jurnal bahasa
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Bahasa Indonesia is a language to unite the polyglot country of Indonesia.TRANSCRIPT
Bahasa as a lingua franca to unite a vast polyglot in Indonesia
By. H. Romi Adetio Setiawan., MA
Bahasa Indonesia mempunyai sejarah jauh lebih panjang daripada Republik
ini sendiri. Bahasa Indonesia telah dinyatakan sebagai bahasa nasional sejak tahun
1928, jauh sebelum Indonesia merdeka. Saat itu bahasa Indonesia dinyatakan
sebagai bahasa persatuan dan menggunakan bahasa Indonesia sebagai perekat
bangsa. Saat itu bahasa Indonesia menjadi bahasa pergaulan antaretnis (lingua
franca) yang mampu merekatkan suku-suku di Indonesia. Dalam perdagangan dan
penyebaran agama pun bahasa Indonesia mempunyai posisi yang penting.
Dengan memilih Bahasa Melayu, para pejuang kemerdekaan bersatu lagi
seperti pada masa Islam berkembang di Indonesia, namun kali ini dengan tujuan
persatuan dan kebangsaan. Bahasa Indonesia yang sudah dipilih ini kemudian
distandardisasi (dibakukan) lagi dengan nahu (tata bahasa), dan kamus baku juga
diciptakan. Hal ini sudah dilakukan pada zaman Penjajahan Jepang.
Key: Bahasa; Indonesian language; history of Indonesia; lingua franca
Indonesia is a vast polyglot country with different ethnics and culture, during
the early period of independence the founding father of Indonesia face a difficulties in
communication and thus, the idea appear to decide a unity language for the nation.
During the colonial period, they found that Dutch was a language of small minorities
of educated elites as an influence of discrimination of education policy toward
Indonesian ethnic people. This politics of discrimination resulting in privileged
indigenous elites which communicate each other through colonial language as well as
the official language in education system under colonial rule. Moreover, Javanese is
the language of the largest ethnic group in Indonesia which represented 47% of
Indonesia’s population.
However, the Javanese live by the system of hierarchy which is reflecting the
social status within the society. The hierarchy of Javanese in communication
according to social status and age will makes language difficult for the people who
live in the outer island to learn. Eventually, Indonesian founding fathers chose Malay
language as a lingua franca in the archipelago that was effective as the unifying force
which has great impact to the nationalist movement in fighting against the colonial
rule and the formation of a new national identity.
The writer will examine the reason behind the successful story of Indonesian language
or Bahasa as the lingua franca of nationalist movement in the colonial period and
postcolonial period which contributed to the effort of national integration and nation
building. It also will examine the socio-political factors and the historical factors in
the development of Bahasa Indonesia as lingua franca in Indonesia since the colonial
period. Second, this paper will examine the role of national language policy in the
process of the nation building in the postcolonial period. After the
independence, Bahasa become the official language in the field of education, politics,
culture, economics, and religion. The successful policy of national language was
mainly supported by increasing of proficiency among Indonesian people through the
open access of education both in Java and outer islands, media, and urbanization.
According to writer the reason that the founding fathers of Indonesia chose Malay
language as the lingua franca of the archipelago because of it flexibility, simplicity,
possible as inter-ethnic language, and free from hierarchy of social status.
National Movement during the colonialism
The colonialism has been responded by resistant and defense by national movement,
and thus the movement has given a change to many sectors at Indonesia in economics,
social, politics and unity to fight against the colonialism “its collective activity on
self-defence and efforts to change this situation resulted in national consciousness,
national feeling as well as national will which expressed in various ways”
(Kartodirdjo 1962: 70). However, in early nineteenth century Indonesia, the idea of
nationalism always understood as an adjective to the particular-regional movement
such as Javanese nationalism, Ambonese nationalism, and Sumatranese nationalism.
The beginning of Indonesian national movement usually refers to the period from
1908s up to1942s.
At the early stage of Indonesian independence there are some organizations at the
regional level that are reflecting the Indonesian nationalism toward the colonial
domination in their country, such as Sarekat Ambon (Ambon Union), Rukun
Minahasa (Minahasa Family), Pasoendan, and Sarekat Sumatra (Sumatra Union).
