My Language
On October 28, 1928, a group of young men daringly chose ‘bahasa Indonesia’—the new name that transgressed boundaries of ‘bahasa Melayu’—as the unifying language. At that moment, they showed the power of hybridity.
Goenawan Mohamad
October 31, 2022
THE Indonesian language has no clear base nor sure origins—and I am thankful for that. Probably we do not need to know, nor will ever know, when the language was born. Maybe it is continually reborn. What is clear is that this was not on October 28, 1928.
There is a quatrain that goes like this:
Dunia ini pang mantaganta
Ibarat Noraka pakkasiatta
Hidup tersiksa ri tomo butta
Terombang-ambing ri jene matta
...