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