A teacher in Sabah recently went viral for videos of her teaching the Jawi script at her school in Sekolah Kebangsaan Bawang K9, Beluran, Sabah.
Lorenica Frenila Masundim, 34, is a Malay language teacher from Beluran, Sabah who gained widespread attention online for popularising the use of Jawi on her social media account.
In one of her videos, she skillfully writes the proverb “Bagai Aur Dengan Tebing” in the traditional script, earning praise from Malaysians and even gaining the attention of former Minister of Education, Dr Maszlee Malik.
Lorenica’s viral reel reached 1.3 million views on Facebook. Screenshots via Lorenica Frenila Masundim
Asked to comment on her video, the Paitan native said that the video was just sharing her daily routine while teaching at school.
“I don’t think I deserve such praise because there is no difference between me and other teachers who carry out the responsibility of teaching Bahasa Melayu,” she said.
The 34 year old teacher shared that she was surprised and did not expect to get such an extraordinary reaction.
“However, I hope that this video can open people’s minds and correct any misunderstandings about Jawi from the public,” she added.
How Lorenica studied Jawi
Image via Lorenica Frenila Masundim
Hailing from the Rungus tribe, the Sabahan native has been serving in the Ministry of Education (MoE) for 10 years in the remote town of Beluran in the East of Sabah, about a 4-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu.
While doing her degree at the Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) in Kota Kinabalu, Lorenica was exposed to the traditional script in one of her modules, Introduction to Rumi and Jawi Spelling Systems.
She soon found that picking up Jawi was relatively easy for her, because the Jawi alphabet, despite being Arabic in origin, had been adapted to spell everyday Malay words.
Even though she is Christian, Lorenica said that did not stop her from learning Jawi writing and then sharing her skills with her students at school.
“Many may not be aware of this, but in 2020, Jawi was included in the national Malay syllabus to enrich the students’ learning from the aspects of art, heritage and Malay history,” she explained.
Fast forward to 2022, and Lorenica began teaching the script in her classes for Year 4 and Year 5 students.
From time to time, Lorenica would consult fellow Muslim teachers, Google, and most often, the Dewan Bahasa dan Purstaka dictionary to keep her knowledge up to date.
The history of the Jawi script goes back for centuries
Image via Lorenica Frenila Masundim
The Paitan native said that Jawi writing embodies a part of Malay art, culture and history that is slowly being lost to the passage of time.
Since the Classical and Medieval ages, this writing script, which is a specially modified script for writing Malay, was once used as a common language amongst merchants, locals, and visiting travellers in the Malayan region.
“In fact, Jawi was so popular that it became a medium of written communication used by all levels of society in the past,” she added.
“Meaning, it does not belong to any religion and can be learned and used by all levels of society regardless of race and culture,” the Christian teacher stressed.
“The Jawi script is a national treasure”
Image via Lorenica Frenila Masundim
Lorenica described the Jawi as a script “for all Malaysians” whose existence should be defended.
Jawi writing, she said, does not belong to Islam alone, but is a priceless national treasure that all Malaysian children should learn to be proud of, and to wholeheartedly accept learning the script without any feelings of negativity attached to it.
“The Jawi script is almost as old and ubiquitous as other scripts that exist in the world, for example the unique pictogram characters used in Mandarin, Korean, Thai, and so on,” Lorenica said.
As a Bahasa Melayu teacher, Lorenica feels responsible for ensuring that the knowledge of Jawi does not disappear over time and will continue to be inherited by Malaysians of multiple backgrounds for decades to come.
“If all races of Malaysia could set aside their differences to learn a single script that could represent all Malaysians, our future children could live in harmony, ” she said.
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Also read: I Studied Jawi in School, Here’s My Experience
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