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Library and Information Needs of Asian Studies Academics: Indonesia

Oliver Mann, Regional Officer – Asia, National Library of Australia

Paper presented at the “Library and Information Needs of Asian Studies Academics” lunchtime panel at the Asian Studies Association of Australia, 12th Biennial Conference “Asia in Global Context”, Monday 28 September 1998.

Introduction
Current Situation in Indonesia and How It Has Affected Publishing
Some of the Obstacles to Obtaining Information in Indonesia

Introduction

I will not presume to tell you what your library and information needs are, but I can hazard a guess at the obstacles you may encounter obtaining this information, at least from a Jakarta perspective.

Apart from representing the National Library, my principal function is to manage the acquisition of Indonesian publications (books, serials, newspapers, and maps) for the Library, and for the five other libraries that currently participate in the Indonesian Acquisitions Program (the university libraries at Flinders, Monash, Murdoch, the Northern Territory University and the National Library of Singapore).

There is a staff of three in the Regional Office - myself and two Indonesians - and we acquire in every way we can: from bookshops, publishers, suppliers with market contacts, contacts in Government Departments, travel to the provinces, and street sellers at traffic lights. Unlike Australia, you can’t just sit back and order a book - you have to pursue publications in Indonesia.

We acquire about half of what’s published commercially in Indonesia each year - guided by a profile of what type of material the libraries in our Program are seeking. The big challenge is acquiring government, NGO and other non-commercial publications.

Current Situation in Indonesia and How It Has Affected Publishing

The economic crisis in Indonesia has affected newspaper, magazine and book production. Two-third’s of the country’s 286 newspapers and magazines are said to be on the brink of bankruptcy, victims of the high price of newsprint, the plunge in the value of the Rupiah, scant advertising and falling circulation. In fact, not many titles have folded, and some new ones have appeared – 2 recently in Riau and the Suara Independen in Jakarta, and a lot of topical weeklies which I doubt will last - for times are tough in an over-supplied market.

But I think we should not underestimate the impact of the economic crisis in Indonesia. It is estimated that this year the number of Indonesians living below the official poverty line will rise from 20 million to 80 million people. For the remainder of this year 15,000 people will lose their jobs each day - and there’s no social security in Indonesia.

Not withstanding the financial difficulties faced by the media, a crucial milestone was reached on 5 June when Minister of Information Yunus Yosfiah removed a controversial press regulation enacted 14 years ago which gave the Minister the right to revoke publishers’ licences.

The government’s power to revoke licences was widely acknowledged as a major obstacle to freedom of the press in Indonesia. Although there was no official censorship, publishers frequently had to suppress or alter news and exercise self-censorship in order to avoid censure.

Yunus Yosfiah has honored his word by easing restrictions and simplifying licensing procedures for the press, deregulating radio news broadcasting, and pledging that the state-run television network TVRI would become more independent and less prone to government interference.

Indeed, by the end of August, the Minister had signed 90 new publication permits since taking office in May. The Minister believes that the quality of the national press will improve with increased competition. And two foreign newspapers - The Asian Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune have been given the go ahead to begin printing in the country.

Every new policy and every statement Habibie has made since he came to power in May has been subject to scrutiny and criticism - and this is something that just did not happen to Suharto. Taboo subjects under the former regime, such as cronyism and collusion are now reported openly, bluntly and frequently. Habibie has even been ranked in popularity polls - he didn’t fare too well, but the mere publication of such polls is a huge change from the past.

There is also an ironic twist to all this: with the easing of restrictions, some magazines now find that they have to redefine their identity. D&R is the best case in point: it was one of very few publications that dared to be a frequent critic of Suharto, always pushing the limits of official tolerance. Now its solo voice is merely part of a chorus. Articles that until recently D&R would have been usually alone in featuring about corruption and the abuse of power are now regular fare in every publication.

The challenge for the likes of D&R then is to seek out issues that the establishment doesn’t want investigated, for there is still the feeling that the government has changed but not the regime.

But it is true to say, I think, that by the time President Suharto resigned, the Indonesian press had started to rediscover its freedom and its power to influence change. Habibie might want to control the press to serve the interests of the government, but the political and economic environment has changed dramatically - on both fronts the government has lost an enormous amount of credibility since the beginning of this year. Society’s attitudes have changed and are continuing to do so.

