Language Research

CHINESE

The Indonesian Chinese community has been intentionally targeted in numerous riots that swept across the archipelago through May of 1998. Anti Chinese discrimination dates back to the Dutch colonial period, but the process of a systematic campaign against ethnic Chinese Indonesian citizens became particularly blatant after Suharto's rise to power in 1967 on the pretext of suppressing a suspected communist coup.

More than twenty discriminatory laws and regulations pertaining to the Chinese minority are still in force in Indonesia. All ethnic Chinese are obliged to take “Indonesian” names. Furthermore, ethnic Chinese Indonesians must carry a special code on their identity cards or passports identifying them as ethnic Chinese and are additionally charged when applying for a company licenses, passports, legal papers and other documents.

EAST TIMOR

East Timor is considered to be multilingual due to the Portuguese, Indonesian, Tetum, English and indigenous local languages spoken there.

The Portuguese established their outpost in East Timor in the 15th century to gain control of the spice trade. The Dutch followed them and the contest for the power over the territory lasted for 300 years. Ultimately, the country was divided into two parts and East Timor remained a Portuguese colony until 1975, when it became independent. In December of 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor and declared that East Timor “had decided” to integrate with Indonesia. Since 1976, therefore, East Timor has become the 27th Indonesian province.

Linguistically, there are twelve mutually unintelligible indigenous languages. These include four Austronesian (Tetum, Galoli, Mambai, Tokodede) and eight non-Austronesian (Bunak, Kemak, Makassai, Dagada, Idate, Kairui, Nidiki, Baikenu), which can be further subdivided into 35 dialects and sub-dialects. Tetum, spoken in New Zealand, Taiwan, Madagascar and the Easter Island, acts as a lingua franca among the Timorese population. It has between 300,000 and 400,000 native speakers. The Indonesian government, incidentally, while formally acknowledging the existence of twelve Timorese languages, liked to talk about them as “dialects”, which in turn denigrated their status as autonomous languages.

Each of the four main languages has their own supporters. Bahasa Indonesian and English is the choice mainly among young people, who were educated in the Indonesian school system. Portuguese, the language of the freedom fighters is spoken by the older generation. The elite speak all four languages and the common people speak Tetum and Indonesian. There is currently an argument as to which should be the official language; Bahasa Indonesian, the language of the latest invaders, or Portuguese, spoken by only 10% of the population. Regarding Tetum, as an indigenous language it should be the official language. However, further study and work is needed to turn the long neglected language into a fully developed means of communication, in both the spoken and written forms.

On December 30, 1999 the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) declared that Portuguese would be used in government, commerce, bureaucracy and education ahead of the Bahasa Indonesian and English languages. Student activists have suggested English as a politically neutral choice with obvious economic benefits.

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