the national language plays important functions in politics and culture in both malaysia and indonesia. in this case, the blanket cultural hegemony that "science" seeks to exercise falters in the face of discourses of national survival and identity. here domestic academics experience a clash of cultures between the demands of authoritarian scientific culture and the scholar's ethnic self identity under the umbrella of the national myth. 

personally, i'm much more uncomfortable with retention of the orientalist, indo-european, german-created name for indonesia than with the emotions surrounding naming rights to a shared language.

tim



________________________________________
From: Indonesian language list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ryan Albrey [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, 14 May 2010 7:53 p.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: BAHASA Digest - 12 May 2010 to 13 May 2010 (#2010-20)

Does anybody think as I do that often the distinction between Bahasa
Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu (or Malaysia) is more about politics than
linguistics? To what extent is it the opposition (from polemicists and
nationalists) to the notion that Malaysia and Indonesia have an
enormous amount of culture in common that keeps the 2 "languages"
separate?

Clearly there have always been problems in the Indonesian-Malaysia
bilateral relationship. Not that I have any research to prove my
point, but it seems to me that one of the barriers to a correct
umbrella term for the language spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia is the
opposition such a term would find from certain quarters in both
countries. Not from linguists but from anti-Malaysian Indonesians and
vice versa.

Wikipedia is a good case-study. There is a Malaysian Wikipedia and an
Indonesian Wikipedia both of which seem to use very similar language.
Why is it not one unified Wikimedia? Because, I suspect, no self
respecting Malaysian would contribute to the Indonesian Wikipedia and
vice versa.

Ryan