Ethnicity is one of the greatest problems facing plurilingual and pluriethnic
societies. If a pluriethnic nation decides to give preeminence to one
particular language (and therefore also to the ethnic group it represents) by
making it the national language, this will probably cause bitter resentment
amongst the other ethnic groups. In Nigeria, for example, the naming of one
of the indigenous languages as the national language to the exclusion of the
others would probably lead to civil war. Similarly the name of the language
can have the same effect, as witnessed in Malaysia. Following independence
in 1957 the national language was called "Bahasa Melayu". This, however,
caused much unrest among the Tamil and Chinese sections of the population
as they interpreted the name as meaning the language of the Malays.
Following a severe racial clash in 1969 the Government changed the name to
Bahasa Malaysia, which meant "the language of Malaysia". This name
seems to be acceptable to all ethnic groups and problems of ethnicity should
not now disrupt the education programme the Government has embarked
upon, which envisages "one type of education for all, which uses Bahasa
Malaysia as medium of instruction right up to the university level" (Omar,
1976, p. 5).