Towards a more unified Indonesia<\/p>\n
The recent international conference on population settlement
\nheld in Jakarta has prompted me to write this letter. In his
\nopening speech at the conference, President Soeharto was reported
\n(Kompas, Nov. 28, 1995) to have reaffirmed that the objectives of
\nthe Indonesian transmigration program, among other things, were
\nto accelerate development work outside Java and to further
\nstrengthen persatuan dan kesatuan bangsa (unity and integrity of
\nthe nation).<\/p>\n
I agree that transmigration projects could help achieve those
\nobjectives, but their success, particularly with regard to the
\nideal of the unity and integrity of the nation, would, I think,
\ndepend a lot on the way the projects are implemented.<\/p>\n
When we talk about 'persatuan dan kesatuan bangsa', we should
\nremember the vital importance of the three primordial elements
\nwhich have been directly or indirectly responsible for many
\nconflicts, or even wars, around the world. They are: race and
\nethnicity, religion and language.<\/p>\n
Here in Indonesia we are fortunate in terms of religion and
\nnational language, because 88 percent of Indonesians are Moslems
\nand more than 85 percent regularly speak Bahasa Indonesia, or at
\nleast understand it. These very high percentages are a kind of
\ngodsend for Indonesia and indeed Islam and Bahasa Indonesia
\nshould be used advantageously as a matrix to cement the nation
\ntogether, wherein the other religions would function as the
\ncomplementary constituents. It follows that in this view any
\nattempt to weaken Moslem unity or any effort to unnecessarily
\ndilute Bahasa Indonesia with words or phrases from the various
\ndialects should be discouraged as they are liable to undermine
\nnational unity.<\/p>\n
Although Islam and Bahasa Indonesia should facilitate the
\nattainment of our national unity, the remaining major factor,
\nnamely racial, or ethnic, identity, is quite a different matter.
\nIndonesia is far from homogeneous in this respect since the
\nlargest ethnic groups, the Javanese and Sundanese, make up only
\n39 percent and 15 percent of the total population respectively.<\/p>\n
Several medium sized ethnic units, such as the coastal Malays,
\nthe Buginese\/Makassarese, Minangkabau, Batak and Chinese range in
\nthe population share from seven percent to three percent, while
\nsmaller ethnic entities constitute less than one percent of the
\npopulation each. I would suggest that because the most
\ndistinguishing feature among the ethnic groups is their dialects,
\nIndonesians should gradually allow them to languish (rather like
\nthe case of the Scottish and Welsh languages in the United
\nKingdom today) but at the same time promote the primacy of Bahasa
\nIndonesia, including in private use.<\/p>\n
One obvious advantage of this is that when a Batak, a
\nJavanese, a Chinese or Buginese does not speak his own dialect
\nanymore and speak only Bahasa Indonesia, we would automatically
\nthink of him as a pure Indonesian and forget his ethnic origin.
\nIn the case of an ethnic Chinese, however, he would further need
\nto disassociate himself from Chinese culture and traditions and
\nchannel his orientation and loyalty entirely to this country.<\/p>\n
I would not consider transmigration projects successful in the
\npromotion of 'persatuan dan kesatuan bangsa' if the Javanese
\ntransmigrants continue almost exclusively to speak in their own
\ndialect, or even use distinctly Javanese names for their new
\nvillages as has happened in the Lampung province. On the other
\nhand, many a descendant of Javanese indentured laborers in North
\nSumatra plantations do not speak Javanese anymore and consider
\nthemselves primarily as Indonesians.<\/p>\n
To minimize the use of dialects and hence lessen ethnic
\ndifferences as envisaged above will not be an easy task, but with
\nready willingness I hope Indonesians can achieve it by the year
\n2045, in time for the country's 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n
MASLI ARMAN<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/towards-a-more-unified-indonesia-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }