A RECENT post asking people to stop denigrating and discriminating against Kelantanese was met with a flurry of responses, not least with a call to speak the national language in a manner comprehensible by everyone.
However, a post on the Info Banjir Negeri Kelantan Facebook page sees things somewhat differently.
In the three-minute clip, an elderly Chinese woman was seen showing off a clan house in Kg Sering, Kota Bahru that was purportedly 200 years old, in flawless Kelantanese dialect.
Many netizens responded positively with the clip generating close to 7K likes and hundreds of comments.
Many Kelantanese expressed their pride at this lady’s mastery of the dialect.
One surmised that this was because the Chinese were the minority in Kelantan, thus forcing them to learn the lingua franca. Compared to Penang where the majority are Chinese, everyone has to learn to speak Hokkien.
Some were keen to point out that Kelantan should be used as an example of racial harmony and not let it be destroyed by agenda-seeking politicians. One said the clip highlighted just how well-assimilated the Chinese community were in Kelantan, unlike those in other states.
One commenter noted how Kelantanese of different races would automatically switch to their dialect when meeting each other.
Perhaps alluding to how some politicians behave like thugs whilst fanning racial flames, one netizen says that this does not happen in Kelantan. Mutual respect and tolerance were key in keeping things harmonious.
One commenter underlined how language (or just a regional dialect) can be strong unifying factor, perhaps shining a light once again on the issue of national language proficiency.
However, one netizen feared that this trend was already on the wane with different school set-ups leading to segregated communities.
While many will make fun of Kelantanese and their super-heavy accents, saying they use it to exclude others or behave in a cliquish manner, many Kelantanese view it differently saying it unites people, regardless of ethnicity.
Perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt there as the debate on national language proficiency rages on. After all, there is really no better unifying factor than a common language. – Dec 13, 2024
