Jawi & Khat - What is the problem?

Jawi Inscriptions on an Ancient Gravestone

When Islam arrived in Southeast Asia during the 14th century, Jawi (جاوي) an Arabic script was adapted to write Malay language. Until today, Jawi is one of the two official scripts in Brunei. In Malaysia Jawi was once the standard scrip for the Malay language. According to Kamus Dewan, Jawi is a term synonymous to 'Malay'.

In the 17th century, under influence from the Dutch and British, Arabic script (Jawi) was replaced by the Latin alphabet.  But Jawi continued to be used as an alternative script in Malaysia. 

In 1963, with the implementation of the National Langue Acts 1963, it was spelt out clearly that the script of the national langue shall be the Rumi script under clause 9.

Jawi since then has been slowly relegated to to a script used for religious, cultural and some administrative purpose.

Click 'Tulisan Jawi : History' for further reading.

If the British didn't replace the Arabic script with Latin alphabet in the 17th century and if the National Langue Acts 1963 had specified Jawi instead of the Rumi script as the official script of the national langue, the Bahasa Malaysia today would be Jawi and all school children including those in the Chinese and Tamil school would be taught in Jawi too, so what is the problem?

In the Middle East, irrespective of race and religion, all locals are communicating in Arabic, no problem. They wish each other يوم جيد that is 'Good Day' in Arabic. No problem, they still maintained their respective race and religion including the Jew, the Christian, the Hindu and the Arabic speaking Chinese and Indian.

.