A high court in Malaya recently dismissed a case filed by opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the latter's case was filed in English. The judge who threw out the case stated that Malay is the official language of Malaysia, therefore all court cases should be filed in the Malay language.
However this is not true for all of Malaysia. In Sabah and Sarawak, the official language of the courts are English, therefore any case filed in the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak in the English language is valid. And any case in the Court of Appeal or Federal Court which originates from a high court in Sabah and Sarawak too shall be allowed to be filed in English.
This is provided for in Article 161 of the Federal Constitution. So please note here that the judge who threw out Anwar's case was not speaking for the whole of Malaysia.
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1 comment:
English is a neutral language that can bring Sabahans of different ethnic groups together, unlike Malay which is often linked to a certain race and religion!
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