Have
you heard or got about information that deaf people have not been accessed the
education due to language access? Could you imagine that we have not a
language? How is Deaf people’s future? These questions might be addressed to
people whom unaware about deaf issues and situation recently. In specific, sign
language is important for Deaf children’s development in education. From thesis
which was written by Silva Isma with topic SIGNING
VARIETIES IN JAKARTA AND YOGYAKARTA: DIALECTS OR SEPARATE LANGUAGES? that
deaf educational is one of the strongest factors contributing to the sign
language use patterns in Deaf communities and the relations among sign
languages (Woodward 1976, 1993a, Hoyer 2004, Padden 2011). In addition, there
are plenty of researches that sign language is a foundation to support deaf
children for acquiring language as hearing children.
Since
independence of Indonesia in 1945, Indonesian government has not been ratified
the Indonesian Sign Language or called “BISINDO”
which was introduced by GERKATIN ((Indonesia Association for the Welfare for
the Deaf). “The Deaf have formed an organization called Gerkatin, an acronym
for “Gerakan untuk Kesejahteraan Tunarungu Indonesia” meaning “Movement for the
Welfare of the Indonesian Deaf” and this organization has spread to many of the
provinces of Indonesia and its members promote the welfare of the Deaf by
having lectures, sports, sewing classes, computer classes and other activities
for them. Sometimes they are able to assist the Deaf in finding work.” (M.
Hurlbut,2014) For this reason, there is
a sign language which was introduced by SIBI team in 1995. However, this SIBI
or Sign language system is not applied in order to develop deaf students’ to
accomplish their goals. Other hands, BISINDO is still progress which remains
used in two cities around Indonesia such as Jakarta and Yogyakarta. There are explanation of difference between
BISINDO and SIBI.
Firstly,
BISINDO is abbreviation which retrieved from Indonesian Sign Language or Bahasa
Isyarat Indonesia in Indonesian language. The definition of BISINDO is Indonesian Sign
Language for deaf people and also “BISINDO stands for Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia
(Indonesian Sign Language), which is the natural language of the Indonesian
deaf.” (Effendi, 2014) Also, she mentioned that BISINDO is understandable and
it is similar with slang. Somehow, she also elaborated that BISINDO is a
universal language which is need to be discussed. Hence, there are variation of
BISINDO in around Indonesia.
In
addition, BISINDO is a developing language which is limited researches. Since
GERKATIN was established in 1981, there are few researches. As comparing,
developing countries such as United States and United Kingdom has published
many researches which concerns with sign language issues. It explained by Nick Palfreyman (2011) that, “There
has been no research so far into the nature and extent of variation in the sign
language used by different deaf communities.” For this reason, BISINDO has not
been considered by Indonesian government as official language due to lack of
proofs of researches about advantage of itself.
Secondly,
SIBI is another of sign language system which was created by the Education and
Culture ministry and at the present, it used to be applied in special needs
schools in around Indonesia. (thejakartapost.com)
Juniati Effendi (2014) told that the Indonesian government began to apply SIBI
in schools since 1995. However, there
are invalid sources that how SIBI was applied. Therefore, there is an privacy
statement that ,” .. SIBI was created without involved deaf people because of
politic which controlled by Prof. Dr. Wardiman (Dita, personal communication,
April, 17,2015).”
There
were reasons that need to be known regarding SIBI implementation. Juniati
Effendi (2015) informed that SIBI was a language created by people who aren’t
deaf and SIBI is complicated because it uses grammar which taken from the
spoken Indonesian language. Therefore, SIBI was a government project as Juniati
Effendi (2015) said. Hence, SIBI has not been agreed by someone who has used
that language which was not helping them for reaching literacy skill level as
hearing people. In addition, SIBI has not involved the expression which is
important to show which answer or question is.
Although
BISINDO and SIBI has related with deaf people in Indonesia but it is a huge difference
for being an appropriate language for the deaf people. The BISINDO has been
developed by Laboratory of Sign Language Research-University of Indonesia which
is currently on progress and already launched two book of Sign Languages such
as Jakarta Sign Language and Yogyakarta Sign Language. On the contrary, SIBI
has documented any signs which modified American
Sign Language with prefix and suffix and launched a book with title Kamus Sistem Isyarat Bahasa Indonesia or Dictionary of Indonesian Sign Language
System. According to Juniati Effendi (2014) that BISINDO is quite different
from the government-approved Sistem Isyarat Bahasa Indonesia (SIBI) or
Indonesian Sign Language System).
The
effects of dual sign languages conflicts that impacts to deaf people whom are
acquiring language. After a certain period of time, the students experienced
difficulties understanding SIBI’s language concept, because they feel that the
language isn’t applicable in their daily lives and interaction. (Juniati
Effendi, 2014) In addition, when they were making SIBI, they didn’t research
about SIBI implementation which could be applied in schools for the deaf.
Afterwards, Juniati Effendi (2014) says,” There are many who are confused,
especially because BISINDO doesn’t use the same grammatical structure as Bahasa
Indonesia: SPOK (Subject, Predicate, Object, Keterangan – Information).”
In
conclusion, sign languages issues in Indonesia are a problem that has not been
solved. However, there is a hope to finish these issues since after election of
president last year. Each year, Laboratory of Sign Language Research-University
of Indonesia holds a program for sign language teaching candidates as improving
the human sources. That program is important to keep sign language as developing
language certain in order to break deaf people’s obstacles. In addition,
disability organization including deaf also is campaigning about convention of
the rights for people with disabilities.
References
Palfreyman, Nick.
(2011). Variation in Indonesian Sign Language. University of Central
Lancashire:UK Retrieved from http://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/jakarta/isloj3/abstracts/Palfreyman.pdf
Hurlbut, Hope M. (2014). The Signed
Language of Indonesia: An Enigma. SIL International.
