THE issue of incorporating “khat” or Jawi calligraphy into the Bahasa Malaysia (BM) curriculum has been hotly debated over the past few days.

The Education Ministry explained that the introduction of khat or calligraphy art in the Bahasa Malaysia curriculum for primary Year 4 students was to foster beautiful writing.

While I understand that there are quarters hoping that effective measures can be taken by the authorities to preserve and promote Jawi script, introducing khat calligraphy of Jawi writing in our children’s formal curriculum might just not serve the purpose.

There are many reasons, be they overt or covert, that some quarters – including the Education Ministry – are eager to revive the use of Jawi writing.

Among all, our minister of education said Jawi is a “national heritage” and should therefore be preserved.

In other words, he has actually hinted that Jawi is a dying form of language that needs protection.

Jawi is now generally perceived as a dying writing form after it was replaced by a Latin alphabet called Rumi script decades ago.

The Rumi script of Malay language is now widely used by Malay and non-Malay speakers and is also taught formerly in schools.

Many young Malays nowadays know merely part of the Jawi script, while some are almost or completely Jawi illiterate.

Reviving a Dying or Dead Language

When we discuss about reviving a language or making the language popular again, some would refer to the success story of Hebrew, a dead language, being revived in Israel as a testimony to language revival.

The revival of Hebrew is indeed inspiring, yet we must not forget to understand and analyse the contexts in which this supposedly dead language could be successfully revived and is now widely used in the region.

Israel is a rather new state from the perspective of international relations.

It was formed when people from different countries “returned” to their land and were to start their whole new life alongside the existing Jewish community.

Before arriving in this rather unfamiliar land, they had been living for generations in different corners of the world, speaking different languages, practicing different cultures to a certain extent while preserving part of their common cultures.

Therefore, this new “nation” is in urgent need of a common language. Hebrew, a language that was once used widely and particularly for religious purposes, can be easily accepted by all and becomes the language of Israel.

Today, millions of people are speaking the language that was once a dead language.

Perhaps we could not find any other example of which a supposedly dead language is now used and spoken by a large number of speakers as a result of a complex intertwining of historical, social and political contexts.

Forcing students to learn is ineffective in promoting Jawi

No doubt Jawi script was widely used in Malay traditional literature and religious texts, and therefore learning it could help us to explore in depth the history and development of the language, as well as its artistic value.

However, the key to making Jawi popular or to reviving it, will never be forcing it down our children’s throats.

Children and teenagers will be interested to learn it if they feel that it is fun to do so.

Many programmes and activities can be organised to introduce Jawi and khat writing in an interactive and interesting way so that students would voluntarily learn it when they are intrigued or attracted by the beauty of the calligraphy.

For example, interest classes that introduce khat calligraphy can be conducted for any children who wish to learn, or for parents who wish that their children can explore new things and appreciate the old form of Malay writing.

This would be more effective because teachers could discover students who are really interested in knowing more about the writing form and calligraphy, thus helping to promote and preserve the use of Jawi and khat calligraphy among young people.

Children nowadays are already overloaded with textbooks and syllabuses of different subjects.

While many educationists have been calling for structural education reforms for years in order to bring back fun into classrooms, forcing them to learn “khat” of the Jawi script for the sake of bringing back “fun” to schools makes completely no sense.

There is no necessity to re-introduce khat writing because the need and strong desire of our society to learn khat writing has not emerged for now within current social contexts.

If the government is still adamant to add khat calligraphy into the BM curriculum, the effort and resources invested to revive the use of Jawi script might end up being futile, simply because our children would still find it meaningless to learn something that is “not fun” or “without practical use”.

Let our children explore freely and develop their own interests and talents with proper guidance and ample motivation.

Forcing children to learn something, on the other hand, is an archaic idea and method of teaching that had suppressed generations of children’s ability to be free to create, think and act. – August 6, 2019.

* Danny Ho was a linguistics student at Universiti Malaya.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.