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<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;font-weight:bold;font-size:16px">Opinion</p>
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<h1 style="font-size:40px;line-height:40px;margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;font-weight:bold">Indigenous language policy <br>as a national cultural <br>strategy </h1>
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Setiono Sugiharto, Jakarta | Opinion | Mon, October 28 2013, 11:00 AM </div>
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</div><p>The Congress on Indonesian Cultural
Strategy, held recently from Oct. 8 to 11 in Yogyakarta, though laudable
in its effort to seek appropriate cultural strategies to counter a
globalist discourse, missed a fundamental issue: the looming threat of
Indonesia’s disappearing local languages. <br><br> It has been estimated
that some 700 local languages are in a moribund state, and that some
169 languages have less than 500 native speakers. This issue should have
become a serious agenda item at the congress, given that local
languages are part of cultural heritages that need to be preserved. <br><br>Various
reasons have been proposed to account for the near-extinction of local
languages spoken in various regions in the country. These causes are,
among other things, inter-ethnic marriage, natural disasters and the
speakers’ attitudes toward other dominant languages that trigger a
language shift. These are all plausible reasons, and some people
consider them as natural phenomena.<br><br>Yet, it is more plausible to
argue that the threat of local language extinction is due to the sheer
absence of minority language policy. With the absence of this policy,
the protection of minority languages amid competition from other
languages cannot be assured.<br><br>We certainly do have a national
language policy, which was created by the then National Center for
Language Development (Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa) in 1986.
However, this policy was and is still being used only as a filter to
find Bahasa Indonesia equivalents of foreign language terminologies,
which at that time were deemed too excessive and threatening to the
survival of the national language, i.e. Bahasa Indonesia. <br><br>It
needs to be highlighted that this policy was created during the
chairmanship of the late arch-demon Anton Moeliono, a noted Indonesian
language expert, who preferred using Bahasa Indonesia and its <br>indigenous languages rather than adopting or nativizing foreign terminologies. <br><br>Although
under this policy local languages are used as a reference in case no
Bahasa Indonesia equivalents are found in substituting foreign
terminologies, the policy doesn’t sufficiently foreground the importance
of using local languages in life domains. Filling in Bahasa Indonesia
with equivalents from foreign languages apparently denigrates the
contribution and values of the country’s indigenous language sources. <br><br>Furthermore,
while admittedly words from local languages have been used as
substitutes for foreign words, the policy is concerned only with a
linguistic element (terminology or lexicon), and ignores other factors
like the sociopolitical contexts in which local languages are spoken as
well as the sociocultural values to which these languages are attached.
Lastly, the policy assumes language use is an ideologically neutral
activity. <br><br>Most troubling from such a policy is the desire for
language unification or language homogeneity through the use of the
national language. The obligatory use of Bahasa Indonesia as a unified
language in the context of education, for example, provides irrefutable
evidence of how language unification has become the goal. <br><br>Clearly,
the excessive promotion of linguistic homogeneity can suppress
linguistic diversity. In fact, there is a prevailing perception today
that linguistic diversity can distort and pose a threat to national
development, while linguistic homogeneity can arouse a feeling of
nationalism necessary for successful nationhood. <br><br>What is often
not realized in the promotion of the national language, especially
through formal education, is that the social, economic and political
interests of those speaking minority languages will eventually be
sidelined.<br><br>Thus, the creation of an indigenous language policy is
vital not only for the maintenance or preservation of language
diversity and the protection of the rights of those speaking minority
languages, but most importantly for national cultural strategies. <br><br>Recent
awareness of supporting minority language speakers has engendered a new
paradigm or framework for thinking upon which the creation of an
indigenous language policy can be based. One such paradigm is called
“the ecology of languages” paradigm. This paradigm has a radically
different orientation from the linguistic homogeneity paradigm. <br><br>The
former stresses the importance of the localization of local language
ideology, respect for linguistic human rights, preservation and
protection of minority languages and advocacy for multilingualism and
multiculturalism.<br><br>As a final note, any language planning
concerning local language policy and use needs to consider this
conceptual framework so as to ensure the democratization of language use
and equality in communication in the context of both national and
global language hegemony. </p><p>_______________</p><p>The writer is an
associate professor at Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta. He is
also chief editor of The Indonesian Journal of English Language
Teaching.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/10/28/indigenous-language-policy-a-national-cultural-strategy.html">http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/10/28/indigenous-language-policy-a-national-cultural-strategy.html</a><br>
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