Bahasa Indonesia, not Malay, should be Asean’s main language, says minister

 

Nadiem Makarim says Bahasa Indonesia is a better choice as Asean’s main language looking at it historically, linguistically and the number of people using it. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: The proposal by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to make Malay the lingua franca of Asean has been shot down by an Indonesian minister, saying that it should be Bahasa Indonesia (BI) as it is the largest language spoken in Southeast Asia.

Indonesian education, culture, research and technology minister Nadiem Makarim said he disagreed with the proposal. The population of Indonesia is 279 million.

“As the minister responsible, I object to the proposal. Such a suggestion needs to be discussed and debated at a regional level before any decision is made,” he told the Indonesian daily Kompas yesterday.

“Looking at it historically and linguistically, BI is a better choice. I urge the entire community to work hand in hand with the government to continue to empower and defend the Indonesian national language.”

Nadiem Makarim.

Ismail had proposed recently that Malaysia and Indonesia work together to uplift the status of the Malay language to make it the Asean language.

He said about 300 million spoke the language which was also used in Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Timor-Leste.

Nadiem said BI is in a better position to be made Asean’s official language as it is not only the largest spoken language in the region, but is also used in 47 countries.

“Besides this, BI is taught as a subject in many universities across Europe, the US, Australia and also prominent colleges in Asia,” he said.

“With these qualities, BI has been acknowledged globally which puts the language ahead of others if Asean were to use a common language at its meetings.”

Meanwhile, the head of the Indonesian language development agency, Endang Aminudin Aziz, said there were many differences between Malay and BI.

He said the “mutual intelligibility” of BI is much wider than Malay, adding that Malay is classified as a “district language spoken in a specific area only”.

“Even then, the Malay spoken by the people in Riau and others have been greatly influenced by BI. Many local words have been absorbed into the Malay they use,” he told the Indonesian news portal Detik.com.

Aminudin said BI is different from Malay as its vocabulary has been enriched by the influence of the Dutch, Portuguese, English, Japanese, French, Turkish and Korean languages, which has resulted in 718 dialects in the country.

“BI is spoken by 279 million people in the country. In addition, there are 80,000 students in various colleges in 40 countries who are learning the language,” he said. - FMT