Thus, the regional and ethnocentric aspiration was main feature of early Indonesian
nationalism including Boedi Oetomo which established in 1908s expressed the
aspiration of Javanese nationalism. Although Boedi Oteomo expressed the cultural
aspiration of Javanese its main character was inclusive and opens for the cooperation
with other organizations in fighting against the colonial domination. In this stage,
each group within national movement remains expressed its own cultural interest as
the counter-culture of the West. In this respect, it commonly understood that since
early stage of national movement most groups and local organizations expressed their
movement as the cultural struggle (Kartodirdjo 1962: 77).
Although the Indonesian community by the regional group forms the aspiration
toward the anti-colonialism, but they have the same mission that is toward the anti-
colonialism and unifying their nationalism “that all within the borders are equally
members of nation. “Island states like Indonesia congenial to this type of territorial
nationalism by reason of having boundaries seemingly demarcated by nature, not by
the ambivalent destiny of a people” (Reid 2001: 296). In contrast, Indonesian
nationalist movement did not supported by the ethnic core to survive. The cultural
struggle in establishing set of central symbols such historical myth, national dress and
style, name, and language became central around the imagination of nationalists
movement rather than inventing a dominant ethnic as the core of nationalism. This
nationalism defined by the shared collective memory of colonization, territory, and
common identity.
Thus, the founding fathers of Indonesia successfully able to transform the Indonesian
nationalism through the culture and diversity ‟nationalism which integrated highly
ethnic diversities into equal citizenship inside a new nation. The civic idea of
Indonesian nationalism which transgresses the local and ethnic boundaries supported
by the fact that “core culture defined nationalism seemed to be inherently plural in
religion, culture, and ethnicity, in way analogous to that India, if not Western Europe”
(Reid 2001: 311). In this respect, the core culture of Indonesian nationalism is deeply
rooted in Malayness which signify a set of cultural complex centered in language
called Melayu. Malayness is source of diverse Indonesian modern identities.
Malayness also contributed significantly to the creation of Indonesian a new national
identity and core of national project. It was unavoidable that Malay adopted as the
unifying language among the youth nationalist movement in the early twentieth
century Indonesia.
The language of Melayu is the common language spoken by the people who live in
the archipelago thousand years ago, mostly in the south east Asian people, the people
from Thailand, Vietnam, India and whole Indonesia are speaking at the same
language that is Melayu, this language is a lingua franca for the trader community in
the island, and in order to communicate to each other they commonly use Melayu.
The establishment of Malay as official language during Sriwijaya empire had great
impact in spreading Malay as solely lingua franca which conquered including Malay
peninsula, all Sumatra, West and Central Java. Sriwijaya also had strong diplomatic
relation with both China and India for hundred years which reflected in many ancient
inscriptions in widespread locations in form of stone monument which found in
Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and Java. In the aftermath, the decline of Sriwijaya
continued by the rise of Muslim sultanate in straits of Malacca. Then, Malay used as
means of Islamic expansion across the archipelago who traced the trade routes and
influenced the establishment of Malay as a vehicle for the propagation of Islamic
religion (Paauw 2009: 2).
In the beginning of twentieth century, Dutch allowed Indonesian to get the education
from the Dutch school, and thus, many Indonesian are able to speak Dutch. This
policy enhanced many Indonesians to reach proficiency in Dutch language which
understood as the direct way in increasing their skill, knowledge and social status. On
the other hand, the increasing number of Indonesians in attaining the Dutch
proficiency perceived as threat to the colonial rule. The colonial government released
the policy that limited the use of Dutch language among Indonesian. This limitation
recommended by the Hollandsch Inlandsch Onderwijscommissie (Dutch Indonesian
Educational Commission) which established to control the use of Dutch language by
Indonesian (Alisjahbana 1949).
Although Dutch restricted the spread of Dutch language among indigenous people,
the Dutch remained the official language during the colonial period. More over, Dutch
sought that Malay also useful for the language of administration and commerce as it is
used by various ethnic in the archipelago. By the end of nineteenth century, Dutch
reformed their language policy by introducing Malay as second official language
which functioned as the language of local administration, commerce and
communication. Dutch changed their policy by the end of nineteenth century which
“..attempting to produce a standardized “high” variety of the language for
administrative purposes to replace what they called the „babble-Malay‟ of many
officials” (Keane 2003: 513). Dutch also perceived Malay is not complex language,
flexible and ease to communication. Since then, Malay practiced in the non-European
schools particularly schools that provided for indigenous people (Lowenberg 1985).
