English making inroads into daily language usage

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)