January 18, 2026 | 11:55 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) has responded to the recent social media controversy surrounding the change of Thailand's name to "Tailan" in the latest map of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), released on December 10, 2025. According to BIG spokesperson Mone Iye Cornelia Marschiavelli, in the NKRI map, BIG uses the country's name based on a jointly drafted exonym document.
"This has raised questions from various parties, particularly regarding the use of the name "Tailan," she said on Saturday, January 17, 2026.
According to Mone, BIG has the task and function of standardizing exonyms for country names by acting as Indonesia's National Name Authority (NNA). The drafting process, she explained, is conducted through studies and discussions by the Exonym Standardization Commission, a cross-agency team formed specifically to handle the standardization of foreign topographic names.
"It is coordinated by the Language Agency and involves BIG, linguistic experts, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Mone said.
The results of the commission's meeting in December 2025 were described as a technical agreement formulated based on Indonesian linguistic rules, evolving usage practices, and the principles of national and international geographic name standardization. The resulting document then served as a reference in the development of maps of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia and geospatial information products produced by the Indonesian Geographical Information Commission (BIG), ensuring naming consistency.
Mone continued, explaining that as part of Indonesia's contribution to global geographic name standardization, the BIG submitted this exonym document to the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) meeting in New York, which took place from April 28 to May 2, 2025. The document stated that the primary objective of the update was to ensure that representations of country names worldwide adhere to linguistic accuracy and consistency.
This initiative was considered crucial for standardizing references to country names in various official contexts, such as state correspondence, government records, and reports. Furthermore, standardized country name references were used in educational materials, including textbooks and news, social media, and mass media.
Previously, Mone explained that in December 2024, BIG, as Indonesia's national naming authority, coordinated with the National Language Development and Fostering Agency (BPPB) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and experts from the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, to hold a meeting to finalize an updated exonym document, specifically for country names. These meetings focused on ensuring that pronunciation and spelling conformed to Indonesian orthography and phonology.
The list of changes to the document includes 194 country names, divided into four sections: the abbreviated name and the formal name in English and Indonesian. For example, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (the), with its abbreviated name Afghanistan, becomes Afganistan in Indonesian, with its official name Republik Islam Afghanistan. Thailand, with its formal name Kingdom of Thailand (the), becomes Tailan in Indonesian, with its official name Kerajaan Tailan.
Some short names of countries in Indonesian are Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uruguay.
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