The names Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Malaysia have been used interchangeably, but some argue that one of them isn’t right.

KUALA LUMPUR — Reports of Malaysian students with poor English and graduates unable to land jobs due to poor speaking skills in the language are by now familiar.

The Malaysian language is Malay; Malaysians also commonly use English and a number of Chinese and Indian dialects. My thanks to reader Ean Hin Ooi for pointing this out.

The Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) politician added that at a time when some ministers and MPs are not able to converse in Malay properly, the language test should be made a priority.