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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