Indonesian Language - Official Status

Official Status

The status of Indonesian language is the official language of the Republic of Indonesia, thus its usage is encouraged throughout Indonesia. The Constitution of Indonesia 1945 Chapter XV specifies the flag, official language, coat of arms, and national anthem of Indonesia. The Indonesian law No. 24 year 2009 Chapter III Section 25 to 45 mentioned specifically about Indonesian language status. The function of Indonesian language is as the national identity, national pride, and unifying language among diverse Indonesian ethnic groups, and also serves as a communication vehicle among Indonesian provinces and different regional cultures in Indonesia. The language is used as national official language, the language for education, communication, transaction and trade documentation, used for the development of national culture, science, technology, and mass media in Indonesia. It has become one of the national symbols of Indonesia.

According to Indonesian law, the Indonesian language is the language proclaimed as the unifying language during Sumpah Pemuda in 28 October 1928, developed further to accommodate the dynamics of Indonesian civilization. It was mentioned that the language was based on Riau Malay, though linguists note that this is not the local dialect of Riau, but the Malaccan dialect that was used in the Riau court. Since its conception in 1928 and its official recognition in 1945 Constitution, the Indonesian language has been loaded with nationalist political agenda on unifying Indonesia (former Dutch East Indies). This status has made Indonesian language relatively open to accommodate influences from other Indonesian ethnics' languages, most notably Javanese as the majority ethnic group in Indonesia, and Dutch as the previous colonizer. As a result, Indonesian has wider sources of loanwords, as compared to Malay. It was suggested that the Indonesian language is an artificial language made official in 1928. By artificial it means that Indonesian was designed by academics rather than evolving naturally as most common languages have, in order to accommodate the political purpose of establishing an official unifying language of Indonesia. By borrowing heavily from numerous other languages it expresses a natural linguistic evolution; in fact, it is as natural as the next language, as demonstrated in its exceptional capacity for absorbing foreign vocabulary.

The disparate evolution of Indonesian and Malaysian has led to a rift between the two standards. This has been based more upon political nuance and the history of its standardization than on cultural reasons, and as a result there are asymmetrical views regarding each other's standard among Malaysians and Indonesians. In Malaysia, the national language is Malaysian; in Indonesia, it is Indonesian. The Malaysians tend to assert that Malaysian and Indonesian are merely variants of the same language, while the Indonesians tend to treat them as separate, albeit related, languages. The result of this attitude is that the Indonesians feel little need to harmonize their language with Malaysia and Brunei, whereas the Malaysians are keener to coordinate the evolution of the language with the Indonesians. although the 1972 Indonesian alphabet reform was largely a concession of Dutch-based Indonesian to the English-based spelling of Malaysian.