Taken from the Borneo Post (Sunday, Oct. 22).


KUCHING: Acting consul general of the Consulate General of Indonesia here, Rubaya Talib, is appealing to Malaysians not to call Indonesians "Indons" but Indonesians.

"Please, call us 'Indonesians' and not 'Indons'", he said, adding that 'Indons' did not have any meaning at all.

"It seems very common for Malaysians, including those in Sarawak, to call Indonesians 'Indons' whereas even among Indonesians the word is not familiar at all, more so among us back in our country," Rubaya said.

"Those working here may have to bear with it but, generally, they are not happy with the use of 'Indons' to describe them," he told reporters at the breaking of fast dinner with the local media on Friday.

He said, in fact, many Indonesians, especially intellectuals back home, were also complaining and not happy with the word 'Indon' or 'Indons' because it was not right, therefore, a degradation to Indonesian dignity.

He also wished Malaysians would understand that not all Indonesians were bad people simply because a few were found to have committed crimes.

---

So what do you think? Do you see anything wrong with the term 'Indons'? The term has been around for such a long time that it's quite natural for us Malaysians to refer to our Indonesian brethren as Indons.

I see the usage of the term "Indons" more as a convenient 'shortcut' to the term "Indonesians" than as a deliberate way to degrade Indonesian dignity. But if it upsets the Indonesian people, then I feel that we should stop using the term.

If the term "Indons" was often used as a derogatory term towards Indonesians, I believe its use is inappropriate.

Hmm.. not really actually.. almost everything that related to Indonesian wll be addressed as Indons.. from something bad to something good, the Indons terms have been synonyms to Indonesians..

Personally I tend to use Indos, is that derogatory too?

Indos are fine. Indons are not, makes all of the Indonesians look like maids or TKIs. And for samheisfl, if you think using Indons is fine then we'd better create something worse for you Malaysians.

Did i said that using Indons are better..?
You see, if you come here to Malaysia, everything about indonesia mostly is called indon.. e.g, in our newspaper, the Indonesian's stock exchange is sometimes called Indon Stock Exchange.. it doesn't make you become a maid or TKIs..
And you are most welcome to create something worse for Malaysians.. yeah.. be my guest!!
i ain't supporting the Indon words usage though..

Spot on dude!

Glutony will vouch that we dont use Indons in SG, we usually address them as indonesian - the full name to be honest. And I find a bit ackward to address them as indons...sounds funny

I dunno abt you guys in MY...when you mention indonesian or indon or indos....we always have this mindset that they are rich....haha. Walk into orchard road bro....5 in 10 chinese you see are indonesian.

Hey, I rather called Indonesian "Indons" because it is part malaysian languange not indonesian languange. Pls don't tell us what to called other people. We have our own languange and we just used them. Indon seem fine to me

^it may seem fine to your ears, but it may not seem fine to indonesian's ears.
we do have to tell someone what to call us,, a good name.
you can't call someone with bad name right??
what will you feel if we ,indonesians, call you, malaysians as MALAS sia..
think that..!!

Wow, new name for Malaysian.....

Keep up your stupid work!!!!!

we are gonna call the malays ugly toilet faces!



how about ugly toilet face?? huh u like that?

Tooooo loooooong toooooo remeeeembbeeeer!!!!!!

We should respect their wishes, besides as far as I understand Bahasa Malaysia has only 4 original words, the others were adapted from other languages particularly Bahasa Indonesia, or maybe I am wrong.

There are many instances where calling a race by a name is not acceptable, eg N*gga.

oic. Pls tell me those 4 origanal words?? Thats new claim to me..

I can't remember what they are now but my Bahasa teacher told me way back in Secondary School

nah,, you're mad when we call malaysian with bad names huh??
that's what we feel when you call us "indon"
that means, don't call someone with bad names if you don't wanna be called with bad names.
that's fair.

Sorry, but I think your Bahasa teacher maybe wrong here.

