ABRI faction opposed to dubbing English programs

ABRI faction opposed to dubbing English programs

JAKARTA (JP): The powerful Armed Forces (ABRI) faction in the
House of Representatives is opposed to the idea of dubbing
English language programs on television into Indonesian.

Brig. Gen. Paula Bataona Renyaan, the faction's secretary,
said the Indonesian public still needs the programs to polish the
English language they learn mostly at school.

"We'd like to see programs in English subtitled as TV stations
presently do," she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The debate on whether English programs should or not be dubbed
into Indonesian was sparked last week by the government's
insistence of dubbing all foreign language programs and making it
compulsory by law.

The government and the House of Representatives began to
deliberate last week the bill on radio and television
broadcasting.

The future law aims at setting clear regulations for radio and
TV stations in the wake of technological developments and the
free global flow of information.

Critics say that dubbing does not guarantee that people will
speak and love the Indonesian language better as the government
hopes.

Paula argued that if English programs are dubbed into
Indonesian, English speaking viewers would not be able to check
if the translation is accurate.

The dubbing of programs in other languages would be all right
because only a small audience would depend on the original
language, she added.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Samin Siregar, a linguist from North Sumatra
University proposed Thursday that TV stations involve linguists
in dubbing their foreign language programs.

"Language consultants are needed to make sure that the foreign
language is properly translated into standard Indonesian," he was
quoted by Antara as saying.

Siregar said the translation of foreign languages into
Indonesian often meets difficulties because Indonesian is not
rich in vocabulary and therefore has to adopt or create new
words. (pan)

Editorial -- Page 4