The Wisdom in translating documents

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There are similarities between Malaysian legal culture and Chinese legal culture when it comes to preparing 2 languages version of same documents.

In Malaysia, as we all know, all documents (i.e. the summons, pleadings, affidavits etc) filed in court must be written in Malay. However, because some senior judges and senior lawyers are of the old schools and could only speak and write simple layman’s Malay, it is a common practice that the English translated version is filed together with the Malay version.

When a lawyer (especially those from reputable law firms) prepares a document (for example a defence), he normally prepares the English version first. He will use the best of his abilities to draft the best defence. Every word must be used for a particular reason. If a word carries no meaning or is capable of producing adverse result to his client, it must be deleted.

Simple words like “might be”, “may be”, “may possibly be”, “could be”, though bear similar meaning, are quite distinct from each other and must be meticulously studied and selected by the lawyer. “Language is the tool of our trade” said the lawyer.

Once he has finished drafting this English defence, he will send it to his junior lawyer or assistant to translate the same into Malay. For without the Malay version, this English defence could not stand alone.

So the junior lawyer starts translating. Simple but meticulously selected words like “might be”, “may be”, “may possibly be”, “could be” are all indiscriminately translated into Malay as “mungkin”. All the sweat and hard work of the lawyer are thrown into the drain when his masterpiece is converted to Malay version.

The beauty of this: whenever there is a conflict between the Malay version and the English version, the Malay version prevails. So why this lawyer spends countless hours drafting and redrafting document in perfect English only to take a backseat when it is faced with its Malay counterpart?

Same applies in China. Legitimate legal documents are in Chinese, from example, the tenancy agreement I signed is in Chinese.

But when “ang mo” wants to invest millions in China, do they trust the Chinese contract they enter? How could they trust it when they don’t understand a single word of the contract? So an English version (or other foreign language) must be prepared: only later to be translated to Chinese. Sounds familiar?

You think nationalism is the unique feature of Malaysia? The only difference is SHE has a song called 中国话, Ang Mo here speaks Mandarin and Chinese is one of UN’s official languages.

Yang Arif,

Saksi saya hari ini banyak sakit kuat. Tak boleh datang di Mahkamah. Saya mintak postpone boleh tak? Pihak defendan tiada bantahan. Peguamcara defendan telah tulis surat kepada saya semalam dan kata dia tidak bantah dan tidak datang hari ini so saya MOB untuk defendan.