According to wikipedia

"The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, and parts of the coast of Borneo.
It is an official language of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. It is also used as a working language in East Timor. It is very similar to Indonesian, known locally as Bahasa Indonesia, the official language of Indonesia. The official standard for Malay, as agreed upon by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, is the form spoken in the Riau Islands just south of Singapore, long considered the birthplace of the Malay language."

So why Indonesia used Malay languange too instead Javanese or Sundanese or Minangkabau or Balinese???
I just dunno. I believed Bahasa Melayu used as lingua franca dated in Srivijaya times and enrich in Malacca Sultanate Empire.

So it was rather wrong to claim that Bahasa Melayu adapt from Bahasa Indonesian. What is right was Bahasa Melayu was derived language from language spoken from past Malay empire such Malaccan Sultanate and Johor-Riau Empire. And so do bahasa Indonesian

^becoz bahasa melayu is the easiest language in indonesia.
as you know we have more than 500 dialects here.
anyway, we do absorb words from our dialects. something that we can't find in bahasa melayu.

^^^ Lingua franca.
Easier and more famous


no, I never mad with your. Why would I? Ok, let called ya'all Indonesian.

^good boy

Breaking news....
Shorten form of Indonesia names or Indons nowdays widely accepted around the SEAs. Want prove???

Here...
From Philiphine
http://www.news.ops.gov.ph/indo-gambian.ht...ent%20Yudhoyono
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/a...050812top1.html

From Aussie
http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/...rump_indons.htm

From Malaysia
http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/features/MDU0NA.html
and counting....including newspaper

From Indonesia
http://www.media-indonesia.com/message.asp...Kaya&Type=b

From Singapore
http://www.redcross.org.sg/merapi_media170506_938live.htm
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/152856.asp

Interesting.. even the Indonesia's newspaper use the word..

Aduhh Booo Capek Deeeh........................

^ yeah,,, those people are just trying to make sensation, i think.

In Indonesian media....? silly
That's an online discussion forum, anybody (from malaysia I suspect) can type indon like he did.....

Belive me, its not Malaysian intention to degrading Indonesian.. And I suggest all Malaysian forumner must carefully used word "Indon" in the future.

If you say it Malaysian who do that how about this link?


http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=23265

http://www.indonesia.go.id/en/index.php/co...t/view/882/692/

http://www.bkpm.go.id/bkpm/news.php?mode=b...mp;info_id=4759

Company name

http://bpod.bandung.go.id/bisnisdetail.php...id=135911469986

Agreed. You certainly have your own name that u'd like poeple to respect, and not calling u names that u dont like. Respect is the keyword!


And where does this Riau u're talking about?It's in Indonesia!Remember, the mightiest Malay Empire is Srivijaya, and it was a Sumatra-based Empire. The central of Malay culture is in Indonesia, not in Malaysia. We have proves of this. Unless u people could come up with prove that there was a Malay kingdom bigger than Srivijaya, better calm down and respect each other's countries, as we share the same history and culture.

Example

Keling = Kalinga

Malaysians in general like to give name to somebody, not because of disrespect, but just because it make the language merrier.

Example # 1: Abu sells chicken, so naturally, we will call him Mat Ayam.

Example # 2: Abu: Hey Mat, kau orang mana?
Ali : Orang Negri Sembilan
Abu: Ooo, Mat Nogori ye..

The word Indon started as Mat Indon, refering to Indonesian, as it is much easier to pronounce than Indonesia. Bangladeshis are called Mat Bangla. This is in no way to disrespect Indonesians or Bangladeshis. It is just the way we speak, part of the language.

Srivijaya languange was proto Malay, not kind a Malay that we talked rite now...*have to asked Malaccan for this*
Its not Riau only but Johor-Riau dude. Johor first and Riau second...
I only interested to say that the center of Melayu heritege was Malaysia not Indonesia...

^ Modern Malay language was developed by Raja Ali Haji and his assistants in Penyengat Island, which is in the Riau Archipelago province of Indonesia.

No he didn't
he just compiled them...
Modern Malay languange start with writing book of Sejarah Melayu by Tun Sri Lanang
And Others....

kan senang tak kan terasa hina kot...

