80 years ago, On 28
October 1928, there was second youth national congress held in Jakarta and attended
by youth national movement delegations. At that time, our founding fathers discussed the
future of the nation including national language that would be used when
Indonesia is proclaimed. At the end of the congress, youth pledge, known as
Sumpah Pemuda which consists of three ideals, was declared, one of
which was:
“We, the sons and
daughters of Indonesia, Vow to uphold the nation’s language unity, Indonesian”
The famous oath that
later would be known as one of the most decisive pre-proclamation consensus
that helped and accelerated Indonesian in building Indonesia
My name is Rahmat
Ariza Putra, Proudly present:
“Building
and Uniting Indonesia through National Language”
Currently, Instead of
speaking Bahasa in daily basis, many Indonesian teenagers employ bahasa gaul as
their language regularly. It happened due to the fact that they do not know the
history and importance of bahasa Indonesia as they are surrounded and attracted
to pop culture which promotes bahasa gaul, such us ciyus, miapa, kzl,
cemungudh, spread through movie, music, talk show, and others. As time goes by,
if it is not treated correctly, this phenomenon will be a serious threat for
bahasa Indonesia which was selected to accompany our nation civilization
As i said before,
disseminating the history of bahasa Indonesia and the reason why it is very substantial
for developing Indonesia to the teenagers seem to be a prominent solution in
bringing the national language back to our young generation so that they are
able to build Indonesia appropriately and rapidly
Back to era before Independence
day, according to Paauw 2003, The Malay language, the ancestor of bahasa
Indonesia, had already served as a lingua franca in much of the archipelago and
used for communication between ethnic groups and even became the native
language in some of the trade centers of the eastern islands such as Ambon,
Manado and Kupang.
In the 19th century,
the Malay was continually utilized in indigenous schools and newspapers, many
of which promoted the spirit of nationality and independency. After the
declaration of Youth Pledge in 1928, nationalists introduced Bahasa Indonesia
which later became widely engaged in various remarkable events lead to the
proclamation of independence of Indonesia.
From such history, there
were lessons we can learn that Bahasa had advantages and functions which bahasa
gaul did not. It had served as a building and uniting language even before
Indonesia was proclaimed. It united our nation because every single elements of
our nation in that era had used it to communicate with their counterparts who
came from varied backgrounds but together fought for the same Indonesia. In
short, bahasa determined national identity since they knew that whoever spoke
Bahasa was their brother. Also, it built Indonesia as it was employed in proclamation
text, state speeches, education, government administrations, constitutions,
newspapers which then governed the future of Indonesia.
After all if bahasa has
been successfully building and uniting Indonesia till now, it can also do
identical success in the future as long as our next generations, who will be
future leader of Indonesia, continue to employ a well-adapted national language
which has been called by many linguistic experts as a success miraculous development
policy. In contrast, if they are distracted from the straight path in building
and uniting nation through bahasa Indonesia because of bahasa gaul which is not
perceived and adapted by all nation elements, not only development will
decelerate but may also our unity will be broken.
So please employ the one and
only building and uniting national language named Bahasa Indonesia in either
formal situation or not to avoid the problems we are afraid of from the use of
bahasa gaul.
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