Language reflects national character

Language reflects national character

By Prapti Widinugraheni

JAKARTA (JP): 'Bahasa menunjukkan bangsa' is a popular
Indonesian saying which more or less means "language reflects
people". Ironically, however, it is ourselves who have to be
repeatedly reminded of the importance of bahasa Indonesia in
shaping the nation's identity.

Language, which to some people may not seem as important as
general elections or as serious as bad debts, has lately become
an issue that even President Soeharto, and later Education and
Culture Minister Wardiman Djojonegoro, have addressed.

"Use bahasa Indonesia correctly and be proud of it," said
Wardiman last February when he announced the theme of the
official campaign to promote the proper usage of the national
language.

The campaign was officially launched on National Awakening Day
last Saturday.

So far, the first ones to feel the sting of the campaign have
been real estate developers, apartment and shopping mall
builders, who have been proudly using foreign names and terms for
their projects, saying that it is "more eye-catching" to
prospective customers.

This was quickly dismissed by language expert Anton Moeliono
who quipped that people choose a house not by its name but by its
location.

Next, the media was lashed at, with Moeliono saying that while
on the one hand the press could become an effective means to
introduce good and correct bahasa to its 190 million users, it
could, on the other, cause widespread, massive mistakes every
time it used the language incorrectly.

Why is the issue of bahasa Indonesia so important and why does
it still have to be promoted even though it has been proclaimed
the national language for almost 70 years?

Bahasa Indonesia was adopted from bahasa Melayu, which in
ancient times was commonly used in Riau, Johor and areas around
the Malay Peninsula.

It started out as a lingua franca and a language of trade used
across the Indonesian archipelago and neighboring regions in
Southeast Asia.

In was later enriched by local dialects from across the
archipelago, such as those spoken in Java, Sunda, Madura, Ambon,
Manado, Minang and Aceh.

It also received significant influence from foreign words and
phrases which arrived on our shores with the colonialists.

In the late 1920s, bahasa Melayu was used by only 4.9 percent
of the then 30 million population.

According to 1990 statistics, 24 million or 15 percent of the
180 million population spoke bahasa as a daily language, 107
million or 68 percent could speak the language but did not use it
in daily communication and 27 million or 17 percent could not
understand bahasa Indonesia at all.

The Central Bureau of Statistics predicts that by the year
2010, every Indonesian aged five years and older from an
estimated total population of 215 million would master bahasa,
albeit at various levels of skill.

To this day, the development of bahasa Indonesia has not yet
come to a halt.

It has continued to receive, adopt and absorb new vocabularies
on one hand while changing, standardizing and adjusting old ones
on the other.

In the last 50 years, the Indonesian dictionary has added over
50,000 new words and terms to its contents.

Several months ago, for example, the Pusat Pembinaan dan
Pengembangan Bahasa Indonesia (Center for Indonesian Language
Development) published a guideline for the correct usage of
bahasa Indonesia. Included in the guideline was a long list of
foreign terms and their new, standardized Indonesian
translations.

The words condominium, concession, management and
deregulation, for instance, are directly absorbed into bahasa
Indonesia and become kondominium, konsesi, manajemen and
deregulasi.

However, supermarket, high-rise building, data processor and
awning become pasar swalayan, bangunan jangkung, pengolah data
and bidai respectively.

The list also had the "correct" translation of foreign-named
housing estates and shopping malls: Bogor Boulevard should be
Adimarga Bogor or Bulevar Bogor, Cafe Batavia should be Kafe
Betawi, Ratu Plaza should be Plaza Ratu and City Garden should be
Taman Asripura or Taman Kota Permai.

Others included in the list were: mus (mousse), baju senggang
(negligee), benang pembersih gigi (dental floss), waralaba or
francis (franchise), kentang jari goreng (french fries), mi
spinasi (spinach noodles) and penempahan (booking).

One of the disadvantages of being such a young and relatively
simple language, is perhaps its "flexibility".

"Bahasa Indonesia goes by very loose guidelines," Anton once
said. "Why can't we be more grammatically strict when we use
bahasa Indonesia, like when people speak Arab, English or German,
for instance," he said.

Anton considers bahasa Indonesia guidelines urgently needs to
be tightened, its rules reinforced and, last but not least,
popularized countrywide.

But Anton may have more to do than simply call on the public
to use "Bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar" (good and correct
bahasa Indonesia).

Although bahasa Indonesia is an egalitarian language which
enables everyone to use it regardless of their social background,
the dominant Indonesian culture of following -- and bowing -- to
a senior, a respected public figure or an elder fellow-speaker in
an excessive and sometimes irrational manner, does not always
allow the language to remain egalitarian.

While written speeches by the country's top-most people in
bahasa Indonesia are practically flawless, it is no secret that
when it comes to speaking the language, except for a few
exceptions, these people generally articulate very poorly in
Indonesian.

Not only are their sentences not well-structured and therefore
make no sense, but their pronunciation -- of Indonesian and
adapted foreign terms -- is also often incorrect.

Aside from that, another dominant culture in the country is
saying "yes" when you actually mean "no" and vice-versa --
something that many long-time expatriates may be quite familiar
with.

To do this, a speaker must go beating around the bush before
he arrives at what he really wants to say.

The only way to do that, in Indonesian, is by making long,
winding sentences where you have to slip in here and there words
of respect, words of apology (if necessary) and, of course, your
true intention, which should be neatly wrapped somewhere among
the "flowery" phrases.

This causes unnecessary words and phrases which have no
contribution to clarifying an idea. Instead, it results in very
bad bahasa Indonesia.

If the top figures who are supposed to be role models for the
country's 190 million bahasa users still fail to demonstrate
their ability to conceive a good flow of ideas -- for a good
sentence is a spoken or written form of an idea -- imagine where
Moeliono must start his language campaign.

And imagine what the proud founding fathers would think if
they saw their grandchildren's generation use a language they
valued so highly in such a poor manner.