Jennifer Lindsay*
*) Yogyakarta- and Sydney-based writer

ON the train in Singapore, where announcements are given in four languages, passengers are told to take care when they alight from the train and to make way for children and the elderly. The Malay phrase for 'children and the elderly' is 'anak-anak dan orang tua'. The words 'orang tua' do literally mean 'old person/people', but in Indonesian Malay, 'orang tua' is used for 'parents'. So, to an Indonesian-t