It is easy to understand why Malaysians say Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) is Malay. They want to tell us that “our language is the most widely spoken language in Southeast Asia, and one of the most widely spoken in the world”. They feel proud about this idea.

On the other hand, even if we exclude Malay speakers in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Southern Thailand, Bahasa Indonesia is still the language with the largest number of speakers in Southeast Asia. Indonesians do not feel the need to associate their national language with Malay. Hence they tend to say, “Bahasa Indonesia is not Malay”.