Language needs nurturing

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.