Govt Responds to Malaysia's Protest over UNESCO Declaring Indonesian as its Official Language

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The head of the language and literature development center at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbud) Abdul Khak responded to the issue of Malaysia disagreeing with UNESCO's decision to declare Bahasa Indonesia, or the Indonesian language, as the official language of UNESCO.

Some Malaysians commented on President Joko Widodo's post concerning UNESCO's decision, saying that instead of Indonesian, the Malay language should have been the one officiated. According to them, the Indonesian people also speak Malay.

On the other hand, Khak believed that the notion of the Indonesian language as a part of the Malay language is not exactly true. Bahasa Indonesia is a national language while Bahasa Malayu, or the Malay Language, is considered a regional dialect in Indonesia.

"According to the Indonesian people, the Malay language is a regional dialect that spread across the country," Khak remarked.

"Malaysia was not involved in the process of submitting the Indonesian language as an [official] language of UNESCO. And we did submit the Indonesian language, not the Malay language," Khak said in a discussion held virtually on Wednesday, Dec. 27.

Furthermore, the claim of the Malaysian PM stating that President Jokowi's endorsement of the Malay language as the official language of ASEAN was untrue. Khak stressed that Indonesia continues to submit the Indonesian language as the official language of ASEAN. 

ANTARA

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