Telenovelas and the Indonesian

Telenovelas and the Indonesian

From Media Indonesia

In observing the Youth Pledge we have to ask ourselves: How much do we love the Indonesian language? The Indonesian language as used in society is disheartening. Do we not realize that our predecessors, after going through a long and tiring process, successfully declared the "Youth Pledge," a consensus, which, among other things, adopted the Indonesian language as the national language.

Now, however, the Indonesian language has become a cheap commodity used to broadcast telenovelas on private television stations.

A couple of individuals, under the pretext of professionalism, exploit the Indonesian language to conform with foreign culture by way of dubbing telenovelas.

Telenovelas have been gaining ground in our society and there even exists an association of telenovela dubbers.

Our ancestors were well-known for their politeness and courtesy. Talking sex was taboo, but not so in telenovelas. Should we keep silent about this phenomenon which is done solely for commercial purposes to benefit a small group of people?

WARDY

Jakarta