Constitutional Court Launches 1945 Constitution in Balinese
Thursday, 14 December, 2006 | 18:11 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Denpasar: The Constitutional Court has launched a translated version of the 1945 Constitution in the Balinese language, the fourth translation into a regional language.

“Earlier, it has been translated into the Sundanese, Bugis and Javanese languages,” said Laica Marzuki, a member of the Constitutional Court, Thursday (12/14).

According to him, the translation was in line with the order of Article 32 section 2 of the 1945 Constitution concerning paying homage to regional languagse.

In addition, said Laica, this is aimed at circulating the text of the 1945 Constitution to more members of the general public.

The translation, he said, referred to the original as well as the most commonly used in the Bali region.

The team of translators was led by Prof Dr Gde Atmadja M.Hum.

However, the translation into Balinese has aroused criticism.

At one discussion, there were those who felt that this translation will create misinterpretation of the 1945 Constitution by virtue of the inappropriate use of regional language.

Gde Atmadja assured that the translation has adopted basic guidelines of the Balinese language.

“We do not deliberately translate official terms of political realm in order to minimize possibilities of different perceptions,” he said.

He cited the naming of state institutions that retained their original names.

Rofiqi Hasan