Books for university students, buy them now or not at all
JAKARTA (JP): If you are starting university this year you have to consider whether to buy the required books and other reading material right now.
"If you don't, the books you need will become rare and the prices could well go up further," said Verawati, 18.
On Friday she was browsing cheap books on secretarial management for first-year university students at the city's favorite cheap book center at the edge of the Pasar Senen junction in Central Jakarta.
According to Verawati, she and dozens of her friends -- all of whom have just taken enrollment tests at various state and private universities -- have been hunting for books for the past two weeks.
"Nobody informed us about the possible scarcity of books in the market. But now we are learning that our assumptions have come true as we still cannot find the books we're looking for," said Grace, one of Verawati's friends.
The teenagers' findings are not groundless.
According to Ucok, a veteran trader at the market, the remaining 30 traders at the center have also started to smell the same aroma.
"Publishers of original books have raised prices by between 60 percent and 80 percent. But we're still finding it difficult to get an adequate supply from them because some of the publishers have temporarily stopped producing due to skyrocketing costs," Ucok said.
Even Worse, he said, publishers of counterfeited books -- the best-selling items in the market -- have started to limit their productions, having hiked the prices by between 20 percent and 40 percent.
"They told us that they might soon halt their operations because most of their suppliers now want cash. None of them are willing to provide credit as in the old days," Ucok said.
Similar to the large-scale publishers of authentic books, these publishers -- most of whom are home based -- are also being struck by the soaring prices of the printing industry due to the stratosphericly high prices of paper, ink, films, glues and transportation, he explained.
"If they stop, it means we're dead," worried another trader as he sandpapered the sides of a thick used dictionary.
One of the roadsides of the Pasar Senen junction has been used for years as the base for dozens of traders offering a variety of new and secondhand books, mostly for university students.
Books on computers, management, dictionaries, banking, arts and social sciences are displayed everyday on portable tables or just plastic sheets on the road itself.
In addition to the roadside sellers, a handful of bookstores -- offering the same items but with greater variety -- still exist in the area.
Counterfeited
But for many students, the area is attractive for its counterfeited books, which are priced at often only half or even a quarter of the cost of the original products.
The phony version of an English-Indonesian dictionary published by PT Gramedia Jakarta, for instance, is offered at Rp 15,000 (US$1) compared to Rp 57,500 for the original.
According to Johan, one of the traders specializing in secondhand books, demand university books normally goes up between September and October as students start their school year.
"But business here has been picking up over the past few days compared to the previous weeks," he said.
Johan, however, wondered whether he could continue to run his business in the following months as his gerobak (pulling cart) is running out of stock, including imported books.
"I hope more people are willing to sell their used books so we can provide something for the new university students," he said. "But please do not label them with a higher price."
The story of the Pasar Senen book traders is no different from the experiences of the major book publishers, indicating that students -- not only at university level -- might face serious problems feeding their minds.
Reports in March, for example, confirmed that most of the 200 or so publishers in the country are on the brink of bankruptcy.
Two big publishers, PT Pustaka Sinar Harapan and PT Grafiti Pustaka Utama, have already announced that they are no longer able to stay afloat under the weight of the economic crisis.
One of the few survivors, PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, has said it has no plans to reproduce books for university courses to meet the possible increasing demand.
"Besides, we only publish a few titles for university students as many of the books are often illegally copied," its executive director Gabriel Sugiyanto said.
"So, it's too risky to do that especially during such a crisis," he added.
Agustinus, who plans to study architecture at Trisakti University, said he hoped university rectors and lecturers would be willing to understand the current problem.
"They, for example, shouldn't insist their students buy certain books, as otherwise the students will stop studying and organize another massive protest," he said.
"Look at this book," he said, pointing to an imported design book at the Gunung Agung bookstore at Blok M Plaza in South Jakarta.
"The price has doubled in the last few months while my father's salary has been cut by his office," Agustinus said.
If it cannot be resolved, the government, he whispered, might have to do something right now to overcome this book crisis. (ste)