In a statement, the company, in response to the furore over the factual error in the Ace Ahead Teks STPM Bahasa Melayu Penggal 1 book, said it was committed to ensuring factual accuracy in its publications.
“We view errors seriously and on the occasion where an error does occur, we will take swift and appropriate action.
“We sincerely apologise for this error, and for any offence that we may have unintentionally caused to the Indian community as a result.”
Oxford Fajar added that it took pride in ethnic diversity and remained committed to working with local language experts to provide a better understanding of languages around the world.
The statement added that customers who had purchased the book can contact the Oxford Fajar customer service team at 03 5629 4000 or email [email protected] before the end of the month for information on returning the book and getting a full refund.
Last week, a screenshot of the erroneous fact in the STPM textbook – that the Tamil language had “borrowed” from other languages – went viral on social media.
The offending paragraph reads: “The borrowing of Tamil words is not that prominent in the Malay language. This is because the Tamil language borrowed from other languages such as Greek, Portuguese, English and Eastern languages.”
Tamil, in fact, is acknowledged as one of the world’s oldest languages. The two earliest manuscripts from India, acknowledged by Unesco, were written in Tamil.