Instilling a love of reading on ships

JAKARTA (JP): Imagine having to sit for days with nothing to do while waiting for a ship that will carry you to your port of destination in some remote area.

"That's an ideal situation for a 'love reading' campaign. If books are accessible, people will kill time with reading," said a member of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI), Agus Soetomo, who came up with the idea of establishing bookstores and libraries on ships.

ICMI also believes that libraries would also provoke an interest in reading Islamic books. The organization, in cooperation with the ministries of education and transportation, as well as book publishers and the Laa Roiba Islamic cooperative, realized the plan recently.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto officiated last week the first bookstore set up on the K.M. Lambelu passenger ship, a German-made vessel belonging to PT Pelni state shipping company.

"The first objective is not to sell books, but to invite people to (borrow and) read them. Passengers don't have to pay for reading," said Doddy Yudhista. "Whether or not this new program succeeds, ICMI will open libraries in public places."

Doddy said the bookstores would provide books on Islam as well as other subjects.

Agus also envisioned the development of bookstores at places where passengers could not only read for free, but could also hold discussions on various topics, including religion.

The ship plies a route from Jakarta to the eastern part of Indonesia. Its ports of call are Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi, Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, Surabaya in East Java, Bau-Bau in Southeast Sulawesi, and Ambon and Namlea in Maluku. The round- trip takes two weeks.

"A voyage is very tiresome, especially if it takes many days. Passengers usually spend their time lying down, chatting and going to entertainment places on the ship," Agus said.

"It would be beneficial for them if they... could enrich themselves spiritually by reading Islamic books," Agus said.

ICMI, the publishers and others who supported the project were doing what is called in Islam, da'wah bil hal, meaning to preach through action rather than by words, Agus said.

The Moslem organization expected to set up more bookstores on ships plying the western part of Indonesia, such as K.M. Kambuna, K.M. Kerinci and K.M. Lawit. The ports of call for the ships are Jakarta, Padang in West Sumatra, Medan in North Sumatra and Tanjung Pinang in South Sumatra.

Agus said there was no commercial interest in the project, just a desire to help instill an interest in reading.

"The bookstores may even end up as libraries where passengers can borrow books during the course of their trip," he said. (Fitriyanti Djoni)