Few Indonesians read purely for pleasure

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 07/22/2007 11:39 AM  |  Life

David Jardine, Contributor, Jakarta

In 1930, a dozen years before the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies, statistics, gathered by the Dutch, revealed that only 6.4 percent of the ""native"" (i.e. indigenous) population of the colony was literate.

After the 300-plus years of colonial rule less than one in 10 of the colonized peoples in the islands could read or write. (We must allow for the probability that this figure refers to literacy in the Roman alphabet and does not cover Arabic and Pali, for example.)

Put simply, this is a staggering indictment and shows that even the more enlightened policy that the Dutch thought they introduced before the First World War was of no consequence. The figure makes claims to a civilizing role ring very hollow indeed.

Literacy, of course, opens up vistas to science and medicine as well as history and law, and is, ipso facto, a dangerous thing! Illiterate masses are in theory at least more pliable, an advantage that powerholders almost always seek.

Some 20 years elapsed before Indonesia could even begin the urgent task of bringing the benefits of literacy to its people but such a task found the new state in a Catch-22 situation: where to find the personnel to make that possible.

The Dutch legacy included a dearth of qualified teachers, another great indictment.

For all the subsequent rhetoric about the anti-Dutch struggle of the late 1940s being a ""revolution"" (pahlawan revolusi and all that) the new Republic of Indonesia was not a revolutionary state, at least not in the socialist sense, and did not talk in terms of the social liberation that full literacy implies.

(At the risk of having inappropriate labels placed upon me, I would here compare Indonesia with Cuba where literacy is concerned.)

Indonesia did not register literacy as one of its overriding aims and ambitions.

Perhaps this observation is hurtful, but the subsequent huge rise in literacy levels that is one of Indonesia's undersung post-Independence triumphs brought about something perhaps not even the most enlightened of the early leaders such as Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir had visualized: mass functional literacy that in effect amounts to widespread a-literacy.

By the latter term I mean that the greater proportion of the population can read and write but do so only for functional reasons: Reading for itself is simply not a widespread habit. The population is not imbued with the pursuit of reading for the wider range of benefits it bestows.

The vast number of publications on newsstands appears to contradict my claim but an examination of this shows that the range is in fact limited.

Do Indonesians read?

Figures deceive. Although some magazines do in fact serialize more serious literature the greater part of the content of mass circulation publications is trivial.

Book reading then is not a generalized habit. On many, many journeys through Indonesia -- by train, plane, bus or ship -- I have been the only passenger in view with a book at hand; my vademecum has made me conspicuous in one regard at least.

This observation is compounded by observing that on evening walks in the city I have seldom seen anyone sitting outside -- as is the common habit -- and reading a book. Indeed such a sight would be as rare as hen's teeth.

True, if you go into a Jakarta bookstore such as Gramedia you will find people browsing but the number is never very large. True, too, that if you go through an area such as the Kwitang-Kramat Raya intersection in the Senen district of the city, where there are numerous book stalls, you will observe potential buyers but the main stock of these emporia consists of textbooks and course-related material.

Of course, it would be nonsense to say ""no Indonesians read"". That is an insupportable assertion. I have, from time to time, been asked to find certain titles. Most recently, the senior waitress in a Blok M bar asked me to find for her a Sydney Sheldon book in English and my heart was warmed, despite the fact that I would normally disdain the author.

Is poverty the key to the lack of a reading habit? I once suggested this to an India-born Indian and he snorted in derision. Many poor Indians are literate but their straitened circumstances do not prevent them from enjoying books, he said.

There is no doubting that the ""literate attitude"" is difficult to achieve and depends on many factors. One of these must be how children are taught and how the education system treats reading.

The evidence, as serious education-reform campaigners such as Professor Mochtar Buchori rightly say, is that Indonesia's education system is in dire need of reform and students do not acquire ""the necessary intellectual equipment"" (Pak Moch's phrase).

A burdensome curriculum that relies heavily on testing stifles the creative urges of many and does not inspire a love of reading for its own sake.

For those small groups such as the East Jakarta-based Yayasan Pustaka Kelana (Wandering Books Foundation, details below) that seek to promote the reading habit the struggle is indeed an uphill one.

Inspired by former UI Faculty of Letters lecturer Ibu Nasti R., this foundation runs a small permanent library in Rawamangun as well as two mobile units that cover the surrounding area.

Underfunded and relying on the energies of a few, it is, however, a shining example of what local initiatives might achieve -- but the wider responsibility surely rests with the government.

If Indonesia's students are to compete then the purely utilitarian approach to reading must be overcome. In order to open minds to a whole range of possibilities, a fuller literacy must be an aim of the government.

The time has surely come for a serious look at how a network of local libraries might be funded.

Yayasan Pustaka Kelana
Jl. Kelapa Puan Timur III
NB4/18 Kelapa Gading Permai
Jakarta Utara

tel. 4501848/4530572
e-mail: mardjono@cbn.net.id

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