Editing Indonesian language (section)

=== Indonesian language in Japanese occupation, Old Order, and New Order ===
Once the Japanese overturned Dutch rule, a prohibition on the use of the Dutch language led to an expansion of Indonesian language newspapers and pressure on them to increase the language's wordstock. The Japanese agreed to the establishment of the Komisi Bahasa (Language Commission) in October 1942, formally headed by three Japanese but with a number of prominent Indonesian intellectuals playing the major part in its activities. Soewandi, later to be Minister of Education and Culture, was appointed secretary, Alisjahbana was appointed an 'expert secretary' and other members included the future president and vice-president, Sukarno and Hatta. Journalists, beginning a practice that has continued to the present, did not wait for the ''Komisi Bahasa'' to provide new words, but actively participated themselves in coining terms. Many of the Komisi Bahasa's terms never found public acceptance and after the Japanese period were replaced by the original Dutch forms, including ''jantera'' (Sanskrit for 'wheel'), which temporarily replaced ''mesin'' (machine), ''ketua negara'' (literally 'chairman of state'), which had replaced ''presiden'' (president) and ''kilang'' (meaning 'mill'), which had replaced ''pabrik'' (factory). In a few cases, however, coinings permanently replaced earlier Dutch terms, including ''pajak'' (earlier meaning 'monopoly') instead of ''belasting'' (tax) and ''senam'' (meaning 'exercise') instead of ''gimnastik'' (gymnastics). The Komisi Bahasa is said to have coined more than 7000 terms, although few of these gained common acceptance.<ref name="The Indonesian Language 2004. Page 14" />

[[File:Poster Propaganda Jepang.jpg|left|thumb|[[Propaganda]] posters from [[Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies|Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies]] ]]

The adoption of Indonesian as the country's national language was in contrast to most other post-colonial states. Neither the language with the most native speakers (Javanese) nor the language of the former European colonial power (Dutch) was to be adopted. Instead, a local language with far fewer native speakers than the most widely spoken local language was chosen (nevertheless, Malay was the second most widely spoken language in the colony after Javanese, and had many L2 speakers using it for trade, administration, and education).

In 1945, when Indonesia declared its independence, Indonesian was formally declared the national language,<ref name="uud"/> despite being the native language of only about 5% of the population. In contrast, Javanese and Sundanese were the mother tongues of 42–48% and 15% respectively.<ref name="Kratz">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kratz |first=U. |title=Indonesia: language situation |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics |edition=Second |year=2006 |pages=639–641 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01720-X|chapter=Indonesia * : Language Situation |isbn=9780080448541 }}</ref> The combination of [[nationalism|nationalistic]], [[politics|political]], and [[pragmatism|practical]] concerns ultimately led to the successful adoption of Indonesian as a national language. In 1945, Javanese was easily the most prominent language in Indonesia. It was the native language of nearly half the population, the primary language of politics and [[economics]], and the language of [[court]]ly, [[religion|religious]], and literary tradition.<ref name="Swaan">{{cite book |last1=de Swaan |first1=Abram |title=Words of the World |date=2001 |publisher=Polity |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=978-0745627489 |pages=81–95 }}</ref> What it lacked, however, was the ability to unite the diverse Indonesian population as a whole. With thousands of islands and hundreds of different languages, the newly independent country of Indonesia had to find a national language that could realistically be spoken by the majority of the population and that would not divide the nation by favouring one ethnic group, namely the Javanese, over the others. In 1945, Indonesian was already in widespread use;<ref name=Kratz/> in fact, it had been for roughly a thousand years. Over that long period, Malay, which would later become standardized as Indonesian, was the primary language of [[commerce]] and [[travel]]. It was also the language used for the propagation of [[Islam]] in the 13th to 17th centuries, as well as the language of instruction used by Portuguese and Dutch missionaries attempting to convert the indigenous people to [[Christianity]].<ref name=Swaan/> The combination of these factors meant that the language was already known to some degree by most of the population, and it could be more easily adopted as the national language than perhaps any other. Moreover, it was the language of the sultanate of [[Brunei]] and of future [[Malaysia]], on which [[Greater Indonesia|some Indonesian nationalists had claims]].

Over the first 53 years of [[Proclamation of Indonesian Independence|Indonesian independence]], the country's first two presidents, [[Sukarno]] and [[Suharto]], constantly nurtured the sense of national unity embodied by Indonesian, and the language remains an essential component of Indonesian identity. Through a language planning program that made Indonesian the language of [[politics]], [[education]], and nation-building in general, Indonesian became one of the few success stories of an [[indigenous language]] effectively overtaking that of a country's colonisers to become the ''[[de jure]]'' and ''[[de facto]]'' official language.<ref name="Paauw">{{cite journal|last1=Paauw |first1=Scott|title=One Land, One Nation, One Language: An Analysis of Indonesia's National Language Policy|journal=University of Rochester Working Papers in the Language Sciences|date=2009|volume=5|issue=1|pages=2–16 |url=http://www.rochester.edu/college/cls/assets/pdf/working/Paauw.pdf|access-date=18 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218024007/http://www.rochester.edu/college/cls/assets/pdf/working/Paauw.pdf|archive-date=18 December 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Today, Indonesian continues to function as the language of [[national identity]] as the Congress of Indonesian Youth envisioned, and also serves as the language of education, [[literacy]], [[modernization theory|modernization]], and [[social mobility]].<ref name="Paauw" /> Despite still being a second language to most Indonesians, it is unquestionably the language of the Indonesian nation as a whole, as it has had unrivalled success as a factor in nation-building and the strengthening of Indonesian identity.