Books to educate the people

Without subtracting from our appreciation of the tireless efforts of the organizers of the Jakarta Book Fair which is slated to close tomorrow, Sunday, August 22, at the Jakarta Convention Center, it seems fair to say that the lack of any visible progress in the number and variety of books and booklets exhibited as compared to previous years presents a rather accurate picture of the state of affairs in the world of books in Indonesia.

To judge by the statements that have been made by this country's public figures, it would seem that everybody was in clear agreement on the importance of books, and the access of information in general for the progress of the nation, and for keeping Indonesia abreast with other nations in a world in which the availability of well-educated and well-trained manpower, is becoming more and more a necessity.

The reality as it appears in our daily lives, however, tells a different story. For most Indonesians, books remain a luxury and good books are difficult to find in most towns and cities in this country, let alone in the smaller towns in remote and rural areas. Even in Jakarta, it is only recently that good bookstores have sprung up, but even so, most of those books remain outside the reach of the great majority of Indonesians.

To the government's credit, it must be said that sales taxes on certain categories of books were only recently rescinded, but more needs to be done in this respect. This is why the Indonesian Publishers Association (Ikapi) has suggested that the value added taxes that publishers are still required to pay be annulled as well.

A by-product of the sky-high price of books is the rampant phenomenon of piracy, which, in turn, eats into the already meager profits book publishers are making and into the income of authors. This, of course, explains why so few Indonesians who are actually well qualified to write, are reluctant to do so. After all, authors and experts too must eat. The main victims are local authors, since imported books seldom enjoy the widespread popularity that makes piracy profitable.

As if all those constraints that authors and publishers are facing aren't enough, another obstacle has cropped up in the wake of the government's current move to decentralize its powers and give more say to the regional administrations.

Decentralization of government powers, of course, has clear benefits. Among other things, as far as schooling and education are concerned, it allows schools in the various regions of this vast archipelago to adjust their teaching material of schools to their respective needs.

This means that books that have so far been selected for use by the Ministry of National Education in all the country's regions may not be considered suitable for certain regencies and have to be replaced. The quandary with which publishers are confronted is that printing and publishing books for those regions, especially the more remote ones where schools are few and pupils fewer still, cannot be produces in an economically viable manner.

Whatever the case may be, however, books remain one of the most important tools for achieving the Indonesian national ideal of what is described in the Constitution as mencerdaskan bangsa, or educating the nation. One way or another, books and all other reading material that can contribute to the attainment of that ideal must be made available everyone, if possible.

The fact that India has for decades managed to make cheap books available to all its citizens and that Malaysia has done the same by making most educational and informative material tax- free, not to mention other countries, is proof that it can be done as long as the will is there. Let's hope that Indonesia, with its huge need for skilled and educated manpower -- and educated citizens in general, for that matter -- will soon follow suit.