Malaysia and Indonesia have a common language but we speak a different lingo altogether, thus once in a while a war of words breaks out between the two Nusantara, or Malay archipelago neighbours.

The current verbal spat is about the worst since Soekarno’s “Konfrontasi” in the 1960s. Imagine of late our Indonesian brothers are so angry they have even nicknamed Malaysia "Malingsia" with “maling” meaning thief in Bahasa Indonesia in response to our alleged theft of the Rasa Sayang tune for our tourist promotion and re-branding other cultural products like the batik and reog dance as our own.

The media bashing across the sea was so bad that Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin appealed to the Indonesian press for fair play.

In this atmosphere it is a refreshing change that Indonesian President President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, or SBY as he is popularly known, flew in with an unprecedented 150-men entourage for bilateral talks with his counterpart Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi over the weekend.

A result of this visit is that Pak Lah agreed to a suggestion by SBY to set up a joint eminent persons group with seven members from each country, in order to overcome the problems that often crop up between the two countries particularly in the areas of economy, culture and religion.

The frequent war of words between the two Nusantara countries quite often is triggered off by a wrong choice of words or careless or even politically incorrect speech. Take the word “Indon”, which we contracted to mean Indonesian. This often sounds derogative and perhaps it is meant to be when we put the blame for snatch thieves and the rising crime in Malaysia on “Indons.”

Kartini, a family friend of mine who is married to a Malaysian and has been living here for the past 30years, fails to be amazed how much and how often her fellow Indonesians have been maligned by people here for no rhyme or reason.

Although we speak the same language, quite often we understand the same words to mean different things. I remember taking an Indonesian couple who have been relocated to Malaysia by their company shopping. The wife spotted a sign that says: “beli satu, percuma satu,” our famous buy-one-get-one-free tagline. She was confounded why anyone would buy something only to get another which is useless or of no value. That’s precisely what the word “percuma” means Indonesians although we have always understood it to mean free of charge. The “Indon” word for it is “gratis,” their language being Dutch influenced.

Once I was in Jakarta and wanted to go to the “farmasi” to get some prescription but I was directed to an “apotik.” I wanted to buy a newspaper but they told me to get a ”koran” instead only to find out later that a newspaper is also known by the same term as their Holy Book. I was beginning to get “keliru” but they were even more “bingung” over my confusion.

According Dr Daud Soesilo, a linguist and the regional translation coordinator of the United Bible Societies, “The most subtle problem for average Malaysians to read Indonesian text is that often the same word is used in Indonesian and Malay but with completely different meanings.”

“Similarly, average Indonesians will read words in the Malay Bible with the more usual Indonesian sense, such as ‘banci’ (census) in Luke’s Gospel 2:1-2 will be understood by average Indonesians as ‘transvestite’, for the Indonesian equivalent is ‘sensus.’

The Malay word “memansuhkan” (nullify) in Romans 3:31 is meaningless to the ordinary Indonesian reader, Soesilo pointed out.

Another instance is the word “slave” in Job 7:2, where the word “budak” is used in Indonesia but over here it means “child.”

Even when it comes to money matters we say it differently. What is “wang” to us is “uang” to them. However, for the hundreds of thousands of Indonesians living and working in Malaysia illegally here, the difference in lexical forms makes no difference to their daily grind.

They have to bribe their way here, upon arrival they have to bribe in order to remain. And when it’s time for them to return for Hari Raya they have again to bribe their way back, this time by buying new passports, illegal of ocurse, from the Indonesian Embassy here. According to a report by The Jakarta Post recently, a former Indonesian ambassador was found guilty of embezzling millions in immigration fees while another is alleged to have raked in up to RM40,000 a month related to unauthorised immigration fees.

For the mass of Indonesians in Malaysia, the only language they understand is that of oppression and exploitation not only by bad employers and unscrupulous employment agencies, but by corrupt officials and underworld elements both here and in Indonesia.

The occasional war of words over a song or a dance or some other cultural claims between the two countries is but a manifestation of the inhumane treatment of the migrant Indonesian population in Malaysia. Their only crime is that they came here to eke out an honest living because they couldn’t find one at home.

Now that an eminent persons body has been proposed to look into the spat between Indonesia and Malaysia, they should perhaps begin by working out a fair deal for the migrant workers. Let’s start by giving Indonesian maids and construction workers one rest day a week. This is not even a language of compassion. It’s the basic language of human rights. (By BOB TEOH/ MySinchew)