The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Malaysia's Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim. He gets the award for the following.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia will levy fines on those incorrectly using the national language, and will set up a specialized division to weed out offenders who mix Malay with English, news reports said Thursday.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim said fines of up to 1,000 ringgit ($271) can be imposed on displays with any wrong or mutated form of Malay, the Star newspaper reported.

The move was to ensure "the national language was not sidelined in any way," Rais said.

Fines will be imposed after a first warning, the national news agency Bernama quoted Rais as saying.

Most Malaysians speak Malay, also known as Bahasa Malaysia, while English is widely spoken but a mutated form, known as "Manglish" -- a mishmash of English, Malay and other local dialects is commonly used in the Southeast Asian nation.

The government will try to swap commonly used English language words with Malay substitutes, the Star said.

Critics have said Malaysia's decision to side line English in favor of Malay is hurting its global competitiveness level.

I'm sure it can, because much of international business is done in English. Besides some words can't be easily substituted for. Like Coca Cola for example. Or I have one for Minister Rais, what's the Malay word for knucklehead? For Rais Yaim you are today's knuckelehead of the day.

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