Indonesia has less than a month to prepare for the prestigious London Book Fair (LBF), as the government only recently made the decision confirming its participation.

The 2020 LBF will be held from March 10 to 12 at the Olympia exhibition center in London. More than 25,000 publishers, booksellers, librarians and literary agents from more than 100 countries are set to attend the fair, making it the second-biggest exhibition after the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Indonesia has participated in the event since 2015 with the help of the National Book Committee (KBN) under the Education and Culture Ministry. In 2018, the now-defunct Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) took the lead after Indonesia was chosen to be the market focus at the book fair.

Bekraf, however, was merged into the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry in a Cabinet restructuring last October, with a number of senior ministry officials only being inaugurated last Wednesday, including Yuana Astuti, the creative economy marketing directorate head who is now mandated to handle the upcoming LBF.

Yuana said she had contacted the LBF committee on Monday. “The show must go on. Happily the LBF committee understands our situation and has let us join the event in March,” she said.

The reorganization of the ministry meant that the funding allocated for the LBF could not yet be disbursed and, therefore, the payment would be made in April, according to Yuana. The LBF committee, she said, had agreed and asked for a guarantee letter to secure the payment.

The ministry also missed the deadline set by the LBF committee to submit design and promotion materials on Feb. 7. 

“I’m not sure if we can carry on. The stand construction needs a month, minimum. Even the deadline for sending the material is today [Feb. 7],” KBN head Laura Bangun Prinsloo said last Friday.

The LBF market focus program, which is run in partnership with the British Council, aims to enhance business opportunities among Indonesian, British and global publishers as well as celebrate Indonesian authors and books through several cultural events. During the 2019 LBF, Indonesia sold the translation rights to 23 book titles.

The market focus contract was signed in 2018 and lasted for three years until 2020, binding Indonesia to also engage in the LBF pre-and post-events, which include writer exchanges, literary festivals, discussions about the book industry and events where United Kingdom publishers can buy the right to publish Indonesian books.

Another problem that put Indonesia’s participation in the coming LBF at risk was the expired KBN decree.

The book committee’s decree expired in December 2019, but Education and Culture Ministry secretary-general Ainun Na’im has said that his office will not renew the decree, putting the KBN’s very existence at risk. He, however, declined to be drawn as to why.

Yuana said she had not heard from the education ministry about the KBN’s status. However, she said a new committee to curate selected writers who would represent Indonesia in the London fair was currently being formed by the education ministry.

“Next week, there will be a meeting between both ministries. We hope that everything will be settled by next week. We still need to address the visa arrangement as well,” Yuana said.

Indonesia is the largest book producer in Southeast Asia and foreign interest in Indonesian literature is steadily rising, according to the KBN. Indonesia sold 114 translation rights in 2012. After the KBN’s establishment in 2015, the country sold 172 book titles in the same year, 219 titles in 2016 and more than 300 titles in 2019.

The possible termination of the book committee also brings up the question as to who or what would take over the role of promoting Indonesian books to the international market and audience.

Laura expressed hope the government would create a specific agency to oversee Indonesian literature, rather than just a committee to promote Indonesian books.

The KBN head cited as examples the Singapore Book Council, the Philippines National Book Development Board and the National Book Council of Malaysia. (aly)