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On Oct. 28, 1928, a group of young nationalists decreed the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge), which proclaimed that as the sons and daughters of Indonesia, they would recognize one motherland and one nation, and also respect one language.

Today, I want to examine the fate of the pledge’s third article, 81 years since its inception. The question is, “Do we still respect the language of unity, Bahasa Indonesia?”

The simple answer would be “no.” Let’s take a look at how our language has succumbed to five external and internal influences.

From the cultural arena, Indonesians have avidly embraced Americanisms. We drink Starbucks, eat McDonald’s, use iPods and sport Nike sneakers. We read New York Times’ best sellers, listen to the likes of Jason Mraz and Jay-Z, and watch Hollywood blockbusters.

The English language has inevitably infiltrated young Indonesians’ daily conversation. There are some who occasionally let slip phrases such as “Oh my God” and “What the hell?” Then there are people who speak bahasa gado-gado (mixed slang), saying things like “Are you sure? Masa sih? [Really?]” or “I don’t know, emang kenapa ? [Why?]” And others who speak English consistently, regardless of their proficiency.

In the business world, more and more Indonesians are learning Chinese. China’s political and economic ascendancy to the world stage challenges America’s long dominance. Many Indonesians believe that China will one day supplant America as the leading business player.

As such, there has been an increasing exodus of Indonesian students traveling to either Beijing or Shanghai to master the language for future business purposes, expanding their vocabulary beyond just “xie xie” (“thank you”) and “wo ai ni” (“I love you”).

Thanks to technology, there has been a rapid growth in online chatting lingo. The advent of instant messaging is something that Indonesians have religiously embraced.

One linguistic trend that has developed is the acronym-laden chatting language. It used to start with things like BRB (be right back), TTYL (talk to you later) and LOL (laugh out loud). And now we’ve reached ROFLMAOWTIME (rolling on floor laughing my ass off with tears in my eyes).

We all use it, whether on our BlackBerry, Yahoo messenger or Facebook walls.

Somewhat related to this is the specialized language of the SMS. Due to its cheap and instant features, our obsession with SMS is on par with our addiction to white rice. In this area, the lingo is derived from money-saving abbreviations, as one SMS is limited by the number of words and a one letter overflow means the user must pay for a second SMS.

Consequently, words like banget (very), kepada (to) and dapat (get) become bgt, kpd and dpt. A sentence comprising 10 words can be turned into one that has just 10 letters.

These four areas are what I consider to be external factors. The fifth is derived from Indonesians themselves.

First of all, Indonesian is a language where informal is formal. We never use formal language in our daily conversation. We say gue , ngga and ngapain in lieu of saya (me), tidak (no) and untuk apa? (for what?). Ironically, we laugh at those foreigners who try to learn the correct form of the language.

Second, we adopt foreign language like it’s a sin not to. The Indonesian lexicon has been expanded, whether officially or not, with new words borrowed from the supposedly more sophisticated English language, such as devastasi , glorifikasi and signifikansi .

Lastly, the Indonesian language has always been influenced by the power of slang. As if each and every person in Indonesia has the right to add to the vocabulary, words like gokil (crazy), bete (bad mood) and curhat (heart-to-heart talk) are being incorporated into the language.

Based on these facts, should we therefore conclude that Indonesians are no longer menjunjung tinggi , or respecting, the language?

One camp would say this is a classic case of cultural deterioration, where the authenticity of the Indonesian language has been defeated by the aforementioned factors. Another would say that this is an inevitable cultural process of adaptation shaped by forces of modernization and globalization.

I am not so concerned about this. More than anything, language should be seen as a medium of communication, ALAYGWITTSR? (as long as you get what I’m trying to say, right?). Xie xie!