People can't speak Bahasa

SAMARINDA, East Kalimantan: A total of 51,658 people or three percent of this province's population cannot speak the Indonesian language, according to an official.

Chief of the provincial statistics office Nyoto Widodo said that the people are above five years of age and live in the interior.

He said that of the 1.8 million people living in East Kalimantan, 1.7 million people above the age of five can communicate in the national language. He said that 14.27 percent of the total population is illiterate, Antara reported. (par)