The FIT Executive Committee and Council Meetings, International Federation of Translators (FIT), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (18-20 January 2024)

The Malaysian Translators Association (MTA), ushered in the new year 2024 by hosting the FIT Executive Committee Meeting and Council Meetings from 18th – 20th January 2024.  Both meetings were held at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. 

As a regular member of the International Federation of Translators (FIT) since 2018, MTA is indeed honored to be the host for two important meetings in the translation and interpreting fields.  Council members from New Zealand, Austria, Cuba, Argentina, South Africa, Ireland, China, Belgium, Norway, Russia, Canada, Macau, Slovenia and Australia attended the meetings.  Delegates from China and advisors of FIT were also invited to the meetings. The MTA President, Dr. Hasuria Che Omar (who was also recently elected as the FIT Council Member on December 14th 2023) represented Malaysia during those meetings, while two other MTA Council Members joined the Council Meeting as observers.  This is the second time MTA has been proposed to host the Meetings.  The first meeting hosted by MTA was in Penang, Malaysia (August 2013), in conjunction with the 7th Asian Translators Forum and the 14th International Conference on Translation.  

Under the auspices of UNESCO, the International Federation of Translators (FIT) was founded in Paris, France in 1953.  Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, the Federal Republic of Germany, and Turkey were among the founding members, represented by six national association of translators and interpreters. MTA is also a member of the International Federation of Translators (FIT-IFT), a coalition of international translation associations, interpreters and terminologists from almost 60 countries.  Through its member associations, FIT represents and fights for the moral and material interests of more than 60,000 translators from five continents.  FIT plays an important role in translation in various fields, including literature, science and technology, public service, legal and judicial fields, conference interpreting, media and diplomatic fields and academia.  FIT also plays a major role in building the translation community, visibility and ensuring a sustainable future for services and careers in the field of translation. 

Functioning on the same platform, the Malaysian Translators Association (MTA) or PPM, a voluntary professional body was established under the auspices of the Language and Literature Agency (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, DBP), on 4 October 1979 out of awareness of the need to establish an organization in the effort to promote, protect and further sustain professionalism among translators in Malaysia. MTA has been reasonably dynamic in activities related to translation collectively among translators, interpreters, linguists, terminologists and lexicographers, and professional editors in Malaysia. 

Today, MTA’s stature is recognized internationally, especially with the recent appointment of its President as a member of the FIT Council (2023), MTA being an active member of the Asia Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum has been chosen to host important FIT programs this year. Prior to this, MTA’s former President had also been elected as a Council Member of APTIF, i.e. Asia Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF) in 2017. Owing to its active involvement since it was accepted as a regular member of FIT (2018), MTA had been nominated as a host of FIT’s major programmes.   

Currently, MTA has more than 1,600 members of different categories of membership, encompassing scholars, scientists, writers, editors and researchers in the field of translation, and practitioners of translation and interpretation, either full-time or part-time.

During the four days of the FIT program, two meetings were held, firstly the FIT Executive Committee Meeting, followed by the Council Meeting.  The other two important programs held after the meetings were the official launch of FIT ASIA (Asia Regional Centre) and the FIT-MTA International Forum.