Language in modern day society

I am referring to Carl Chairul's story on Bahasa Indonesia in The Jakarta Post on July 16, 2000. He mentions: "America, the land of high technology, cannot claim ... ". It never ceases to amaze me the amount of comments from Indonesians in the paper, implying in some way or another, an amount of animosity toward their fellow countries.

Does Carl seem to think that America has a hold over Indonesia on a number of things? I am led to believe otherwise. Indonesia is very much an independent country of its own, if one sees its differences and beliefs. (The Dutch may have had early influences years ago, just the same as other nations have outside influences in their countries, but not to the extent of destroying the face of the country).

One should be proud of his country and what it stands for. But it is unusual to hear someone say he is proud of his language when it is established as part of the country's character and uniqueness. I've never heard a French person say he is proud of being French because of the French language -- weird! Usually one is proud of one's country for a variety of things, like its heritage, art, land and so on.

If Carl feels threatened that America or other nations pose a threat in being an influence to a country's image, he obviously has a few insecurities about his country. One cannot blame outside influence on change -- the nation does what one chooses, alone.

As for the Indonesian language, it does have a wonderful sound to one's ear, and as a personal preference, I favor it to other languages around. I give credit, where credit is due, to the vast versatility of Indonesia's mother tongue having so many variations in its dialect. The main importance is that this national tongue does not lose precedence and more often than not, ancient or old dialects will obviously, without fail, subside and disappear in due course, as some dialects are outlived by their predecessors and modern times.

As for the point of heritage and keeping the total face, character and standing of any one nation, one should not lose their national language. That would be rather unusual. Of course, as one may note, Singapore and Australia's national language is English, due to their multinational races. The Filipinos use English widely, although their national language is Tagalog.

To our misfortune though, in this modern day and age, society sometimes obliterates one's national language through the use of slang. Like the change of time, one cannot control its destiny. We only hope the mother tongue holds its genetic character.

C. PARRY

Jakarta