Paper price hike hurts children

Paper price hike hurts children

JAKARTA (JP): Next month's rise in the price of newsprint,
prominent intellectuals warn, will not only push up book prices
but threaten the reading habits and ultimately the education of
Indonesian children.

Poet Taufik Ismail and educator J. Drost said in a separate
interviews with the Jakarta Post that the price rise from the
present Rp 1,320 per kg undoubtedly will have a significant
impact on education.

"Any price increase in newsprint will no doubt increase book
prices because many books are printed on newsprint. This (planned
hike) certainly will not encourage the reading habits of
children, which is already very weak now," said Taufiq.

The Association of Indonesian Pulp and Paper Producers has
said that production costs for newsprint have increased due to
the steady hike in the prices of scrap paper, which is the main
raw material of newsprint.

Newsprint prices escalated from Rp 1,170 (53 U.S. cents) per
kilogram last August to Rp 1,270 for the September-December
period and went up again to Rp 1,320 per kg for the January-March
period.

The government has, on various occasions, made it public that
the price will be "adjusted" next month but it has not specified
the new price.

Taufiq, a well-known poet and writer, said the plan was
especially bad news for the promotion of literary works, which
are already in a sad state due to a lack of public interest and
the "modern" threats of electronic media.

"For the past 20 years or so secondary high-school students
have graduated with less and less knowledge of literature. If
book prices go up, what more can we expect of them?" he asked,
adding that much literature is also printed on newsprint.

As a parent, he said, he personally is not discouraged because
he wants his children to enjoy reading and literature as much as
him.

"But this is a very personal choice and we can't expect all
parents to be like me," he said.

Drost pointed out the need to carry out a thorough study on
who, or which group in society, would significantly be effected
by the increase.

He said that even if the planned price hike causes school
textbooks -- which mostly use newsprint -- to become more
expensive, it would be of little concern for "wealthy" private
schools, which compel their students to buy the books.

"Even now, it's clear that those who can afford to buy books
are people from well-to-do families. They will not mind a price
increase," he said.

"But if everyone, including the less well-off private schools,
are required to buy the books, then it will become a problem
because not everyone can afford them," he said.

Concern with the planned newsprint price hike has also been
voiced by Nur Ahmad Fadhil Lubis, a lecturer at the North Sumatra
State Institute for Islamic Studies.

He was quoted by Antara as saying that a hike could widen the
"information gap" between those who can afford the books and
printed media and those who cannot.

"This may establish a sort of elite group in society which has
exclusive access to information. It will certainly not support
efforts to educate the people who need wide access to
information," he said.

Lubis said that to avoid the emergence of such "elite groups",
the government should continue giving value-added tax subsidies
to publications which have an educational mission, such as school
textbooks.

But chairman of the Indonesian Book Publishers Association
Rozali Usman has another reason to be pessimistic about the low
sale of books.

"It's not that books are expensive in Indonesia. The fact is
that not many people are interested in spending their money on
books," he lamented. (pwn)