An Indian professor once was invited to deliver a general lecture in Malang Islamic University (UIN – Universitas Islam Negeri) East Java. From Surabaya airport he went to Malang city by bus. After coming back to India, he told us, Indonesian students in India, his impression thus:
Between Surabaya and Malang, I was so amazed to see so many hypermarkets, great supermalls and big restaurants. I saw a restaurant which is so big that I never see it before in India. What “amazed” me even more was that I did NOT see any public library at all.
He then blasted (with “emphaty”) a question that unable us to answer with pride: “So, what are you people doing other than shopping and eating out?”
Greg Barton in his The Authorized Biography of Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) writes that during his 13-year stay in Indonesia he hardly find any middle class Indonesian who has got even a decent private library. Gus Dur’s big private library, therefore, is a once-in-blue-moon phenomenon.
The Indian professor criticism is understandable. In India public library can be found almost everywhere for anyone to read. Not to say in universities. Among the middle-class Indian, having a good private library is a must and something they are proud of. Consequently, with this conducive enovironment, the reading habit among the average Indians are higher than any other developing countries. The low price of newspaper (with only IDR 300 or Rs 2 Indian rupees) you can get best selling English newspaper such as The Times of India or The Hindu. You need IDR 3,000 to buy newspaper like Kompas, Jawa Pos, or The Jakarta Post. In a country like Indonesia where millions of people earn less than a dollar (IDR 9,000) a day, that amount is huge.
Library in Universities: Many university library are open for 24-hour a day. And amazingly the library is always packed with student who are reading either the text books or international journals and other general stuffs. You will hardly find this in Indonesia where a library is packed with readers who are quietly reading their respective books.
Lessons learnt:
1. Governments and lawmakers both need to synergize to make a policy which is conducive to boost reading habit as a hobby both for people and students by (a) lowering the price for goods which is having to do with paper production (books, newspapers, magazines); (b) encouraging people and students to read more by establishing a good library in every village.
2. What Indonesian middle-class can do: (a) shopping books more rather than clothes and other luxurious stuffs: it’s a lot better off to have a good brain than a good car; (b) helping the poor people to have access to read more by contributing and donating to any public library available preferably in remote areas; (c) setting library themselves in any given villages they prefer to set up.
I myself have a long plan to set up a decent library at least in every village around me which could expand to another neighboring area one day. I just set up one currently. Hopefully, this will have a domino effect to other like-minded people to do the same.
I agreed with Mas Fatih,
The inferior feeling must be eliminated.
And the culture of reading and writing must be increased.
We are waiting for the domino effect.
http://fajarqimi.blogspot.com/
I love reading and usually spend around 4-5 per day to read. Can you imagine what I fell when founding that my university in Japan has a size of department store? It even has newspapers from around the world, including Indonesian Kompas.
Talking about the importance of reading for low class society, I remember there was one newspaper dealer appearing in Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He almost reached the last question, he even knew the name of Charles Darwin’s ship. When Tantowi Yahya asked why as a newspaper dealer who did not proceed to higher education could answer some difficult questions like that, he simply replied: “because I read a lot”.
Anyway, are you sure about the price of Kompas? Last month I went back to Indonesia and definitely remember that I bought Kompas for 1000 Rupiah. Well, it was indeed still higher than The Times of India’s.
#In Surabaya, when you buy Kompas after 11 oclock, the price is Rp 1000,- not before 11. Im not sure if the same case also applies for Jakarta. What time did you buy Kompas back then?
“So, what are you people doing other than shopping and eating out?”
hahaha, I believe that I cannot give the answer to. I think we can’t count on goverment. Its time all people who care to start.
You can find many book community in bandung. Try this one http://www.rumahbuku.info. Cozy place with respective books.
what a great lesson from indian’s professor. it’s time for us to change our habit and culture. and to be truth it came back to ourself, because nobody’s can change ourself if we didn’t change it by ourself.
“permission to copy it”
Good post. I used to read a lot actually, and somehow give it up for magazines. I really should read more from now on
Bang Fatih, this post is 110% correct. Over here every morning I saw people reading news paper inside mrt, while they quing for the bus, or taxi, a rare view compare to my home town in Jakarta. It such a pity the young generations were occupied themself with the latest handphone rather than developing a reading habbit. But then I realize its the up bringing, how our parents become our role model.
And yes, too bad many of us become more and more materialistic in the sense that what bag you wear and what phone you carry is purely represent who you are. It really a great and noble idea to build a library for the villagers, something that I always want to do.
We need IDR 3000 to buy Jakarta Post?? Hellooo…. It’s IDR 5500, mate!
The culture of reading must be encouraged in the family. I grew up with books and newspaper surround me. My mum went back to uni when I was 7 and suddenly I read Budi Darma’s Olenka when I was 11 and Musashi when I was 13. Rendra and Sapardi were my breakfast. I even tried to read TS Eliot when my English vocabulary was only consisted of “please” and “thank you”. Not that I understood them though *lol.
However, book is considerably expensive in Indonesia. The collection is not that great either. It seems there are a lot of ‘pop books’, and it’s difficult to find a classic one.
My mum was participating in the project to build what they call “taman baca” somewhere in the village in Lombok, I can’t remember where, as a part of the programme initiated by one minister’s wife. People in Indonesia have lots of big ideas, somehow can twist some arms to actually make it happen, but couldn’t engage in long term commitments, so after a few months the place went bust. The problem? Nobody maintains it. Sad.
That’s why Indian have strong IT and smart people than Indonesian. Because They like to read and goverment give it the facility
Cak … I remember I was the only one who almost always read (English) novels between classes during my university years *eons ago*. My fellow classmates mocked and judged me as ‘belaguk’. They just didn’t realize the huge knowledge they could get through reading. Most of them even considered studying from lecture notes as too much reading already. How sad.