Inaugural Address

on

Language, Communication and Conflict in South and Southeast Asia

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Very warm greetings to you all. My sincere thanks to the Asiatic Society and the Department of Linguistics, Calcutta University for inviting me to deliver the inaugural address in this very prestigious and significant two-day international seminar on Language, Communication and Conflict in South and Southeast Asia at the Asiatic Society. I am truly honoured to be here in the seminar.

Societies of South and Southeast Asian countries are not only multilingual but practicing countless religions, beliefs, customs and cultures. Nevertheless, the regions also share common history and heritage. Political, economic, and/or sociological tensions between the various ethnic groups often resulted linguistic conflict which is inevitable. Communication stimulates language. Miscommunication creates communication conflict. Language and communication conflicts are a regular political concerns in the multilingual and multiethnic communities of South and Southeast Asia. I will take this opportunity to discuss briefly Bangladesh-Pakistan language movement between 1948 and 1952 as an example of conflict in South Asia and national language of Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam as a case of conciliation in Southeast Asia.

Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan since 1947 and 56 percent of the population was Bengali. However, when Pakistan disregard the fact and Urdu was made the official language of Pakistan then the Bengali language movement started and eventually turned into the liberation war of Bangladesh. After the bloody civil war in 1971 Bangladesh became an independent state and Bengali become the official language of Bangladesh. We are very happy to state that 21^st February, the Bengali language movement martyrs day has been recognized as the international mother language day by UNESCO in 1999.

Indonesia was a Dutch Colony before World War II. During the independence war, Indonesia was under Japanese occupation. Indonesia became independent in 1945. Dr. Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia (served from 1945-1967), found that no single Indonesian language is accepted by the entire country as its official language. He picked up a group of varieties of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries and named it Bahasa Indonesia before introducing it as the official as well as national language of Indonesia.

Malay kingdoms became independent from British occupation on 31 August 1957 and kept English as their official language. Malay united with North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia. In 1965, Singapore was excluded from the federation. Like Indonesia, Malaysia is also multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country. When Malaysia decided to change over its official language to Malay language then they faced many problems. Malaysia formed a join language commission with Indonesia to formalize their official language. For several years the join commission functioned and developed Bahasa Malaysia as their official language. Bahasa Malaysia is a standard form of the Malay language. Bahasa Malaysia was replaced by Bahasa Melayu between 1986 and 2007. Since Malaysia is composed today of many ethnic groups, the term Bahasa Malaysia has once again become the ideal term for the national language.

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were French colonies. During the World War II, all the three countries came under Japanese occupation. Vietnam became independent in 1945. Following Vietnamese victory in the First Indo-China War that ended in 1954, the nation was divided into two rival states: Communist North under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and anti-communist South, which was virtually an American colony. After prolonged Vietnam War between North and South Vietnam or virtually American vs Russian and Chinese War. The war ended the conflicts with North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Subsequently, American forces had to leave. The Vietnam is united again. National and official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese, an Austroasiatic language with Romanized script.

I am sure this combined effort and lively discussion of the participants of South and Southeast Asia will be productive and bring sustainable peace, prosperity and enhance national reconciliation in these regions.

Thank you very much.

National Professor Dr. Rafiqul Islam

University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh

House 56, Road 4/A (Satmasjid Road)

Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh

Email: rafiqul.islam@ulab.edu.bd