Language needs nurturing
Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fadjar rightly pointed out the importance of the country's national language, Bahasa Indonesia, when he addressed the opening of the Eighth Indonesian Language Congress several days ago. And the four-day congress, attended by more than 800 participants from around the archipelago and overseas, could not have been more timely.
As Minister Abdul Malik Fadjar said, "Since the cause of rebellion is a lack of nationalism, the teaching of Bahasa Indonesia can boost the sense of nationalism and thus overcome rebellion." It sounds simplistic, but it has some truth.
Since the downfall of the Soeharto regime five years ago, instead of moving forward along the path of reform, the country has been mired in economic inertia and a political impasse. It has at the same time been entangled in the seemingly endless tug- of-war between arrogant globalization and narrow-minded nationalism, between centralism and sectarianism.
Rebellion and separatism, terms frequently used by government officials to describe any opposition to the central government's political decisions, are only two of the consequences of such a situation. But the fact is this country has been losing its sense of nationalism. Domestically, "being Indonesia", in terms of working and living together for the betterment of all, does not seem to be working.
To the outside world, "being Indonesia", in terms of national identity, invites more put-downs than appreciation, particularly because of our notorious corrupt systems and the series of terrorist bombings.
Indonesia has all the necessary elements not to be one country. Its population of more than 220 million people is spread out over a huge archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, covering three time zones. It has more than 200 ethnic groups, who speak more than 300 distinctly different languages, not including all the different dialects. Its cultural and historical diversity is probably more perplexing than any other country on the planet.
Looking back through history, we can surely agree that the Indonesian youths who almost 75 years ago inconspicuously gathered in Jakarta to hold their Second Youth Congress had some power of vision, even though most of them were in their early 20s. They came from diverse backgrounds, from different and sometimes conflicting youth organizations, some based on ethnicity, some on religion and others on specific interests like the Boy Scout movement.
They were sailing through unchartered waters, as this country -- then called the East Indies -- was still a colonial possession of the Dutch. But they closed the congress with the historical Indonesian Youth Pledge, consisting of three points: acknowledging one country, one nation and one language, which today are Indonesia.
The language was previously known as Bahasa Melayu, the Malay language that for several centuries was the lingua franca of traders plying the waters around the region. At the time probably only a couple of million people used the language as a means of communication, but it was the only language that could be understood by the majority of the hundreds of diverse, geographically isolated ethnic communities spread across the archipelago.
The nascent national language proclaimed years before Indonesia became an independent country turned out to be a very effective means not only of communication, but of unifying the country as well, of creating a sense of identity that nurtured national pride. It soon became the driving force that gave birth to this republic.
Language, however, is a living thing. It needs nurturing to continue living and doing its job of unifying. It needs nurturing to keep developing its capacity to absorb new ideas and challenges.
In this sense it seems that Indonesia has failed enormously. Indonesians has been neglecting the task of nurturing their national language. It would come as no surprise if suddenly Indonesians realized that they did not really understand each other, and started distrusting and fighting one another.