Publish or perish
The story about two major Indonesian book publishers heading for bankruptcy, tagged onto the bottom right corner of Kompas daily last Friday, has all the symptoms of a national tragedy of unimaginable proportions that very few people in this country seem to realize.
The plight of PT Pustaka Sinar Harapan and PT Grafiti Pustaka Utama is typical of the entire book publishing industry in Indonesia.
Since they happened to be the best, if not the largest, in the industry, one would hate to think what is happening to the smaller publishing companies.
Recent reports confirmed that most of the 200 or so publishers in Indonesia are in the doldrums.
These companies, like those in most other sectors, are struggling for survival under the weight of the economic crisis. Their fight, however, judging from explanations by executives of Sinar Harapan and Grafiti, is almost a lost cause.
They have made staff cutbacks and are being forced to make further layoffs soon because, quite simply, they are not selling books as regularly as they did.
Sinar Harapan, according to its managing editor Aristides Katoppo, has only published one title this year. During 1997, it published 90 titles.
Grafiti has published three titles this year compared to an average of seven a month in 1997.
Even publishers of school textbooks, with their captive markets, are feeling the pinch. Soaring printing costs, including the prices of paper and ink, makes it impossible for any book publisher to stay afloat.
They are in a catch-22 situation. They cannot raise their prices too much because that would drive customers away. But they cannot sustain their losses endlessly lest they close the book on themselves.
If the nation allows its book publishing industry to collapse, and this is a real prospect judging by the scant attention given to its plight, it will leave a long lasting legacy of far- reaching consequences for the future of the people in this country.
Books are a major source of cultural as well as intellectual enrichment in any society. Deprive society of its books, and cultural development will be as good as dead, while intellectual life stagnates if it does not decline.
Given the present rapid globalization process, it is simply too scary to think how this nation can ever hope to survive the fierce and competitive environment that the next millennium promises to be.
The Kompas article deserved a bigger headline if only to draw people's, and the government's attention to the reality that books are just as important as the supply of basic foodstuffs which has taken up so much of our attention these past few months.
Minds need to be fed as much as stomachs.
In times of crisis, it is easy to see why the stomach takes priority. But this does not mean that the nation should allow its book publishing industry to perish.
For many years, through this column, we have joined forces with book publishers and many education experts in calling on the government to waive the value-added tax on books.
Many countries, even advanced nations, have exempted tax on books, which they see essentially as a tax on knowledge.
Today, we are once again appealing to the good sense of the new government, particularly new Minister of Education and Culture Wiranto Arismunandar, to pay heed to this call.
A little help, any help for that matter, to keep this country's book publishing industry afloat, could mean the survival of this nation.