Monument for Poerwadarminta

Monument for Poerwadarminta

From Merdeka

It is no exaggeration to say that Wilfridus Joseph Sabarija Poerwadarminta was the first Indonesian to do the groundwork of editing the Indonesian dictionary. He contributed a great deal to the development of the Indonesian language. With the establishment of the Indonesian vocabulary, he rendered our country a great service. His work made an Indonesian dictionary possible.

If we care to look back, the Indonesian dictionary has been known since 1812. At that time, William Marsden FRS published a dictionary under the title Dictionary of the Malayan Language (London, 1812). This was followed with Kitab Logat Melayoe, written by Ch. Van Ophuysen (Batavia 1901).

We know of Indonesian dictionary compilers S. Wojowasito, Josephus Adisoebrata, Leonardus Mardiwarsito. But WJS Poerwadarminta was the best among them. From 1930 onwards he published several dictionaries, among them a Javanese dictionary, Dutch-Javanese, Japanese-Indonesian and an instruction book for Japanese entitled Poentja Bahasa Nipon. He also published an English-Indonesian dictionary, a Dutch-Indonesian and an Indonesian-German dictionary.

On Nov. 28, 1968, he died and was buried in Kuncen cemetery in his hometown, Yogyakarta. He was born in 1904. The government posthumously awarded him the Bintang Satya Lencana Kebudayaan medal on the occasion of National Awakening Day on May 20 in 1969, which was received by his widow.

As a nation which always holds national achievements in high esteem and pays homage for what has been achieved, I believe it is high time a monument in the memory of Poerwadarminta were built.

MUTAFFA RIDWAN

Cirebon, West Java