The Dutch also contributed to the process of standardization and modernization of
Malay through the registration of Malay which used in many areas such as the
standard Latin-alphabet spelling system. Dutch also established a Malaya-language
publishing house which provided the materials on many topics for learning standard
Malay in the schools and supported the publication of Malay press in the beginning of
the twentieth century. This policy results in the emergence of a group of intellectual
who educated in Dutch school but without real function within the colonial structure.
Their proficiency in Dutch language opened their intellectual journey and intellectual
encounter with the foreign literature which contained the critical concept of society
and a vision on the ideal society after the disappearance of colonialism. This new
group of intellectual reached the necessary means of communication in exploring the
anti-colonial and anti-imperialist literature of West European, Russian Marxism, and
the revolutionary vocabularies among those potential elite (Anderson 1966; Maier
2005).
Malay language is sought to be a lingua franca by the nationalist movement, and the
most effective language of communication in revitalizing the idea of independence
and organizing the program of political education which almost impossible if relied
on the regional languages. Malay language had been sought as the sole effective
lingua franca among the hundreds of ethnic languages which for ages used as the
language of trade and commerce in Southeast Asia (Emerson 1960). Then it was not
surprising that big political parties in the early twentieth century both Partai Komunis
Indonesia (Indonesia Communist Party) and Serikat Islam (Muslim League) adopted
Malay as the official language for their communication within respective
organization. The adoption of Malay language by nationalist movement driven by, “
the government policy of limiting their opportunities to study Dutch had the effect of
deflecting them to the use of Malay instead”. (Alisjahbana 1949:389)
Although Java language is practiced by vas majority of population in term of ethnic
language, but Javanese has the hierarchy of social status inhibited the Javanese
language which makes it impossible to reach the status of lingua franca among
nationalists movement who appeal for the equality and political emancipation. More
over, the adoption of Javanese could be “associated with the largest and most
powerful ethnic group and its use could therefore lead to dissension and mistrust from
non-Javanese” (Lowenberg 1985:8). Thus Javanese had been sought not at all suited
in articulating the ideas of equality, democratic rights, and independence as expressed
in the revolutionary rhetoric among the nationalists movement. In contrast, Malay
expressed what Anderson stated as “ simple and flexible enough to be rapidly
developed into a modern political language..had ipso facto an almost statusless
character, like Esperanto..It has thus free, almost „democratic‟ character from the
outset” (Anderson 1966: 104).
Nationalist movement has been struggling in promoting the Melayu language as the
official language in the archipelago during the twentieth century and finally it is
concluded in the Second Congress of youth on October 28,1928. The Second
Congress declared that Malay as the official language which later became Bahasa
Indonesia. The choice of Malay as bahasa Indonesia mostly accepted and had not any
rival although the members of Congress consisted of many ethnic association such as
Jong Java (1915), Jong Sumatranen Bond (1917), Jong Ambon (1920), and Jong
Celebes (1920). The Congress proclaimed that they,” belong to one nation Indonesia;
belong to one people, ..uphold the nation‟s language of unity, Indonesian”
(Dardjowijojo 1998: 3). In addition, the agreement among ethnic associations to put
Malay as official national language reflected the spirits of their nationalism which
sought that national interest was above each particular interest (Wong
1971;Dardjowijojo 1998).
Thus, the declaration of Malay as national language is also supported by the
publication of cultural and literary magazine Pudjangga Baru (The New Poet), which
had contributed significantly to the development of Indonesian literary tradition. The
exponents of Pudjangga Baru also held the congress in Solo 1938 which focused on
the development of Indonesian language (Alisjahbana 1949). This development
suggested by Lowenberg as thebeginning of the development of a genre anti-
colonialist writing practiced by a new generation of young educated writer from
Central and Northern Sumatra. This new educated-generation also expressed,
“varieties of Malay spoken on the west coast of Malay Peninsula, became the standard
literary language for Indonesia and is still considered the standard model for
education and formal occasions”. (Lowenberg 1985: 10).
