Yes, you are probably right Shilgia - it may be it is just not an Indonesian thing. It has been a long, long time since I was in Malaysia so I can't compare.
21
orangutan
Even on the covers of many Hollywood films, they only say ‘bahasa’ to refer to both ‘Bahasa Malaysia’ and ‘Bahasa Indonesia
I've seen that too, on DVD covers sold in Singapore, which made me wonder, Bahasa what? Indonesian or Malay; it's most likely malay, but who knows.
I've always had the impression that it's non-Indonesians/Malaysians who want to show they know what "bahasa" means and will insist that it's wrong.
May I add that some Malaysians who are fluent in Malay (but are not Malays, e.g. Chinese Malaysians) also do that. I do anyway. Also, it is usually English-speaking Malaysians, who are English-eduacated and not so fluent in Malay who use just "Bahasa" when referring to Malay, like those in #19, maybe. I have heard at Catholic masses in Malaysia, in an announcemnet made in English, "Chinese mass will be held at 7 am, in Bahasa at 10:30 am." Cringeworthy, to me anyway.
Incidentally an Indonesian friend of mine and I actually had this discussion years ago, when someone aked him if he actually spoke "Bahasa"; we joked that the person did not know which "Bahasa" he was referring to.
In Australia, Bahasa might mean Indonesian as there are more Indonesian speakers there, and Indonesian is actually taught at universities in Australia and New Zealand. I might be wrong though.
I also have Indonesian friends who would never say "Bahasa" when they mean Indonesian. They would colloquially say "Indo".
The usual caveat applies, that I do not speak for all malay/Indonesian speakers.
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