National Library Chief Tells Parliament Budget Cuts Are Disrupting Literacy Programmes

National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas) head E. Aminudin Aziz has complained of drastic budget cuts, stating that literacy programmes have been disrupted as a result. “It is true that with the very drastic budget cuts, work related to literacy has become disrupted,” Aminudin said during a hearing with House of Representatives Commission X at the parliament complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Thursday (16/7/2026). He cited the example of a programme to distribute books to every village, community reading gardens, and community health centres. He said the programme, which had been positively received by the public, could not be carried out in 2026. “In 2026 we cannot do this because there is no money,” he added. Furthermore, he said plans for physical construction, renovation, and the purchase of equipment also cannot proceed. Consequently, plans to drive literacy more massively cannot be realised. “So this means our plan to drive literacy more massively cannot be executed,” he said. Aminudin stated that he had also conveyed this to the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). He even requested that targets be lowered due to the inadequate funding. “It is impossible that with a large budget the targets are achieved, and with a small budget they are also achieved. So, just give a small budget then, why make it big, right? Well, we cannot accept this logic because, however you look at it, if there is no reduction in targets, we will not be able to achieve the set targets,” he said. “Therefore, we are negotiating with Bappenas so that the target figures are lowered. And this discussion is ongoing and these reductions are happening. So when we talk about the targets earlier, they are actually targets that have been agreed to be adjusted,” he continued. Aminudin said that in 2025 Perpusnas received a budget of more than IDR 721.6 billion. He noted that IDR 132 billion of that budget was blocked, leaving only IDR 589.5 billion available for use. “Throughout 2025, we distributed that budget to work units, and the realised budget amounted to IDR 583.2 billion, equivalent to 98.93 percent,” he concluded.