Kuala Lumpur: The reintroduction of ‘Hadiah Bahasa’ is expected to inspire and attract academics and professionals to continue producing language-related works as reading and reference materials for the public. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) said the award would also recognise and honour high-quality Malay language works in terms of both language and content, produced by students from primary school to university level.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the initiative aims to empower Malay as a language of knowledge and enhance human capital development in line with one of the pillars of Malaysia MADANI, namely innovation. The award was announced yesterday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, marking its revival after being last held in 1985. This revival is supported by an initiative from Public Bank Berhad to elevate the status of the Malay language and promote its use in society.

DBP expressed its appreciation to the Prime Minister for his commitment to reintroduce the award with the support of the bank. As the institution entrusted with upholding the national language and literature, DBP is ready to collaborate on various programmes that contribute to the production of high-quality scholarly works in Malay across multiple disciplines. The statement further noted that DBP highly welcomes the involvement of the private sector in efforts to establish Malay as a language of knowledge.