W. Java government strives to promote use of Sundanese - Jakarta Post

For the people respond to incentives file.

To show he is serious about the language, Budhyana fines his middle and top-ranking staff Rp 1,000 (10 U.S. cents) for each word not spoken in Sundanese on Fridays.

The guidelines for the day were drawn up at the end of January and implemented on Feb. 4 after employees were familiarized with the program a week before.
Budhyana had selected several Sundanese literature degree holders as referees to oversee the correct use of the language.

The regulations, he said, were not new. The West Java provincial administration had originally come up with the concept in 1996, but programs had only been applied to primary school children to date.

'It is not fair that it is just children who are forced to learn the language. We, the older generation, haven't set a good example about the use of correct Sundanese,' Budhyana said.

Lower-ranking employees with salaries below Rp 1 million a month were against the guidelines during the familiarization week as they said the penalty was too high for them.

Eventually, a compromised was reached where only upper echelon officials spoke formal Sundanese, while other employees were required to speak casual Sundanese and wear traditional clothing.

On the Friday morning the regulation was first put into effect, requests for leave detailing various excuses piled up on Budhyana's desk. 'In fact, during a meeting, an employee suddenly complained of stomachache and asked for permission to go to the toilet several times,' he said laughing. Grammatical mistakes regularly occurred despite the fact that a majority of the employees at the office are native Sundanese and fluent in their mother tongue.

In a monthly discussion which coincided with the induction of the policy, referees collected Rp 32,000 from higher-ranking officials who committed mistakes during the 30-minute meeting.

Another reason to add to the meetings are bad file.

Interesting career opportunity for Sundanese literature degree holders -- monitoring employees. Glad I'm not fined by college English majors for my errors in spoken and written English. I'd lose a bundle.