This paper deals with historical facts on the use of Malay before it was renamed as
Bahasa Indonesia. Its early development reflects the successful attempt of language
planning activities done by some socio-political activists. Its socio-political history
proves that the activities of language planning cannot escape from policies made by
socio-political activists. The case is the same as any attempt of language maintenance. It
is not a matter of linguistics alone. To make language maintenance successful,
sociolinguists should seriously make good policies to be politically carried out in
appropriate linguistic domains
