The Malaise of 'Bahasa Indonesia' [JP Opinion By Jennifer
Lindsay]
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John M Miller
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Feb 15, 2006 05:28 PST
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The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Op/Ed
The Malaise of 'Bahasa Indonesia'
Jennifer Lindsay, Jakarta
It used to be only an ex-pat phenomenon. A "certain-kind-of-ex-pat"
phenomenon. Calling the Indonesian language bahasa, that is. Anyone
who really spoke
Indonesian knew that this was just a sign of ignorance. Anyone who knew
Indonesian would know better. They would know that the question "do
you speak bahasa"
was ridiculous. "Do you speak 'language'?" Well, what else would one speak? In
tongues? Nonsense? Which bahasa do you mean, I would always answer such a
question.
But now this use of bahasa to refer (in written or spoken English) to
Indonesian is creeping into general Indonesian use. Tempo's English
website offers a
choice between "English" and Bahasa. The Jakarta Post also frequently uses the
word bahasa to refer to "Indonesian". What is going on? The spread of
ignorance? Fashion?
At first glance it seems to be merely shorthand for bahasa Indonesia. The
Jakarta Post, often refers to bahasa Indonesia instead of
"Indonesian". But this
in itself doesn't make much sense. When speaking or writing English we always
refer to foreign languages by the English name for them. We say French and not
"Frangais", German and not "Deutsch". So why the tendency to say bahasa
Indonesia when writing or speaking English? Why the reticence to give
the language
its English name? And now, even English-language teaching institutions in
Indonesia -- the Indonesia Australia Language Foundation, for
instance ? refers
(in English) to Bahasa Indonesia. "Study English or Bahasa Indonesia with IALF
in Jakarta, Surabaya and Bali", its website proudly announces.
So what is going on here? Is there a misguided notion that calling Indonesian
Bahasa Indonesia in English makes the language somehow more Indonesian? Or is
it a deeper lack of confidence in the name of the language? Indonesia's
national language was baptized in 1928 with the name of the promised nation,
Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia -- the language of Indonesia. Indonesian.
Now, in a more
global world, there seems to be a sense of awkwardness about this, an
unspoken unease at the nationalism of the name.
Across the water in Malaysia and Singapore, the term bahasa is common
currency when referring in English to Malay. But when speaking Malay,
the language is
referred to as Melayu. In Singapore for instance, ATM-s offer a choice of
English, Chinese or Malay, with the name of each language written in that
language, so Malay is Melayu.
In both Singapore and Malaysia, if you address people in Indonesian-Malay,
they will praise you in Malay for your Melayu. But in English, the Malay
language, including Indonesian-Malay, will usually be referred to as bahasa,
particularly by non Malays. Either way, the tendency is to include
Indonesian in the
family.
Indonesians, on the other hand, are much more reticent to have their national
language called Malay, any kind of Malay. This may be just national pride in
refusing to recognize the family tie with the language of Malaysia (indeed,
Indonesians love to point out the differences).
Or perhaps it is a remnant of the longing for a standardization of Malay, the
standardization that allowed for the creation of official Indonesian which
meant that other forms of Malay were seen as deviant.
After all, when those nationalist youth back in 1928 pledged that the nation
would have satu bahasa, bahasa Indonesia (One language, the Indonesian
language) this referred not only to the elevation of Malay as that
national language
over all other regional languages, but also to the elevation and creation of
one Malay.
Henk Maier always reminds us of the vivid heterogeneity of Malay as a
language and its intrinsic resistance to standardization. When the
youth of the
nation-to-be Indonesia adopted Malay as the nation's language and renamed it
Indonesian, this also announced a project of standardization of one
kind of Malay as
Indonesian.
The phenomenal success of that project has led Indonesians to hear any other
Malay as "odd", funny, even backward. Malay is associated with what people
"used to speak" in Indonesia before the language turned modern. But
these days,
spoken Indonesian is becoming increasingly heterogeneous.
TV, more than anything else, has spread Indonesian as a spoken language,
particularly since the early 1990s with the end of the monopoly of national
television. With more people now speaking only Indonesian -- no other regional
language of Indonesia, that is -- they are speaking and creating many kinds of
Indonesian, with variants in vocabulary, register, rhythm and
intonation. One has
only to compare any recent Indonesian film with one from 20 years ago to hear
these changes.
So is this new heterogeneity also leading to more acceptance of other kinds
of Malay beyond the national border? Could the use of word bahasa to refer to
Indonesian be an admission of a new heterogeneity in Indonesian? In other
words, admitting this without having to say the "M" word, Malay?
In Malaysia and Singapore, there is no doubt at all that bahasa includes
Indonesian. The word embraces the Malay's spoken in Indonesia, and
yet at the same
time avoids the awkward association of either nation (Indonesian, Malaysian)
or race (Malay). It is, quite simply, a statement of perceived linguistic
sameness. I see it as a way to acknowledge linguistic links, and the only word
that allows this in any neutral fashion is bahasa.
I would like to think that the bahasa malaise in Indonesia is a similar
separation of language from nation (the separation from ethnicity
happened back in
1928). After all, the word English has long become separated from place
(England) in any sense of ownership. While some people may refer to
American or
Australian, this sounds affected or patently nationalistic. The word
English is
precisely an umbrella term for variety. English today is a floating entity
separated from ethnicity and nation.
So perhaps this use of bahasa to refer in English to Indonesian is a similar
longing to recognize a supra-national life of the language, and at the same
time recognize national heterogeneity. At least, this might be what
is going on
when Indonesians themselves use the word. When ex-pats use it, though, I am
not so sure. I feel they want to make the name of the language sound more
exotic, more complicated, than mere Indonesian.
Nonetheless, I for one loathe the use of the word bahasa, because I think it
is fudging the issue. If bahasa Indonesia or Indonesian sounds nationalistic
and dated, then why not call it Malay and be done with it? Use of the term
across national boundaries will precisely lift the word from associations with
ethnicity.
Or, if and while there is still a need to stress the nation, yet at the same
time acknowledge linguistic similarities and heterogeneity, then why not
Indonesian-Malay, Malaysian-Malay, Singapore-Malay, Timor
Leste-Malay? In other
words, why not use the name Malay as a sign of resistance to attempts
to define
and standardize?
As for me -- I will continue to answer, "which bahasa do you mean? Malay?"
The writer is a lecturer at National University of Singapore. She can be
reached at jennyl-@yahoo.com.
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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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