NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 18 — Indonesia’s experience of forging national unity from hundreds of ethnic groups, languages and religious communities offers lessons for Kenya and other African countries grappling with the challenge of building cohesive nations, Indonesian Ambassador to Kenya Witjaksono Adji has said.

📻 Breaking It Down

Speaking after the Indonesian Embassy’s flag-raising ceremony in Nairobi to mark Indonesia’s 81st Independence Day, Adji said Indonesia’s greatest achievement since gaining independence was not simply its economic development but its ability to keep a highly diverse population together.

“I think the biggest achievement is not the development that we have been able to achieve. I think the bigger picture is the ability to keep us together so that we can develop together,” Adji said.

Indonesia declared independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945, but Adji said the foundation for its national identity had been laid much earlier, when young people from different parts of the archipelago began imagining themselves as one nation.

📌 What You Need to Know

He pointed to 1928, when Indonesian youths from different ethnic and linguistic communities came together and pledged allegiance to one nation, one territory and one language.

At the time, Indonesia was home to hundreds of languages and numerous ethnic communities spread across a vast archipelago.

Adji said one of the important decisions made during Indonesia’s nation-building process was the adoption of Bahasa Indonesia as the national language.

Rather than selecting the language of the largest ethnic group, the founders opted for a relatively smaller language that was widely understood among traders across the archipelago.

The decision helped avoid competition between dominant ethnic communities and gave Indonesians a common means of communication.

“They chose a minority language which is easy, which then became what we call the national language and we call it Bahasa Indonesia,” Adji said.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya