SAVE PDS H.B.

JASSIN: SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR THE CULTURAL HERITAGE

Ahmad Subhan Wasting our works means to waste our lives, our history, past, present, future. Documentation is a tool to extend, deepen and expand life. (Hans Bague Jassin) Background The history of Indonesia recorded the rise and fall of public libraries established by individuals, for example, Library of the Idayu Foundation, Adam Malik Library, and Hatta Library, just to mention a few. Pendit (2008) noted that the private libraries tend to exist as long as the founders are still alive. Those libraries have faded away when the founder or the early supporters were gone , either because they passed away or they were no longer actively involved. On the subject of a public library that originally was a private library is what the author wanted to convey in this paper. The Pusat Dokumentasi Sastra H.B. Jassin (HB Jassin Center for Literary Documentation) has nearly collapsed but was saved by a social movement called #Koinsastra (Literary Coin Collecting Movement). Pusat Dokumentasi Sastra (PDS) H.B. Jassin is a treasure for the people of Indonesia. PDS is a source of knowledge both for Indonesian and the world to know the identity of Indonesia through literature. Therefore, PDS is indeed a cultural heritage of Indonesia. PDS H.B. Jassin as cultural heritage Hosagrahar (2009) wrote, heritage is that which is handed down from the past; it is what a people have inherited from their ancestors. This statement is quite relevant to the existence of PDS HB Jassin which from the start has been collecting and documenting Indonesian literature of the past and present. Furthermore, still according to Hosagrahar, cultural heritage expresses the cumulative knowledge and experience of generations, affirming and enriching cultural identities. As a repository of human knowledge, and a record of human achievement, cultural heritage is often considered to be the legacy not only of a community or a nation but of humankind. Ignas Kleden, an Indonesian sociologist who is familiar with Indonesian belles lettres, wrote that to understand the politics of Indonesia, the researchers must go to Olin Library at Cornell University because this library has a complete collection on Indonesian politics. To study economics of Indonesia, researchers must go to Canberra, Australia. To study the origins and development of Bahasa Indonesia, Hamburg and Kyoto are the ideal places. However, only in Jakarta, the researchers can find the most complete collection of Indonesian literary works, namely at PDS H.B. Jassin (Kleden, 2004: 198). The oldest collection owned by PDS is on Chinese Malay literature which was popular in the early decades of the twentieth century. According to the study of Claudine Salmon (1985), the Chinese community in Indonesia was highly instrumental in forming an idea about the identity of Indonesia in the early decades of the twentieth century, through literary works and the publication of newspapers. It was this community that had been popularizing literatures to the Indonesian people.

Literary works are important as reference sources to study the identity of Indonesia. Also as collective memory for the Indonesian themselves. Kleden (2004: 8) stated that a work of literature can not escape from the conditions of the community and cultural situations where the work was produced, even if the author deliberately tries to keep a distance and even make a conscious transcendence of pitfalls of the social and cultural problems that exist in the society. Literature is not a revelation from heaven, Kleden stated. Kledens statement strengthens the result of the study of Sumardjo (1981: 25) which indicates that most Indonesian novels rely on the formal realism, thereby novels by Indonesian authors can become a mirror about a situation. Sumardjo believes a lot of social information can be drawn from those literary works. The belief that text especially literary works are considered as collective memory can be referred to Renante Lachmann as cited by Erll Renante Lachmann & Nunning (2005: 271) who stated that literary works, especially the canonical ones, are the storage media and at the same time as media to spread the values currently prevaile in a society. Benedict Anderson's work concerning the role of print capitalism, especially the newspapers, also shows that the text is an instrument which can build an imagination about togetherness of a nation (imagined community). Based on the thoughts mentioned above it is clear that the literary works can be considered as cultural heritage of a nation for it is a portrayal of its history and identity. H.B. Jassin and PDS H.B. Jassin In the history of the Indonesian literature, there are two names well known as literati cum documentator, Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006) and Hans Bague Jassin (1917-2000). There are at least six epithets often referred to H.B. Jassin, namely: as author, literary works documentator, translator, literary critic, Indonesian Literary Defender, and Defender of Freedom to Write. H.B. Jassin was also dubbed as the Paus Sastra Indonesia. In Bahasa the word Paus has two meanings. First, Paus means the whale, the largest fish on earth. And the other meaning is Paus as a translation of the word Pope in English. Both meanings equally demonstrate H.B. Jassin as a major figure in the Indonesian literary world. H.B. Jassin is an example of a prolific writer with his literary works he had gathered diligently. Here are some statements from H.B. Jassin himself: The more books we have, the more our knowledge, as well as the more works we can write. Documentation, for me personally has given the passion and excitement for it yields an accumulation of results of studies, speeches, literary criticism, anthologies, and compilations With the documentation, we become familiar with the problems of literature and authors, their background and history. In an article entitled H.B. Jassin Literature and Documentation, Eneste (1987) traced the background that made H.B. Jassin a very diligent documentator. According to Eneste, Jassin's awareness about the importance of documentation grew in his family, due to the influence of his father who had a personal library and frequently asked Jassin to borrow books from his school library.

