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House'€™s library construction plan sparks criticism from lawmakers

House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin (left) and Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan lead a coordination meeting with faction leaders at the House complex on March 15

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Tue, March 29, 2016

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House'€™s library construction plan sparks criticism from lawmakers

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span class="inline inline-center">House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin (left) and Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan lead a coordination meeting with faction leaders at the House complex on March 15. ( Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay )

The House of Representative's plan to build Southeast Asia's biggest library using state funds has created controversy among House members who have argued for alternative ways of using the money to improve the effectiveness of legislative members.

House Deputy Speaker H. Hidayat Nur Wahid said building the library would be a waste as he expressed doubt as to whether House members would make use of it, given that an existing library in the House complex is seldom visited.

"So far, which House members go to the library? God knows the answer. Building the biggest library would just be useless if there is not an existing reading culture in place," Hidayat, a lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.

He also expressed his pessimism that the plan would receive support from the general public because the House had not yet shown maximum productivity. House members' performances should be enhanced, he said, before they demanded additional facilities.

"I am worried that visitors to the library would not even be House members but colleagues of specialized staff," Hidayat added.

He said there were other ways to improve the performance of House members aside from building a luxurious library, such as taking advantage of the large number of books available on the internet.

Meanwhile, the Gerinda Party faction also expressed its disagreement to the library construction, pointing out the current unfavorable economic conditions. "The government has a deficit of almost Rp 300 trillion [US$22.47 billion]. All budget allocations are being cut. The House should not be stubborn [in its desire to build a library]," said Gerindra faction head Ahmad Muzani.

He said the House could afford to delay the project and make do with the existing library. If the book collection was deemed incomplete, members could search at other libraries, bookstores or even online, Muzani added.

The Nasdem Party faction expressed similar concerns and pointed out that a large number of House members actually preferred to access electronic books via the internet.

"Currently the trend points to a shift from physical lending of books toward e-books and e-libraries, therefore the whole library concept should be revisited so that it can be adjusted to the developments of information and technology," said faction deputy chairman Johnny G. Platte.

He suggested that the House would be better off improving the wireless internet network at the legislative complex so that members could access e-books with ease.

Johnny said the funds required for improving internet capacity would be significantly lower than the amount needed to build the biggest library in Southeast Asia. The remainder of the funds could be allocated to infrastructure development, creating new jobs at the same time, he added.

House Speaker Ade Komarudin revealed plans to build the library after a closed-door meeting with noted intellectuals, including poet Nirwan Dewanto, writer Nirwan Ahmad Arsuka and public figures Rizal Mallarangeng, Ulil Abshar Abdala and Nong Darol Mahmada.

The design is said to imitate that of the US Library of Congress and would need Rp 570 billion from this year'€™s budget for new legislative buildings.

Ade urged the House to immediately start planning the library, arguing that it would not be difficult to realize the project. In comparison to the region's current largest library, Singapore'€™s National Library, which has 500,000 books, the proposed new library would need only 550,000 to 600,000 to be the largest in Southeast Asia, Ade added. (liz/bbn)(+)

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