"Indonesian and Malay are two languages that could potentially become ASEAN languages," the lecturer at the Unesas Faculty of Language and Letters remarked in Surabaya, East Java, on Friday.
However, he believes that Indonesian is more potent than Malay based on at least four scientific arguments, although the government still needs to conduct diplomacy.
"The four arguments are that Indonesian language has been taught in several countries, can be easily mastered, has a good rate of development, and some of its vocabularies are also part of the languages used in other ASEAN countries," he said.
However, Suhartono pointed out that unlike Malay language spoken by the people in Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, South Thailand, and South Philippines, the distribution of Indonesian language has been uneven.
"Although the distribution of the Indonesian language is uneven, the vocabularies of the language are used in numerous ASEAN countries," he noted.
According to Suhartono, Indonesian language is easily accepted and has long become the medium of communication in the three ASEAN countries of Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, and Malaysia.
"Moreover, Indonesian has been taught in some ASEAN nations in the face of the AEC and also in Japan, Australia, and some other countries," he remarked.
In the meantime, Rector of Unesa Prof. Warsono remarked that he supported the governments efforts to negotiate with ASEAN countries over the use of Indonesian as the language of the ASEAN.
"The Unesa also encourages Indonesian to become the ASEAN language since Malay speakers constitute 60-70 percent of the ASEAN population in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam," he added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
