Jakarta – A draft bill on languages being considered by the education ministry will not forbid the use of foreign languages in public, minister Bambang Sudibyo says.

Previous reports said the bill would limit the use of foreign languages in advertising and the media, penalizing organizations that disobeyed the regulation.

A detik.com report late last week said the draft bill contained 10 chapters and 22 articles, with 11 obligating print and electronic media to use the Indonesian language. Article 12 reportedly would require product packaging, commercials, companies and buildings to carry Indonesian-language wording and names.

Speaking after a bilateral forum with Dutch Education Minister Maria Van der Houven, Bambang said the bill had not yet been finalized. "The bill is still in the form of an academic manuscript. We have not discussed the legal penalties yet," he said.

While the draft is being considered, the ministry will make the final decision on the ultimate form of the bill, he said. "The ministry will use its initiative to propose such a regulation if it is considered necessary."

Bambang said the main purpose of the bill was to help Indonesians master foreign tongues without hindering the proper use of the national language.

The bill would also protect the use of the many rich indigenous languages that exist in the country, he said. "The main point is how to make the use of foreign languages proportional, without jeopardizing our own languages."

Education ministry language center head Dendy Sugono, who helped draft the bill, said the proposed legislation did not yet contain any regulations limiting the public use of foreign languages.

However, Dendy said the use of Indonesian, as an important tool for national unity, should remain paramount over other languages like English. Nowadays, Indonesian is too often being replaced by foreign languages, he said, "probably because of the influence of globalization".

Indonesian words for new concepts should be used instead of their international equivalents, with "email" becoming "pos-el", he said. The center has already compiled 340,000 new words for new concepts in science, economics and information technology.

A spokesperson for House of Representatives Commission X on education told detik.com recently that the bill on language was currently not a top priority. The commission will first consider a bill making schools into financial institutions, the spokesperson said.