Australians set example

Australians set example

At first glance it might seem that there is nothing
exceptional about the 10 Australian high school students now
visiting this country. However, their ability to speak Bahasa
Indonesia not only fluently, but also flawlessly, makes them
special. These young people have studied our language in Perth,
Western Australia, with an intensity that few Indonesians would
exhibit in the learning of their native tongue.

Reports from Down Under several years ago said that more
and more Australians were learning Indonesia's national language.
The government of Northern Territory has taught it in all schools
since 1990. It is understood that the reason behind the
enthusiasm is not only Canberra's ardent desire to boost its
relationship with its large northern neighbor, but also its
respect of our language, which happens to be similar to those
spoken in Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and can be understood in
Southern Thailand.

This reality is encouraging because it means one language can
serve as a means to bridge cultures and improve understanding.
Perhaps it would even not be too optimistic to say that within
the near future there will be a lot of experts on Indonesian
culture in Australia.

We should not take the current visit by the Australian
students as a mere gesture of friendship. We should also view it
as an inspiring phenomenon which makes us ask ourselves whether
we sincerely respect our own language.

During the last few years we have heard laments -- especially
from circles who still strongly believe that Bahasa is one the
most important link in the chain of national unity and the most
precious asset this nation has -- that disrespect towards the
national language has reached alarming proportions.

The root of this evil might the people's tendency to use the
language as a means of self identification. And the more
disastrous still is the notion that Bahasa Indonesia is inferior
to western languages. Many people here have a tendency to use the
national language with too little respect towards grammar in
order to show their social status. (The more grammatical rules
they violate, the higher the positions they are assumed to hold).
Thus, many among the new generation of educated people have come
to think that the more confusing the mix of English words they
use with Indonesian ones, the more elite they will appear.

The real purpose of the strange phenomenon might be the urge
to practice English just in case one might go abroad someday.
What they seem to forget is that people who do not have the
ability to speak their mother tongue properly will never be able
to learn a foreign language properly.

The comic side of this tendency is that many Indonesians do
not know the original English language meaning of isu (rumor), or
whether alternatif (from "alternative") is singular or plural in
concept.

Another disgusting trend is the belief that it is proper to
mix words from a certain local dialect into Bahasa Indonesia
sentences because the local culture from which that dialect
originates is considered dominant in this multi-ethnic country.

And the latest tendency to emerge -- using foreign words with
Indonesian prefixes or suffixes -- is further corrupting the
proper use of Bahasa Indonesia. A few prime examples are:
mengcreate (meaning to create), menghandle (to handle) and
memanage (to manage).

This constitutes a clear and rude challenge to the call to
Indonesians to avoid using foreign-language prefixes and
suffixes, such as "tion" or "ation", made years ago in a forum
hosted by experts of the National Language Institute. These
foreign-language suffixes have since been corrupted into "asi" in
words such as nationalisasi or privatisasi. We have even heard
state-television and radio newscasters refer to the piping of
natural gas as pipanisasi.

So the question remains: Who will supervise the use of the
national language? The Language Institute says it is not a
linguistic police agency and at least one expert has asserted
that the development of the national language should be left in
the hands of the users. He points out that, "English took three
centuries to become what it is now."

That theory might be true, but we wonder whether a people who
lack a true sense of nationalism and seem to be suffering from
cultural poverty can develop a good and useful language.