hari tu aku tengok Melodi. ada this one artist, Awi Rafael yang aku pun tak berapa nak perasan sangat lah dia tu siapa (sorry I don't really follow local entertainment, no offence). dalam segmen tu timbul isu dia punya lagu "Pulanglah" ada bahasa rojak. macam biasalah wartawan tu pulun soalan-soalan panas membabitkan kerojakan bahasa yang dia pakai tu. aku pun peliklah. I Googled him and listened to the song. yeah, quite nice, catchy and fun. to put it simply, I liked it. dalam lagu tu, the only part where the bahasa rojak wujud was in the chorus, and there were only bit parts of English used (the song was in Malay). only the words "runaway", "everyday", and "monday" - "thursday" were used. I mean, is this thing bad? really? seriously? because I recall a few years back, the song "Alhamdulillah" by Too Phat was re-recorded in full Malay because 'they' didn't want a rojak song. in Awi Rafael's case, in a similar vein, "Pulanglah" was re-recorded in full Malay, so as to not raise controversy. padahal lagu tu dia punya rojak tu dah minimal gila babeng dah. a few words je pun, tapi kena record balik? gila!
what actually is the problem with bahasa rojak in songs? I mean, songs are pieces of art as well, and the artists have rights to create their own art according to their own liking, their own creativity. every piece of art is unique to its artist. so why kecoh-kecoh nak suruh artis-artis ikut kau nak apa? bukan kau sorang nak dengar lagu dia, entah-entah kau tak dengar pun lagu dia.
I've heard many international songs yang guna bahasa rojak. they don't seem to have any problems at all. kadang-kadang penggunaan bahasa asing sikit-sikit, if not banyak, can make the song catchier and nicer to hear. kadang-kadang nak bagi rhyme lirik. semua tu nak bagi lagu jadi sedap, lantaklah kan penulis lirik tu nak macam mana kan? tak suka tak payah dengar, because there will be people who will like them.
seriously, I don't see the relevance in this issue. kalau dia nak kata jaga bahasa ibunda lah, apa lah, they can do it elsewhere. kalau semua benda pun nak politically correct, payah lah. kata demokrasi. mana orang tak kata bangsa Melayu ni lemak sangat. semua nak dengar cakap dia je. scholarship semua dia, duit rakyat semua dia, tanah semua dia, apa pun semua dia, ni bahasa pun semua nak dia. hah aku sebagai seorang bumiputera, konfem terkedu kalau ada orang cakap dekat aku macam tu. malu. kan?
