Language planning for the Malay language in Malaysia since independence

Language planning consists of corpus planning and status planning. Many post-colonial nations have undertaken some sort of language planning to ensure their national or official language is capable of meeting the challenges of the modern world. Malaysia is no exception. It has taken many steps to plan its national language, Malay, since independence. This paper attempts to look at these steps and fit them in Haugen’s Revised Model for language planning. Using this model it was discovered that Malay went through the stages of Selection, Codification, Implementation and Elaboration since independence in 1957 until today but in no certain order. Language planning for Malay was not done in vacuum but was responsive to the political, economic and social climate of the nation as seen in the two phases of Nationalism and Pragmatism. Malaysia has also had to make concessions for English to access knowledge and to connect with the world. This calls for rethinking the roles of both Malay and English in Malaysia so both languages are used for the nation’s benefit.