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June 2001 marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of the National Library of Australia’s Regional Office in Jakarta. Oliver Mann describes the challenges of acquiring Indonesian publications in the current era of change and transition In December 1996 I arrived in Jakarta as the National Library of Australia’s new Regional Officer for Asia, taking over the position from Amelia McKenzie who had completed a three-year term. At that time, President Soeharto had been in office for more than 30 years, Indonesia was firmly controlled from Jakarta and the economy was booming. Four years later the scene is completely different: I have witnessed the passage of three of Indonesia’s four Presidents, political, social and economic upheaval, a shattered economy and the devolution of power from Jakarta to the provinces. But the Regional Office, located in the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, continues to play a pivotal role in representing the Library and acquiring publications from South-East Asia. The National Library has one of the world’s foremost collections on contemporary Indonesia. Collecting began in the 1950s and was put on a firm footing with the establishment of an Acquisitions Office in Jakarta in 1971. While the office revitalised to encompass a regional role in 1993, its core function remains the acquisition of Indonesian publications. The Indonesian Acquisitions Program acquires material for the National Library and the libraries at the Australian National University, Northern Territory University, Flinders University, Monash University, Murdoch University, the National Library of Singapore and the British Library. Each library in the program has a specific profile and budget, and material is collected in a range of formatsbooks, serials, newspapers, maps and microform. The Regional Office is a conduit of publications from the region: Indonesian material for the National Library and the seven participating libraries in the Indonesian Acquisitions Program, and publications acquired for the Library from Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines through the Library of Congress’ South-East Asia Cooperative Acquisitions Program, also based in Jakarta. The Indonesian Acquisitions List, published quarterly, details the Indonesian publications acquired by the Regional Office for the National Library and participants in the Acquisitions Program. The Regional Office also manages the National Library’s Indonesian Internet Sites web page which has more than 200 links to select Indonesian sites on the web. The reason the Acquisitions Office was established in Jakarta 30 years ago remains as valid today as it did in 1971: the unstructured state of the publishing industry in Indonesia necessitates a presence in the country to seek, select and acquire commercial, government and non-governmental organisation publications for the Library. The book trade is not equipped to deal with overseas customers. Acquiring publications in Indonesia is a challenge; first one has to find out what has been published, then one has to work out how to acquire it! Even the largest bookstore chain in the country stocks different titles from one store to another in the chain. In addition, titles published outside Jakarta, in the provinces across the far-flung archipelago, are only available locally; to acquire them (and thereby provide a balance to an industry centred in Java) one has to travel to the provinces. The United States Library of Congress and the Dutch Royal Institute for Linguistics and Anthropology (KITLV) also maintain acquisitions offices in Jakarta. There is a commonality of purpose, but wide variation in collecting profiles, between the three offices. Unfolding in Indonesia from 1997, a rapid sequence of events has had a profound, continuing effect on the publishing industry and consequently on the acquisitions activities of the Regional Office in Jakarta. Indonesia has experienced fundamental economic, political and social change since the Asian economic crisis hit hard that year, throwing millions of Indonesians out of work (currently there are 50 million Indonesians living below the poverty line). The political, social and economic instability that has affected the country since then has impinged on the activities of the Regional Office in ways that are difficult to conceive in the Australian library environment. Change has affected every aspect of society in Indonesia, including the publishing industry.
