Balai Pustaka: Jakarta, Indonesia

Jakarta is situated in the north-western coast on Indonesia's main island of Java and sits by a bay scattered with many small islands called Kepulauan Seribu or Thousand Islands.

Even though Jakarta sits on a flat plain, the mountainous green region of West Java is only 90 minutes away by car. Jakarta occupies an area of 670 square kilometres and is the home of more than 12 million people hailing from all the regions of the archipelago. It is a city steeped in history, of early trading civilisations and is the capital of Indonesia.

There is so much to see and experience in Jakarta. The old buildings and institutions are well worth a visit and the influence of Dutch occupation can still be seen everywhere.

I was intrigued with a story in the JP about the Balai Pustaka and how it is striving to open a new chapter in its long history:

Balai Pustaka was established by the Dutch administration in 1920 under the name Kantoor voor de Volkslectuur (The Peoples's Book Agency).

The colonial administration aimed to distract the attention of Indonesian readers from the emerging anti-Dutch sentiment in the newspapers by offering them literature. It published books in Bahasa Malay, Sundanese and Javanese.

After independence the government took over the agency and changed its name to Balai Pustaka and it became one of the most important institutions in the country's literary history.
Balai is still identified with old literary works. Great novels such as Siti Nurbaya, Salah Asuhan, Sengsara Membawa Nikmat and Atheist are among the novels it has published over the years.

Didik J. Rachbini of the National Mandate Party once said that he was "intellectually raised" by the books Balai published.
"But the facts are different now. To me, Balai Pustaka is no more than a broken institution" the Balai Pustaka workers union quoted him as saying during a hearing at the House of Representatives last month.

Due to financial constraints Balai cooperated with private companies in printing and marketing its books including old literary works published with new covers and layouts. "Balai Pustaka sells its brand and gets only 10 percent of the profits" Sabda said.

The company's production control and development division head, Mappa Tutu, said cooperation with third parties was not actually a bad thing as long as it was profitable.
"However if we have the resources to print and market the books ourselves, why give them to others?" Mappa said.

From 2000 to 2006 Balai published more than 100 new titles.
Mappa acknowledged that the company was currently declining, while competition in the country's publishing industry is getting tougher. "We definitely need to change.,