No-one speaks Indonesia’s language?

by Dr. Uli Kozok

In the article “Why no-one speaks Indonesia’s language” published in BBC Travel, BBC correspondent David Fettling claims that “Bahasa Indonesia has fewer words than most languages.” How does he know? He doesn’t. Instead, he relies on Endy Bayuni of The Jakarta Post, who has argued that foreign translations of Indonesian novels tend to read better, while Indonesian translations of foreign novels sound ‘verbose and repetitive’.

I completely agree with Mr. Endy Bayuni, but this is primarily because Indonesia lacks skilled translators – to my knowledge, no university in Indonesia offers a dedicated program or centre for interpretation and translation studies.

According to Endy Bayuni, “many foreign translations of Indonesian books read much better than their original version because the translators have more words at their disposal.” He continues, “Try reading one of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s books in Indonesian and compare it with its English translation.”

Pramoedya vs. Contemporary Writers

Why does Endy choose Pramoedya as an example and not a classical, or a contemporary writer? Pramoedya wrote his earliest works shortly after World War II, at a time when modern Indonesian was still in its infancy. Pramoedya belonged to a generation where most Indonesians learned Indonesian as a second language. His first language was Javanese, and he only began learning Malay (the precursor to Indonesian) as an adolescent. Nonetheless, Pramoedya was a remarkable writer who significantly contributed to shaping modern Indonesian by breaking away from the elaborate and flowery style of pre-war literature. He deliberately chose to write in straightforward and simple Indonesian.

To be fair, Endy should have referenced a modern writer, such as Ayu Utami, who vividly explores the richness and nuances of the Indonesian language in her novels Saman and Larung.

David Fettling also quotes Dr. Nancy J. Smith-Hefner, associate professor of anthropology at Boston University, who, according to Fettling, claims that “because Indonesians learn Bahasa Indonesia in school, then hear it as adults primarily in political speech, they associate it with homogeneity.”

This is a very antiquated point of view. Indonesian is, of course, the language of instruction in all schools, but what Smith-Hefner implies is that Indonesians grow up with a regional language as their mother tongue and then learn bahasa Indonesia baku (formal Indonesian) in school. This was often, though not universally, true 50 years ago. Today, however, the majority of Indonesians live in ethnically mixed urban areas, where young people typically grow up bilingual. An increasing number of Indonesians now speak only Indonesian and are unable to communicate in any regional language. In 2010, 21.6% of Indonesians reported that they speak exclusively Indonesian at home. [See my article Indonesian Native Speakers – Myth and Reality]

The claim that Indonesians primarily hear Indonesian in political speeches is baseless, as anyone who has lived in Indonesia can attest.

Bahasa Indonesia as a Dynamic Language

Indonesian is a multifaceted language encompassing more than just bahasa Indonesia baku (formal Indonesian). Even this formal register is dynamic, constantly evolving by adopting words from regional languages, Jakarta Malay, classical Malay, Malaysian Malay, and foreign languages.

Fettling also claims that Indonesian is a monolithic language: “Bahasa Indonesia was heavily promoted during the Suharto dictatorship that ruled from the mid-1960s until 1998 and stifled many forms of individual and cultural expression. Because of this, those who speak it risk looking ‘theatrical, bookish or pompous,’ explained Nelly Martin-Anatias of the Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication at the Auckland University of Technology.”

I know Nelly Martin-Anatias well. Before pursuing her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nelly was my teaching assistant at the University of Hawaii during the 2005–2006 academic year. At the same time, I also had a second teaching assistant, Sumi, to teach Malaysian language classes. Before World War II, Indonesian was called Malay, and formal Indonesian and formal Malaysian are essentially the same language (or slightly divergent dialects). However, colloquial Indonesian, heavily influenced by Jakarta Malay, differs significantly from colloquial Malaysian – as distinct as colloquial American and British English.

Indonesian in Context: Formal vs. Colloquial Usage

Nelly, a native Minangkabau speaker who grew up in Jakarta, primarily speaks Jakarta Malay. Sumi, an ethnic Javanese, speaks Kuala Lumpur Malay. When Nelly and Sumi met, they spoke only English to each other, each claiming not to understand the other. They could have easily communicated in standard Indonesian or standard Malaysian but seemed reluctant to use the formal register, as it felt unnatural for casual conversation.

So how can Nelly claim that Indonesian, the only language she knew growing up in Jakarta, is “theatrical, bookish or pompous”? Formal Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia baku), to which Nelly refers, can sound bookish because it is a written language. Speaking in a literary tone feels odd (“theatrical, pompous,” in Nelly’s words) in any language. Bahasa Indonesia baku is rarely used in everyday speech. Instead, it is reserved for formal writing and speeches, with colloquial Indonesian used for casual communication.

Fettling is correct that “Bahasa Indonesia was heavily promoted during the Suharto dictatorship,” but he overlooks that it was also the language of resistance. Indonesian became the language of NGOs opposing resource exploitation, of critical intellectuals, labour activists, lawyers, and the students who overthrew Suharto in 1998.

Every language, including English, has formal and informal registers. Judging a language solely by its formal register, as Fettling does, is unfair.

Fettling seems to argue that “Bahasa Indonesia” refers only to the formal register. This view, popular among conservative circles aiming to preserve “proper” Indonesian, dismisses colloquial influences as ‘slang.’ While some educators and textbooks still cling to this outdated perspective, it is steadily losing ground.

The Language of the Media

Indonesian mass media has long moved beyond bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar (“good and correct Indonesian”), developing a relaxed, innovative form of formal Indonesian.

Fettling also states that “people dissatisfied with Bahasa Indonesia have plenty of options. There are hundreds of regional languages and dialects, sometimes spoken intact, sometimes blended with Bahasa Indonesia.”

What Indonesians do is in fact exactly the opposite of what Fettling claims. The regional languages, even the ones that once had a rich written register such as Javanese, have been downgraded to oral languages with limited capacities. When Indonesians need to convey anything that touches on the sciences, administration, politics, etc, they will revert to Indonesian as the more efficient vehicle to communicate the needs of the modern world.