The Asian economic crisis caused a slump in the Indonesian publishing industry which continues to be felt today. Even long-established magazines such as the literary Prisma and the weekly news D&R have folded as a result of the crisis. The Ford Foundation in conjunction with the Indonesian Publishers’ Association (IKAPI) launched an admirable, short-term rescue program of providing financial backing for significant publications that would not otherwise have been published because of the paucity of capital in the industry. But it remains the case that it is more difficult today to acquire publications than before the crisis because fewer titles are being published and print runs are shorter (sometimes as few as 1000 copies, which is very small in a country of more than 200 million people). In the government sector the situation is worse because of budget cuts, staff reductions and restructuring. A case in point this year has been the Government Gazette (Berita Negara) which has proved to be an acquisitions nightmare because it has been produced in very limited quantities. Even the government’s Indonesia 2001: An Official Handbook is 20 pages slimmer than last year. The other new stumbling block in acquisitions work is that the current social and political unrest affecting various parts of the country precludes travel to some provinces in search of local publications. The resignation of President Soeharto in 1998 was complemented by a complete lifting of restrictions on freedom of expression (even the formerly pervasive Department of Information has been disbanded). Gone are the days when one of the best places to purchase controversial publications was at the traffic lights, where vendors hawked ‘hot issues’ while keeping a wary eye out for the authorities. A publishing frenzy accompanied the change of regime in Indonesia and the first wave of freedom of the free press, after 30 years of tight formal and informal censorship, was characterised by a proliferation of brief, sensational booklets known as buku cepat (quick books)mostly outbursts of frustration and accusations against the former regime. Freedom of the press has seen the resurrection of banned journals such as Tempo and DėTik, the birth of new journals and newspapers (many of which folded after a few issues), and new radio and television stations (with lots of talkback shows!). The banned works of authors such as Pramoedya Ananta Toer re-emerged (though to this day Toer’s works are still officially banned), others present controversial opinions on past and present Indonesian governments, and the previously repressed ethnic Chinese press is flourishing. Freedom of the press heralds publications without the need for official sanction or the fear of official retribution. Consequently, the range of topics published has greatly expanded. One interesting trend in the past year has been the serious rewriting of history, debunking ‘myths’ surrounding former regimes Understandably, this far-reaching liberalisation is not universally welcomed. Supporters of both the former Soeharto regime and the current President, Abdurrahman Wahid, dislike and at times vigorously and violently discourage criticism published about their respective leaders. Others are concerned that unrestrained reporting is destabilising brittle ethnic and religious elements of the Indonesian social fabric. Overall though, this new found freedom of expression has been welcomed, and some observe that freedom of expression is one of the few enduring reforms that have benefited Indonesia since 1998. But it is ironic that, despite the lifting of censorship restrictions, it is now more difficult to obtain publications in Indonesia because of the economic, social and political problems besetting the country. Aside from acquiring Indonesian publications, the Regional Officer is also called upon to represent the National Library at conferences and meetings in Indonesia and the neighboring countries of South-East Asia. Such representation and acquisitions fieldtrips have recently been made to Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. In Indonesia, the Regional Officer is in regular contact with institutions such as the National Library of Indonesia, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, the ASEAN Secretariat and the World Bank. When I arrived in Indonesia, I of course had no idea that I was coming to a country on the verge of great change. There have been several highlights in the sometimes turbulent period I have been in Jakarta. Firstly, in the tense days surrounding the resignation of President Soeharto we passed through tank blockades to get to work at the Regional Office in the Embassy. Secondly, on the day after the President resigned it was very difficult to acquire the few (but highly significant) newspapers that had been printed, and my driver spent all day riding around Jakarta’s unusually near-deserted streets on a borrowed motorbike in search of newspapers. Thirdly, from the time of the East Timor independence protests outside the Embassy, I acquired a representative range of protesters’ banners from the Embassy railings. These banners now form part of the collections in the Australian Archives. Last year the National Library extended an Australia Day Award to the three staff in the Regional Office (Ibu Nin and Pak Sukirdi and myself) in recognition of our determined efforts to keep the office functioning efficiently under sometimes difficult and challenging circumstances. I have been very fortunate to be here at this time to witness a society in transition. It has also afforded a unique opportunity for the Regional Office to strengthen the National Library’s already first-rate collections on our most important neighbour at a crucial stage in the country’s history. Oliver Mann has been the Library’s Regional Officer in Jakarta since December 1996. Prior to this appointment he was Research Resources Librarian at the Northern Territory University in Darwin. He has a long-standing interest and experience in South-East Asia |
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