Minangkabau Language and Change in People’s Political Orientation

Abstract

This article discusses the change in the Minangkabau political orientation from the Dutch colonial era to the present. They pose the Minangkabau language as a political issue in the national interaction. This paper is on how Minangkabau people view their mother tongue as a part of national identity, how they make it as the ammunition for the movement of resentencing to fight against the central government, how Minangkabau people make their mother tongue a part of ethnic identity politics; and how language policy of the Dutch colonial and Republic of Indonesia government influenced the change in Minangkabau political orientation. The analysis proves that language has become inseparable from regional history dynamism and Minangkabau regional-political life. The language attitude of the Minangkabau people in the colonial era showed a high national spirit.