From grog@lemis.com Thu Jun  2 13:23:36 2005
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 13:23:36 +0930
From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To: minister.downer@dfat.gov.au
Subject: "Bahasa"
Message-ID: <20050602035336.GG35959@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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Dear Mr. Downer,

This morning I heard you comment on the matter of the deplorable
situation at the Indonesian Embassy.  As I recall, when referring to
the note that was left with the parcel, you stated

  "The note was written in bahasa; that is, the Indonesian language."

This is not correct.  I find such an error particularly unfortunate at
a time when Australia's relationship with Indonesia is already
strained.  As you will easily be able to confirm, the official
language of Indonesia is Indonesian (in Indonesian, it is called
"bahasa Indonesia", which translates as "Indonesian language").  Thus,
translated completely into English, your statement would mean

  "The note was written in language; that is, the Indonesian
  language."

To make matters worse, this is not the only language to which such a
mistake could apply.  As you must know, the national language of
Malaysia is called bahasa Malaysia.  Thus your statement would have
been almost equally accurate had you said

  "The note was written in bahasa; that is, the Malaysian language."

Other languages spoken in Malaysia are called bahasa Cina and bahasa
Inggeris.  I am sure that similar considerations apply to Indonesia.
Clearly the use of the word "bahasa" on its own is meaningless and
gives the impression of being ill-informed.

Sincerely,
Greg Lehey
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