53 intellectuals. This institute should be perceived to reach the vision and the goals
collectively. In running the programs of the Sunda study centre, it is not as easy as to say.
It needs not only many brilliant ideas or many of human resources but also money. In this case LPSS the institute of Sunda study centre have to entangle the
entrepreneurs or conglomerates. Actually this issue is not discussed by Alwasilah. The support from Sundanese conglomerate sponsors is very needed to support the
program of LPSS. If all components of Sundanese, the government bureaucratic elements, intellectuals, and conglomerates support the programs of LPSS
simultaneusly, we are at all convinced that the revitalization of Sundanese cultures and identities will be succeeded.
C. Correcting Mother Tongue Politic
Mother tongue is the language acquired by someone for the first time. It has a great influence to how someone thinks and behaves. Since 1951 UNESCO
recommended mother tongue as a medium of instructional in education Alwasilah, 2006:57. Alwasilah sees that mother tongue should be empowered to support
someone in acquiring the knowledge and sciences. Concerning with the maintaining of a mother tongue, Alwasilah proposes five reasons: 1 realizing the
cultural diversities, 2 preserving the ethnical identities, 3 enabling social adaptability, 4 psychologically adding children security, and 5 improving
sensitivity of linguistics.
Actually, there is no doubt about the importance of a mother tongue for someone life. But sometimes the problem is like what Indonesian proverb says,
“Beans forget at its husk.” Some people especially the youngsters don’t want to speak in their mother tongue. There is a sense that speaking by using mother tongue
is countrified. Dedi Gumelar, an actor and cultural observer, hesitated at Sundanese loyalty to speak in Sunda especially the youngsters Kompas, April 13
th
2005. Many Sundanese youngsters are reluctant to speak Sundanese. They often use
Indonesia with Betawi styles such as “lo and gua” in saying “you and I.” In their mind Sunda is not popular and not so special.
Furthermore, the hesitancy is also stated by Taufikurraman Kompas, 13 April 2005. Taufikurrahman is a chairman of Sunda art and language institute. He said
that he doesn’t listen to Dada Rosada, the lord mayor of Bandung, speaking Sunda language yet. As a public fugure of Sundanese, the lord mayor of Bandung should
be a volunteer in campaigning Sunda Language.
Based on phenomena above, the vitality of a mother tongue is facing many barriers. The vitality means that mother tongue is used in daily communication,
interaction in community and instructional language. What Alwasilah said, that the students at primary school are easy to understand the lessons by using mother
tongue could be right. The students may understand the lessons faster than if it is transferred by using the second language. But, it also may generate a new problem.
The students may be late to acquire Indonesia as national language. Since most of schoolbooks are printed in Indonesia language, the students will face difficulty to
understanding the lesson because they can not understand Indonesia.
Actually, since we have Indonesia as national language and its function as a medium of unifier, we may not widely functioned mother tongue because Indonesia
is more powered than mother tongue. If we push mother tongue to function more than Indonesia, I think this effort is not popular. Mother tongue ethnic language is
54 different from Indonesia language. Historically Indonesia language was formed
from many mother tongues from all over ethnic in Indonesia. In this case mother tongues enrich Indonesia language.
Alwasilah’s idea that mother tongue especially Sunda should be revitalized is a fair matter. What I don’t agree is when the writer equalized Sunda with the Dutch
language. Although the speakers of Sunda are much more than the Dutch, but the level of languages are different. The Dutch is a national language, but Sunda is just
an ethnic language in Indonesia. In other word we can say that a mother tongue should have vitality in its speaker or in the area where the ethnic lives, because the
revitalization of a language should be under its low and destiny.
The number of the origins who speak Sunda based on the data given by Alwasilah is more than 20 million. This number is more or less the same with the
number of Malaysia or Australia population. Alwasilah believes that the number of speakers show the vitality of Sunda language. Actually I have a contrary opinion
about this. Although the number of speakers is much more adequate, but it is not a guaranty that Sunda is save from destruction. The main problem is that the location
of Sundanese is near the capital city of Jakarta. This condition make Sunda face different challenging to preserve comparing with other mother tongue in Indonesia.
The influence of Indonesian Language to Sundaneses seems stronger than to other ethnic in Indonesia.
Discussing the seven strategies to prevent the destruction of Sunda is also interesting. Ideally if the strategies could be implemented collectively, Sunda
language would never totally disappear. The problem is that not all Sundaneses have the same perception about this problem. I believe that Java language has more
vitality than Sunda. Sundaneses view about their mother tongue is different from Javanese. Culturally, Javanese are loyal to speak using their mother tongue. There is
an example that in Suriname where the origins were from Java, but still they speak Java until now. It means that the vitality of a mother tongue does not only depend on
the number of the speakers but also on the perception of the speaker toward the language.
D. Writing Activity in Civil Society
