On language equality

On language equality

I would like first of all to congratulate your newspaper for
the excellent coverage of language issues. The report of March 14
in The Jakarta Post (ASEAN leaders advised to back campaigns for
Malay) shows once more how political leaders of the Association
of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must be continually
prodded to take a more proactive stance toward Asian languages,
including Malay, a language spoken by approximately 250 million
people in Asia.

That the ASEAN does not yet treat Malay equally alongside
English is a disgrace. It is also very indicative of how the
dominance of English is growing even many decades after
decolonialization. The World Esperanto Association has for many
years been concerned by the increasing effects of such linguistic
inequality on economic and social life in Asia.

On the same day as your report appeared, on the Malay
Linguists call to ASEAN leaders, the Economist Intelligence Unit
published their forecasts for foreign direct investment. Among
the top nations are the United Kingdom and the United States. And
among the list of factors favoring the UK given by the Financial
Times is the English language.

Another effect of the almost exclusive use of a national
language (English) for international communication is in the
field of education. Asia has excellent universities. However,
resources and top students are continually being sucked away to
English speaking countries. Last year 546,867 students studied in
the U.S. alone. Asian students comprised over one half (55
percent) of all international enrollments (302,058, up 8
percent). Compared to the 59,939 Chinese, 54,664 Indian, 46,497
Japanese and 45,685 Korean students, Malay-speaking countries may
not be the top money spinners for U.S. universities (at around
20,000 U.S. dollars per student).

Nonetheless, the 11,625 Indonesians and 7,795 Malaysians
studying at U.S. universities, not to mention Australia and the
UK, do represent a continued cultural and economic loss for
education systems in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Only an
effective and long-term policy of promoting true language
equally, not just a single national language, can help solve this
problem. The experience of the World Esperanto Association,
sadly, indicates that politicians generally have little
understanding of the vital importance of language equality.

RENATO CORSETTI

President of the World

Esperanto Association

Italy