In the 1939s, German occupied Netherlands which dramatically changed the Dutch
policy in the Indies, they felt cut of from their own country and sought that their
relationship with Indonesia and Indonesians were very artificial. Thus, Dutch
permitted the policy in using the Indonesian language among themselves. However,
Dutch suffered from the coming of Japanese soldier into the region which results in
the end of their new policy and Dutch rapidly moved from Indonesia. The coming of
Japanese who replaced the Dutch occupation in Indonesia was the decisive moment in
the development of Indonesian language particularly as it is spread widely among the
mass. Unlike Dutch, Japanese encouraged the use of Indonesian language as means of
communication although their long term goal imposed the Japanese language as the
main official language. Unfortunately, they considered that it hard to apply a new
policy in short time, Japanese had to take the pragmatic decision that Indonesian
language much more effective than using Japanese one (Alisjahbana 1949; Anderson
1966).
The Indonesian language become more favorable during the Japanese, it has given a
significant progress to the development of Indonesian language by prohibiting the use
of Dutch as means of communication. Indonesian language was the compulsory in the
public laws and official pronouncements, correspondence between the department of
government, between government and people as well as in all level of educational
institution from the primary schools up to the university. On the other hand, Japanese
mobilized the mass in supporting the war effort which reached the people in remote
areas of the islands. Inevitably, political mobilization over the mass in the villages to
support the Japanese war effort in the region involved the Indonesian language as the
main instrument of communication (Alisjahbana 1949: Anderson 1966).
Bahasa Indonesia reach it peak under the Japanese occupation and developed across
the archipelago which enhanced the people to learn and speak it in public sphere
freely. The Japanese established join commission with both Japanese and Indonesian
members in order to standardized Indonesian language, developed its lexicon,
released a new grammar text, and registered new developed vocabularies. This
commission had registered around 7000 new terms which had been adopted into
Indonesian language. Thus, Japanese language policy had been established the
dramatic changed in modernization and standardization of language to function as the
official language in the government, law, all level of education and technology as well
(Lowenberg 1985).
Bahasa Indonesia Declared as the National Language
The Surrender of Japanese to American ally is providing the nationalist
movement to take an advantage to declare the country Indonesia as an independent,
and Bahasa Indonesia is proclaimed as the national language. On the other hand, its
status will not threaten the existence of vernacular languages which had been
protected by the constitution. In addition, vernacular languages have been contributed
to the development of Indonesian language. Thus, mutual-enrichment processes took
place between vernacular languages and national language supported by fact that most
the nationalist writers and poets came from the particular region in Sumatra such as
Riau and Minangkabau. In the aftermath, other vernacular languages such Sundanese,
Javanese, and the dialect of Jakarta have significant influence in the development of
Indonesian language (Anderson 1966; Paauw 2009).
The usage of Indonesian language after independence mostly has dual function in
society both as the national identity which constituted Indonesia as a new nation and
also as the official language in educational institution in all level, literacy,
modernization, and social mobility. In the 1948, Indonesian government had
established Balai Bahasa (Language Center) in order to develop the national language
and vernacular languages throughout the nation. Then, later, it had been changed and
well known as the Lembaga Bahasa dan Budaya (Institute of Language and Culture)in
1952. Under Sultan Takdir Alisjahbana, the Komisi Istilah (Committee on
Terminology) of the institute documented 321, 710 new terms which had been
adopted officially into Indonesianlanguages (Djardjowijojo 1998; Paauw 2009).
Under president Suharto regime, the numbers of people who speak bahasa increased
rapidly along with its widespread as the official language across the nation. The
census data showed it has been increased rapidly particularly after the independence.
The data showed that in the 1971 census, around 40 million Indonesians, or estimated
40% of population had reported could practice Indonesian language. A decade later, it
increased over around 90 million people or estimated 60% of the population. The
successful of Indonesian language as the official language mostly credited to the role
of Indonesian language in the educational institution, particularly when Indonesian
language became compulsory language in all primary schools in the country
(Lowenberg 1985;Djardjowijojo 1998; Paauw 2009).
However, at the highest education level the lack of academic material reading in
bahasa will influence the future development of Indonesian language. After
independence, the lexicon of intellectual life in Indonesia remains foreign languages,
mainly English language. The availability of reading materials in Indonesian language
perceived as the necessary requirement in developing the intellectual life of modern
Indonesia. In this respect, Alisjahbana supported the effort of translation academic
reading materials into Indonesian as the way in fulfilling, “its functions as the
unifying and official language, it is essential that great many important books be
translated into Indonesian” (Alisjahbana 1949: 392). On the other hand, this process
must be supported by the increasing consciousness of Indonesian people to learn how
to express and think fluently in their national language so that the development of
Indonesian intellectual life relied on their own language rather than foreign language
as it happen in the present day Indonesian universities (Alisjahbana1949).