When the student reform movement called for Suharto’s resignation they broke a long-standing taboo which was worth a jail sentence. And at first the press was too timid to report these demands. But the demonstrations and the demands grew to such an extent that they had to be reported, and since then the press has never looked back.

The reform movement broke the mental barrier against the freedom of expression, and with it came freedom of the press. And some have observed that freedom of expression is one of the most tangible changes to have occurred in post-Suharto Indonesia.

So now we have a press characterised by open and blunt reporting of the darker side of the Suharto regime, including the abduction of student activisits, the murders in Aceh, and the shooting of the Trisakti University students, and the wealth and collusion of the Suharto family and its cronies. Things that just would not have been reported in the last 3 decades are all coming out into the open now

The impact of the economic crisis on the publishing industry means that it is more difficult to publish books, and those titles that do succeed are appearing in much smaller print runs. Consequently, despite greater freedom it is now more of a challenge to acquire Indonesian imprints.

Thus, the Acquisitions Program is searching harder for new book titles in the remarkably unstructured Indonesian publishing market, and it continues to acquire a comprehensive range of newspapers and serials - including new titles such as:

  • Gema Reformas
  • De Tak (originally De Tik)
  • Megapos
  • Bergerak

The more liberal attitude towards the press has also manifested itself in the book publishing world, though of course it is just as exposed to the economic crisis, and in a sense even more so, because of the higher cost of books.

The Attorney General’s Department has recently revoked its ban on 7 book titles which were critical of the former President and his regime. And these titles are now readily available in the main bookshops. And there are at least another 14 titles likely to have their bans revoked (not unlike the steady release of political prisoners that we have seen in Indonesia since May) - for in the last 3 years 21 books were banned.

One interesting trend that is emerging is the publication of a steady stream of slim monographs, most of which are critical of the current or previous regime. It is reported that books under the reform theme do sell well, (particularly now that they can be sold openly in bookshops) and there may be a few reasons for this trend to slim publications:

  • the high cost of producing more substantial works in difficult economic circumstances [the cost of paper for printing books has risen 3 fold in the past year]
  • cheaper publications are likely to sell in larger numbers,
  • the rush of enthusiasm to publish now that there is freedom of expression (at least for the moment!)

Some of the Obstacles to Obtaining Information in Indonesia

  1. The structure, or rather the lack of structure of the Indonesian publishing industry. For the National Library to acquire a consistent flow of quality Indonesian publications it needs to have a representative in Indonesia to actually identify, pursue and coordinate their acquisition.
  2. The National Bibliography is years out of date by the time it appears, so it’s no real help in acquiring publications - it just shows you what you’ve missed! Because of small print runs, particularly at the moment, if you’re seeking to acquire a book that’s more than 6 months old, you’re going to need to have luck and patience on your side.
  3. New publications are erratically announced or advertised, if at all, and certainly not government publications.
  4. What’s published in the provinces is not available in Jakarta, so you have to travel to acquire regional publications, and a surprising amount is published. So you have an industry characterised by small, localized print runs across an expansive archipelago stretching the same distance as from Singapore to Melbourne!
  5. Serial titles that come and go - particularly in recent times with the flush of enthusiasm for Reformasi. Pursuing missing issues of serial titles is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks in Indonesian acquisitions.
  6. The importance of contacts when acquiring government publications.
  7. Sometimes it is a disadvantage to be a non-Indonesian seeking publications other than those readily available in bookshops. Will Tuchrello and I call this “The Bule Factor”. Having Indonesian staff and suppliers, particularly for acquiring government and some research centre publications is essential.
  8. Web links. The state of Indonesian phone lines makes using them very slow, at least in Indonesia.
  9. Obtaining Indonesian publications for yourself, rather than the Library. First you have to know what’s available, then you need a reliable supplier in Indonesia, with initiative.

A Couple of Further Points

The lead up to next year’s elections will prove interesting, and I’m only referring to the publishing angle! Elections are traditionally a time of increased publishing output, and the 1997 elections were no exception. But these were the tightly controlled days of a mere 3 parties: by the end of last month 64 parties had registered!

Desirable: A comprehensive index to Indonesian serial and newspaper articles: there are lots of worthy piecemeal example s around (Asiarom CD-ROM, BAS, ANU’s efforts) but a one-stop electronic-format index would be a Godsend.

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