English making inroads into daily language usage

JAKARTA (JP): The Language Month closed yesterday amidst concerns about the inroads English is making into people's daily language, often at the expense of proper Bahasa Indonesia usage.

The ministry of education and culture's Director General for Culture Edi Sedyawati said, however, that as long as Indonesians could maintain and appreciate their cultural heritage, they could withstand any form of pressure from alien cultures.

"There will always be a conflict of interest between the business or economic sector who tend to be more commercially oriented and the need to maintain our own national identity," she said.

Speaking at the closing of the 1994 Month of Language and Literature, Edi considered the media, and other people who are concerned with the issue, as having the responsibility to convey to the business people the urgent need to preserve the country's culture and prevent the public from over-indulging in foreign -- or "western" -- cultures.

The Language Month has been commemorated every year since 1980 and in 1989 its activities were expanded to include literature as well.

The activities this year consisted of essay and poetry-writing contests for teachers and students, language and literature competitions for junior and senior high schools, arts and literature workshops, dialogs and discussions on literature and a nomination of best television reporters.

Winners of the contests were announced yesterday and presented with trophies and presents.

The winner of best television newscaster from the state-owned Televisi Republik Indonesia was Dian Budiargo, with Hasan Ashari Oramahi as first runner-up and Toto Iswanto as second runner-up.

The winner for a similar category for private televisions was Tossi Susanto from Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI), with Bahrul Alam from Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia as first runner-up and Enda Saragih from TPI as second runner-up.

Intonations

Lukman Ali, former head of the Center for Language Training and Development, who is a soft-spoken but often critical man, considers many television newscasters, especially those from private TV stations, as having incorrect intonations when reading the news.

"I suppose this is because many of them (from private stations) have time limits, to keep up with commercials. In the end, their intonations come out wrong and the meaning of sentences or even phrases change," he said.

Behind all this, the deterioration of Bahasa Indonesia can slowly, but surely, be felt.

During the opening ceremony of Planet Hollywood, for instance, more English than Bahasa Indonesia was used, starting from the restaurants' manager down to its waiters.

"We can't always avoid these changes because learning about your cultural heritage doesn't mean you stop at your own history... Societies change and people continue to interact," Edi pointed out.

Indonesians, she said, were not suffering a "cultural inferiority syndrome", however, she feels certain business people would do anything with a western zest to it for the mere sake of their business.

"It is actually these people who are suffering the syndrome because they feel insecure with their own culture," she pointed out. (pwn)