Soeharto launches national discipline campaign
Soeharto launches national discipline campaign
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto launched a nationwide campaign yesterday to encourage people to use the Indonesian language correctly and to observe basic elements of discipline, ranging from queuing to maintaining punctuality.
"Let us begin this National Discipline Movement with everyday's participation, such as by observing traffic signs, disposing of litter in the proper place, queuing, obeying working hours and many others," Soeharto said in a ceremony marking National Awakening Day.
"Remember this. To achieve major accomplishments, very often we have to start with the smallest things," he said in the ceremony held at the Jakarta Convention Center.
"On this the National Awakening Day and in the year we celebrate Indonesia's 50th anniversary, let us reinvigorate and renew our spirit of nationalism by using Bahasa Indonesia properly and correctly and by strengthening our discipline."
Soeharto emphasized that the Indonesian language is one of the elements that has helped unite the nation since the Youth Pledge in 1928 declared the language the national language.
"We're proud that Bahasa Indonesia has grown and developed. It has not only become a language for everyday conversation. Bahasa Indonesia has become an official language and it even has the potential of becoming a language of science and technology.
"However, recently there have been signs that worry us about the way Bahasa Indonesia is used," he said in underlining the reason for the campaign for the proper use of the language.
Language experts say that the Indonesian language is now spoken by around 160 million out of the 190 million people in Indonesia. It is the language that has allowed communication between the hundreds of diverse ethnic and cultural groups, each one with a different language or dialect.
But the deterioration in the way the Indonesian language is used, and the increasing preference for foreign terminologies over Indonesian ones, has prompted language experts to call for actions stop the trend and reestablish the supremacy of the local language.
"One of the symbols of our nation state is Bahasa Indonesia," Soeharto said. "So let us preserve it with the greatest sense of responsibility."
Assets
He said the Indonesian language will remain one of the nation's assets that can ensure Indonesia's survival in a rapidly changing world resulting from the globalization process.
National Awakening Day has always been used by the government as an occasion to reinvigorate the people's nationalist sentiments.
The day marks the founding, on May 20, 1908, of Boedi Oetomo, the first indigenous organization formed when Indonesia was still governed by the Dutch colonial administration.
It marked the beginning of the nationalist struggle which culminated with the declaration of independence in 1945.
"Our national assets are the spirits of nationalism and nation state. The globalization process will not eliminate the role of the nation state," Soeharto said.
"That's why we have to preserve this nation state. We have to avoid moving in the direction that could endanger our state. We have to guard the symbols of our state." (emb)