuk Husni Hanadzlah.

[The Star 14 December 2010 quoting Bernama]

Unquote

The Malay version contains only one inaccuracy i.e. it appears to suggest that the third reading was done by the Second Finance Minister whereas the reading was in fact done by the members of the House who were present. The Minister only moved the Bill for the third reading.

The English version contains two inaccuracies, one of which is as stated above. Secondly it could also be interpreted to mean that the Bill was passed by the Minister after the third reading, also done by the Minister. We all know that a Bill can only be passed by the House and nobody else.