RETRIEVING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL HISTORY OF INDONESIAN

Abstract

This paper deals with historical facts on the use of Malay before it was renamed as Bahasa Indonesia. Its early development reflects the successful attempt of language planning activities done by some socio-political activists. Its socio-political history proves that the activities of language planning cannot escape from policies made by socio-political activists. The case is the same as any attempt of language maintenance. It is not a matter of linguistics alone. To make language maintenance successful, sociolinguists should seriously make good policies to be politically carried out in appropriate linguistic domains.