Malaysia has gained independence since 31 August 1957. Every citizen, with or without disability, celebrates the Merdeka every year. Deaf people also celebrate Merdeka.
For me, Merdeka is where everyone can enjoy the privilege of being Malaysians in the country. But is the Deaf community really Merdeka yet? We encounter many obstacles. People decide our destiny. People decide how we should receive our education. People do not see us as a cultural and linguistic minority. We are not allowed to use our official language, BIM, which is Malaysian Sign Language or Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia, to learn Bahasa Malaysia in schools but instead are forced to use an ineffective coding system. Without BIM, we were not able to excel in Bahasa Malaysia.
We have been trying to tell People about our language but our messages never reached them. Deaf children grow up without BIM and was expected to be fluent in Bahasa Malaysia. The children would struggle in acquiring Bahasa Malaysia because they could not make any sense of the language without BIM. We are Malaysians, we should not have to struggle in acquiring Bahasa Malaysia.
To cut a long story short, we are surviving the society, with minimal proficiency in Bahasa Malaysia. We are pleading the Ministry of Education to replace the current coding system with BIM to allow Deaf children to acquire Bahasa Malaysia without obstacles. Just as Malaysia fought for Merdeka, we will keep fighting until our rights as a Deaf person are rightfully recognised. It will be truly Merdeka for us when Malaysia hears the cry from our community and recognise the Deaf community as a community with different language, just like Chinese, Indian and Malay, Iban, Kadazan and other linguistic minorities instead of seeing us as a person with disability.
Deaf Community Merdeka!
Written on 30 August 2018
