Bahasa Indonesia as a UN official language?

Yes, why not?

And I am proposing this as a means to promote moderate Islam - to everyone's benefit.

Prior to the execution of Tibo, Riwu and da Silva, the telephones in my division rang inexhaustedly. The callers questioned, begged, cursed, gave sermons -- different ways and expresions for one purpose: that the execution be stopped, and the three defendants be given amnesty. One conversation, though, still left an impression on me. That is when I tried to explain the difference between "Islam in Indonesia" and "the radical Islam."

"You may see that those 'stereotypes' about a Muslim society don't apply in Indonesia," I answered him. "For instance, we already had a female President, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, and more Christian holidays than in the United States!"

I can't remember other things that I told him, but obviously he was so taken that he asked: "Why don't the moderate Indonesian Muslims speak out?". To which I replied, "They did. Only they were not quoted by the American media!"

He agreed that it is indeed one of the core problems: the lack of media attention to the voice of the moderate majority.

I was reminded to the dialogue when I read this article, written by a Reuter's correspondent, and later another article published in The Jakarta Post, by an Indonesian Muslim scholar. Both underline the need of the moderate Muslim population in Southeast Asia (Indonesia in particular) spreading out their progressive approach in translating the Islamic teachings into daily life. This will have dual advantages: the changing perspective AND attitude towards the Muslim society, and the catalyst for moderacy AND democracy in the more "conservative" Muslim nations.

Unfortunately, as Jonathan Lyons captions, there is this language barrier: many of the moderacy proponents don't speak English. Let alone WRITE in English, in proper grammar.

While an abundance of sources to improve English fluency are available everywhere, including here *hi Edsye!*, perhaps another thing that we can do at the same time is proposing Bahasa Indonesia as a UN official language.

This way, while we expedite the process of spreading the moderate views on Islamic teachings embraced by the people in the Malay-speaking zone of Southeast Asia, we will also get more gains, such as:
1. Less time for our delegation's preparations in UN-related conferences and meetings -- we won't have to translate policy documents!;
2. We don't have to worry about our president's (or other high dignitary's) pronounciation when he/she is delivering his/her speech;
3. Pride, folks, pride!
4. Etcetera (I can't think of one, now *confession mode on*).

But of course, there is the not-so alluring prospect of having Bahasa Indonesia as a UN official language, like, we will probably not be able to say something nasty on their face (or, worse, on their back), as more and more people are learning Bahasa Indonesia. When a TV station airs a scene in which a group of people shouting insults, or insensible action plans ("Sweep out all Westerners from our country!", "Kill the infidels!"), we can't say that, "Well, they are not really happy about a situation here, but they are understanding..."

And there will be more parliament members getting disturbed when they visit a country and Bahasa Indonesia is not even recognized by their counterparts (or whomever they meet there) -- and demand that the respective country's government do something to increase the usage of Bahasa Indonesia in that country. After all, Bahasa Indonesia IS an international language, right?

Now that we come to that point, I guess it's not a brilliant idea after all. Let's just send the moderates to English courses, and the radicals to obedient schools.