International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 158

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
Such influences moulded the present Low-Malay language which then was popularly
known as Bahasa Indonesia. The High-Malay language was spoken among the high-rank elite
at the Courts and used in matters pertaining to the Mohammedan religion. The Low Malay
or Pasar was the Market Malay spoken as the everyday language in the community.42 Before
the arrival of the Portuguese, Low-Malay language had become the lingua franca that
united people in South East Asia in the processes of economic transactions in the spice trade.
In the next discussion, the struggle among the three former foreign influences was further
contested by the arrival of the European colonialists represented by the economic pursuits
of the Portuguese and Dutch, in which the British interfered for only five years, from 18111816.
European foreign languages (1602-1942): Dutch disengagement with education for the
Indigenous Indonesia
The sixteenth century marked the arrival of the Portuguese, the first Europeans in Indonesia,
along with their economic pursuits to search for the source of the spice commodity which
previously had been distributed and traded by the Indians, Persians and Chinese to the
European mainland. Portuguese was the third foreign language which influenced Bahasa
Indonesia significantly in the total amount of the loan words. Besides Low-Malay language,
Low Portuguese language was the second lingua franca for the transactional trade in SouthEast Asia in the sixteenth century. High Portuguese language was considered as the
language of Christianity and European literature. The view toward High Portuguese
language was similar to the view of the European toward Latin. This was considered as the
gateway to European culture. High-Portuguese was taught within seminaries which were
built by this first European colonizer. This program encountered great difficulty in areas
densely populated by Muslims. In the areas which were not affected by Islam’s spread, the
Christian missions established strong footholds and remain until today. The Muslim areas
were usually spread throughout coastal areas of Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Celebes
islands. The arrival of the Portuguese with its missionary activities remained in certain
regions which were then consecutively maintained by the Dutch colonizers such as the
Highlands of Batak in Sumatra, the Highland of Toraja and Manado in Celebes, Papua and
areas of Flores and t he Timor islands. The multiethnic East Indies were exploited by the new
colonizer’s imperial policy, divide et empera (divide and conquer). The multiethnic character
of the East Indies was used for political ends in conquering the whole archipelago and the
archipelago’s eventual submission to the Dutch.
The seventeenth century marked the arrival of Dutch in the East India. The Dutch
quest was a quest to win over the spice trade in the East Indies which was formerly under
Portuguese control. Dutch was introduced as the official language of the colonial
government and Portuguese; as well, the Malay language remained the lingua franca. In
1602, VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) had taken over control from the Portuguese except
42

Valentijn 1724, II-1: 244 cited by Groeneboer, Gateway to the West, 25.

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