More than fifty years after it was introduced, the word “Anda” has been deemed a failure according to an article in Pikiran Rakyat, a daily newspaper in Bandung, by Ajip Rosidi. The word itself was made up in 1958 and pushed for adoption by senior journalist Rosihan Anwar to provide a single second person pronoun equivalent to “you”, in place of all the alternatives such as “saudara”, “tuan”, “kamu”, kau", engkau", and so on.
The fact that Indonesian cultures place social stature mostly on a pedestal unsurprisingly does not help the use of this “status neutral” word. The English culture places less importance on this, thus the use of “you” has become much more commonly used than the alternatives.
While “Anda” has been adopted, it has failed in its original purpose to become the universal “you” as proposed by Anwar. Most people use this word when the other person is a relative stranger or when keeping the other person on the same level as themselves, as opposed to “kamu” which is used mostly by couples as in the Japanese “Anata” to express affection, intimacy, or friendship.
Read more (Pikiran Rakyat – Indonesian)
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