Majority of Indonesians are polyglot. Born into families speaking local languages that become their mother tongue, learning Indonesian at school, reciting prayers and the holy book in Arabic, and later learning English.

See, Bahasa Indonesia is not our mother tongue. Never.

Sumpah Pemuda 1928 clearly said that Bahasa Indonesia is "the unifying language" and later becomes the national language.

It has done its job well.

You may travel all across Indonesia, meet people from all ethical groups speaking all local languages, and can still communicate.

Bahasa Indonesia is a fascinating language, full of loan words from many languages, still evolving, and is one of the easiest speech language to learn.

For me, preserving Bahasa Indonesia is unique: by letting it evolve, letting it enriched by loan words.

It is the Local Languages that we need to preserve well. Especially if you live in the melting pot we call the capital.

My kids, born and raised in Jakarta Selatan, hasn't got the privilege of knowing the local language as I did.
They're not as lucky as many other Indonesians

While we're at it, those who are blessed and privileged to still be able to actively use local languages, please let the languages live.
Pass them on, let them still be the mother tongue.

Let Bahasa Indonesia be the second language. Our unifying identity.

And why am I tweeting about Bahasa Indonesia in English, you ask?

Bisi teu kaharti lamun ku Basa Sunda.

That's all for this month's #TengahHariTengahBulan.

Oh. Here's a proof that Bahasa Indonesia is a speech language (bahasa tutur) that is very easy to learn. https://twitter.com/A1_Feri/status/1316551581823758336?s=19