Federal Govt must accept official correspondence in English, says Sarawak minister

SIBU: The Federal Government is obligated to accept letters that are written in English in official communications from Sarawak, says state Deputy Public Health, Housing and Local Government Minister Michael Tiang (pic).

“The federal government in fact has a duty to entertain English letters from Sarawak for official communications as the National Language Act 1963/67 was never extended to Sarawak,” he said in a statement on Thursday (Oct 26).

“Sarawakians are therefore free to opt to use English or Malay for letters to federal government departments since both languages are official languages in Sarawak, particularly the use of English language in Sarawak is guaranteed by Article 161(3) of the Federal Constitution,” he pointed out.

He was responding to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s directive to all government departments not to entertain any letters written in languages other than Bahasa Malaysia.

Tiang, who is also Pelawan assemblyman, reminded the Prime Minister that English and Malay were official languages in Sarawak, thus his remark did not apply to Sarawak.