The economic development brought about the migration of millions people from
villages to many cities. Thus the urbanization has given a big impact in the number of
Indonesian speaker; the number of inhabitants in the big cities grew rapidly which
consist of different cultural backgrounds. Inevitably, it has great impact in the
increasing proficiency of Indonesian language as it is the means of inter-ethnic
communication in new neighborhood, at work and in the market place. The third
factor that contributed to the proficiency of Indonesian language is media; broadcast,
television, and printed media. Most national radio, national televisions and national
newspapers are using national language in transmitting the information throughout the
country. The booming of visual media particularly television which most of people
across country can access the program on national television contributed to the
increased proficiency of Indonesian language even in the remotest backwaters villages
in outer island of Java (Lowenberg 1985; Paauw 2009).
The rise of new middle class in many big cities as the impact of economic
development under New Order state (1968-1998) also empowered them to access the
outside world through globalization, and Indonesia faced the pressure from the
English. One of main problem in the face of global pressure which affected the
development of Indonesian language is the lack of vocabulary. Inevitably, this
handicap caused by, “fact that the Indonesian language is an extension or adaptation
of Malay language in as much as it has been modified regional languages and dialect
as well as by modern foreign languages”(Alisjahbana 1949: 340).
The lack of vocabulary particularly in adapting new technical terms along with the
consumption of modern technology such as multimedia is caused Indonesian language
to be suffered. In this respect, Indonesian now has many foreign words which adopted
from English such as televisi, radio, mesin, printer, fax, etc. which directly adapted
from English language. In addition, government released the policy in the 1990s that
allowed the teaching bilingual language in the private schools. This policy created the
new educated class which have proficiency in English and have advantage in the
market (Djardjowijojo 1998; Paauw 2009).
Another effort to increase the number of Indonesian speaker is indicated by Pusat
Bahasa which produced weekly television series lectures and courses in order to
consolidate the status of Indonesian as the national language. It also provides
information through online service to the people and supported the research on both
Indonesian and regional languages. Moreover, Pusat Bahasa also have been
established close cooperation with international agencies such as Ford Foundation,
Multinational companies, The National Law Council, and Language Development
Project in promoting the status of Indonesian as the national language. It also involved
the regional cooperation with Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam, “where members of
joint committee meet regularly to discuss language matters of common interest”.
(Djardjowijojo 1998: 43; Montalu & Suryadinata 2007).
The government of Indonesia also provided the scholarship to the foreigner who wish
to study Indonesian language and culture, with full tuition fee and other facilities such
as air ticket and living allowance. This scholarship is mainly purpose to expand the
number of bahasa speaker across the world.
Conclusion
The struggle of Indonesian nationalist movement toward independence raise their
consciousness to use Indonesian language as the medium of communication among
the different ethnics, which is giving the development in the standardization of
Indonesian language, latin-writing, and structure. Melayu language is effective
language as it has been used thousand years ago in the archipelago by the traders as
the main of language in the commerce, and free from the hierarchy status. The
Malayness was salient core culture as well as the source of Indonesian modern
identity. Thus, the nationalist movement also articulated the struggle of culture to
create new national symbol, myth, and identity in particular the invention of “lingua
franca” which unite varieties of ethnicities and driving force in articulating the ideas
of nationalism.
The Dutch policy on language which limited the proficiency of Dutch language in
very small group of Indonesian elites during the colonial rule has contributed to the
flourishing Indonesian language as the national language as well as the language of
literature. Moreover, Dutch also established the commission that results in the
modernization and standardization of Malay as official language in educational
institution which provided for the indigenous people.
After the independence of Indonesia in 1945 Bahasa Indonesia is widely used
by Indonesian in the academics, politics, socials and economics sphere all over
Indonesia spread from Sabang (in the tip of Sumatra) till Merauke (at the end of
Papua).
Likewise, the Indonesian language is supported by the Indonesian community
in a broad and promoted by many ways such as in education system, printed media,
broadcast, televisions, urbanizations, and scholarship for the foreigner wishing to
come to Indonesia and study the language and culture of Indonesian. However, the
main handicap of Indonesian language is lack of vocabulary as it is intermixture of
Malay, vernacular languages, and foreign languages. The globalization is also putting
a pressure for the Indonesian language to adapt the foreign language and to enhance
the vocabulary especially in the medical, technology, information and media term.
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