Orang Indonesia hanya tak suka bila orang Malaysia panggil diaorang Indons. Tapi mereka bangga jika yang panggil tu diorang sendiri atau mat salleh...

Satu lagi... Kenapa bangla cool aje bila panggil diorang bangla???

From ur own words, dude
It is the Bahasa Melayu from Riau Island which is in Indonesia, and it was the Bahasa Melayu of Srivijaya that became the lingua franca...



Oh, we undertand that perfectly!We do the same thing in Indonesia, like "Mat Solar". But if the person doesn't like it, wouldn't it be nice if stop calling them that way?

^ That's true, modern Malay language came from Riau Islands, while proto-Malay came from Palembang. Both of which is in Indonesia. It is clear the cradle of Malay culture is Indonesia, not Malaysia.

I didn't intend to start a fight, though. Both Indonesia and Malaysia share the Malay culture. Let's just respect each other, okay!Peace, betong!

mas....why indonesian generally perceived that "indon" word is insulting? I am quite confused as there was never in any case in my experience over the years dealing with indonesian that I have heard people saying to me that its insulting when we call or use the word indon. But there is growing tendency of indonesian having a negative feeling towards malaysian generally in the height of certain events that happens between the 2 countries. But I am glad that people could still tolerate and separate these events and not over generalising that everyone is the same.

Peace to you too....

Whatever dude... The real name for bahasa Indonesian should be bahasa Melayu though.....
Indonesia was new name.... And bahasa Indonesian not pure anymore. Pure Malay languange, like the one existing in classical Malay literature, such as, the romance (hikayat) and various traditional forms of poetry, like the pantun, and the shair. Indonesians do not accept the classical works as Indonesian, because to them these belonged to a different world and a different age. The creator of this high quality literature are Malay, and what is Malay is not Indonesian. And this was the major factor the lack of interest among Indonesians for real Malay literature , song or anything from Malaysia.

or maybe they just hate the word "Melayu" and Malaysia. The name Malaysia or Melayu appears to bring out a particular perception among Indonesians, specifically the educated ones. It gives them the pejorative idea of well progress nation but old-fashioned and coming from the upstream region. So the real mean for bahasa indonesian was a language in its own right although it had its foundation in the Malay language.

no...that's not the story,,nama Indonesia was given by someone named i forget (Mas Pur,,can you help me with this?? )
but, it's abovious that Indonesia is ued not becoz we hate the word Melayu or Malaysia.
and Indonesia is part of Malay,,
and we are not interested wth malaysia song, becoz Indonesian song is much better

setuju!

^^^Clearly shows me "what is Malay not Indonesians" atitude...

an indonesian friend of mine who is working in japan,
once mention to me,
that its interesting,malaysian are listening more to indonesian songs rather than malaysian songs,
considering years ago,when the band "search" and "wings" of malaysia were at their heights
indonesian prefer malaysian songs rather than theirs.

anyway to him,this indon thinggy is just another shortform,no biggie,if indo is used,it might just bring the meaning indians(india not american)...as the japanese calls india..indo.

Malaysian songs are always so stuck-in-the-heavy-metal-mode.

Indo songs are evolving. They got jazz, grunge and dangdut.

Actually, I dunno wtf I am talking about... I'll stfu.

Yes, maybe Malaysian song doesn't evolving as fast as Indonesian did but we still have a few quality band too which certainly doesn't get any attention from Indonesian because they are Malaysian and if they are Malaysian they can't be better than Indonesian band...

I agree with you for now Indonesian song are more creative and dynamic from Malaysia and Malaysian accept them better than the accept use... Because Malaysian very nice towards others....

you should ask you malaysian fellow too then about why they prefer listen indonesian song to malaysian's

They don't actually prefer Indonesian song but they also listen Indonesian song... For some reason that I already mention...
here in Malaysia our artist always complain that Indonesian music industry didn't even given a chance to Malaysian artist to go there....

Didn't given a chance or didn't qualified.....?
That's two different concept maan......