We Must Be Proud That Indonesian Language Is Officially Used At The UNESCO General Session

Indonesian language was successfully established as the official language at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, France, Monday (20/11/2023). (Between/HO-UNESCO)

JAKARTA Proud news for Indonesia to come from Paris, France, after the Indonesian language was established as official language or official language for the General Assembly of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

This decision was contained in the 42 C/28 Resolution during the 42nd UNESCO Conference Plenary session at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Monday (20/11/2023).

There are many positive impacts on Indonesia after the Indonesian language was used as the official language for the UNESCO General Assembly, one of which was Indonesia being'more known' in the international arena.

Kabar Gembira untuk Masyarakat Indonesia👏 Halo, #SahabatBahasa dan #SahabatDikbud! Bahasa Indonesia sudah menjadi bahasa resmi dalam sidang umum UNESCO, lo! Yuk, simak alasan bahasa Indonesia disetujui menjadi bahasa resmi dalam sidang umum UNESCO. 🤗 pic.twitter.com/teJcNtaCc1

— Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa (@BadanBahasa) November 21, 2023

Good News For Indonesian People 'Hello, #Language Friends And #SahabatDikbud! Indonesian has become the official language at the UNESCO general assembly, lo! Come on, see the reasons why Indonesian is agreed to be the official language at the UNESCO general assembly. pic.twitter.com/teJcNtaCc1

Since 1945, the United Nations has used only a few languages as an introduction to their activities. English, French, Russian, Mandarin, and Arabic are the official languages used by the United Nations.

The area of use of the six languages in the world is a consideration of why these languages are used as introductory languages, especially after World War I.

Apart from the six languages, there are other languages recognized by UNESCO as international, although they are not listed as the official UN language. The languages are Hindi, Italian, Portuguese and finally Indonesian.

Does the fact that Indonesian is the official language at the UNESCO general conference have an important meaning?

Iwa Lukmana said as Head of the Language Strengthening and Empowerment Center, in an organization that consists of many countries, the use of languages is divided into two, namely working language and official language.

Working language is a language that is given legal status in an organization that consists of many nations as the main means of communication. According to Iwa, the working language used at UNESCO is English and French.

"Indonesian is the official language for the UNESCO General Assembly, meaning we have an obligation to discuss the documents, constitution, articles and documents they recommend, or documents that we think are important to translate into our language," explained Iwa during a conversation with VOI.

"In addition, any of our officials can also use Indonesian which will be discussed in one of the other official languages," Iwa added.

On the same occasion, Iwa said that this was the realization of Law Number 24 of 2009 concerning the Flag, Language, and State Emblem, as well as the National Anthem, which states that the Government is increasing the function of Indonesian language into international language in stages, systematically, and sustainably.

For Iwa, this is also the inauguration of the Indonesian language so that he gets international recognition, after previously being busy about Malaysia's desire to make Malay as one of the official ASEAN languages.

At that time, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that the Malay language was said to be 300 million ASEAN residents from Indonesia to Cambodia.

"With this incident, the name Indonesian language is getting stronger by getting international recognition," said Iwa again.

Quoting the website of the Kemendikbudristek Language Agency, Ambassador Mohamad Oemar, the Indonesian Permanent Delegation for UNESCO said Indonesian has more than 275 million speakers and at least 150 thousand foreign speakers at this time.

By becoming the official language of the UNESCO General Assembly, Iwa hopes that this will be a motivation to intensify Indonesian languages abroad so that it has the potential to increase the number of foreign speakers in Indonesian.

"We never stop disseminating Indonesian. Hopefully the number of foreign speakers will increase, either directly or indirectly," explained Iwa.

Iwa added that when the Indonesian language rose to become the official language at the UNESCO General Assembly, it would affect the appearance of Indonesian countries in Indonesia. According to him, Indonesia is a big country but is often 'not visible' in the eyes of the world.

Hopefully this can boost so that when Indonesia is better known, the effect will be everywhere, including economy, culture, and others, Iwa ends.

The same thing was also expressed by Indonesian activist Ivan Lanin. Not only feeling proud, he also believes that the choice of Indonesian as the official language of the UNESCO General Assembly will increase the interest of foreigners to learn Indonesian.

"I don't have a special opinion other than being proud. The impact is that the Indonesian language prestige is increasing," said Ivan Lanin.

"The interest of foreigners to learn our language may also increase. Most importantly, our pride in our own language should also increase," said Ivan again.