Eneste also noted that Jassin stored books orderly and neatly since he was a high school student (1927-1932). I do not want any of my books are torn and broken, Jassin said to Eneste. Jassin learned about documentation when he was working for five months at a district level government office on the island of Sulawesi in 1939. PDS H.B. Jassin Initially, the collection contained in the PDS is privately owned by H.B. Jassin. Jassin stored some of his personal collection at home, while a portion was left at the house of his brother, and the rest were stored at the government agencies that deal with the development of Bahasa Indonesia. In sympathy with the persistence and perseverance of H.B. Jassin, as well as due to the requests of various parties who saw the need to maintain HB Jassins collections seriously, the Governor of DKI Jakarta (1966 -1977), Ali Sadikin, offered a building in the area of Taman Ismail Marzuki to house Jassin's private collections. The building is now recognized as the PDS H.B. Jassin. PDS H.B. Jassin Foundation was established in June 28, 1976 to manage the Center. Since 1977, DKI Jakarta Regional Government has provided a subsidy to the foundation. PDS is located on the second floor of Galeri Cipta II Building in Taman Ismail Marzuki, Cikini Raya Street, Central Jakarta. PDS caters library services to the visitors and anyone who wants to find information related to the Indonesian literature. They were teachers, students, writers, from within and outside the country who were writing scholarly works on Indonesian literature. PDS has a reading room and provides photocopying services. Collection of PDS H.B. Jassin Types of collection 1 Fiction books 2 Nonfiction books 3 Reference collection 4 Drama scripts 5 Folders contain collection of writings about an author's profile 6 Folders contain news clippings about the literary works in Indonesia 7 Photographs of authors 8 Papers on Indonesian literature 9 Thesis and dissertations on Indonesian literature 10 Audio collection on Indonesian poems 11 Audio-visual collection on Indonesian poems Number 16 316 titles 11 990 titles 457 titles 772 titles 750 folders 15 552 folders 610 sheets 571 titles 630 titles 732 cassette tapes 15 videotapes

Constraint experienced by PDS H.B. Jassin The economic crisis that hit Indonesia in 1997-1998 contributed an impact on the PDS. The crisis led this documentation center to become limped in undertaking maintenance of the document. The difficulty has in fact already occurred long before 1998, referring to the testimony of the President of the Ikatan Sarjana Ilmu Perpustakaan dan Informasi Indonesia (ISIPII), Harkrisyati Kamil who had been working at the PDS in the late 1970s until the first quarter of 1980. It's not unusual when the air conditioning was turned off. The first time it occurred when this documentation center was formally established in 1977, and six months later we could not afford the electricity. Hence the AC had to be turned off completely, Harkrisyati Kamil said. To save money, the manager was forced to turn off the air conditioning at 3.00 pm. In fact, the air conditioning should be a on for 24 hours a day to keep the temperature and humidity in the storage room stable so that the collection is not easily damaged. Access by users of the old collections also pose a risk of damage. Published books of the 1900s are already fragile so that they get easily torn or destroyed when held or copied. The limited fund available to manage PDS has made the administrators of the Center unable to optimally maintain the collection. No wonder that at every corner of the room in PDS there remain on the floor piles of documents, either in the form of paper, folders of various sizes, as well as various kinds of newspapers which become yellowish over time. They must be shelved but there is not enough space to put a new book stack. Since it depends on subsidy from government, PDS apparently can not expect a lot of funds disbursed by the local government of Jakarta. From year to year, the budget for H.B. Jassin PDS continues to be reduced. Ajip Rosidi, a member of the Foundation Board of PDS H.B. Jassin, said that in 2003 PDS received Rp. 500 million per year. But when Fauzi Bowo became the Governor of Jakarta, in 2007 the budget for the PDS was cut by 50 percent, so the amount was Rp. 250 million. After my protests, the governor finally add Rp. 100 million more, Rosidi said. In 2008, PDS still received as much as Rp. 350 million, but in 2009 the budget for the PDS was only Rp. 175 million. In 2010, it was cut again to become Rp. 165 million only. Finally, in 2011, through government decree signed by the Governor of Jakarta, PDS could just raise a subsidy of Rp. 50 million a year. Our saving is already empty. No more fund can be drawn to cover the shortage of operating budget of PDS, Rosidi said. Therefore Rosidi then stated that if the PDS could only raise as much as Rp. 50 million, then the PDS H.B. Jassin Foundation board would have to decide to close PDS. The decision to close PDS then spread by word of mouth among the Indonesian literati. The emergence of the movement Initially it was a tweet. On March 18, 2012, an author named Sitok Srengenge tweeted through his twitter account about the endangered PDS that might be closed due to lack of fund. The tweet then was re-tweeted by the followers of Sitok Srengenge and was red by a man named Krishna Pabhicara. Here is an excerpt from a note in Pabhicara 's facebook account about the case: Friday afternoon (18/03, 13:15) I opened my twitter account. Yet a few minutes later, the tragic news came like a slap on my face: PDS H.B. Jassin will be closed due to lack of funding, the management threatened. Soon I was in contact

with my friends on twitter to launch more vigorous news, as well as to look for alternative ways to avoid the bankruptcy of PDS H.B. Jassin Pabhicara was worried and he then decided to discuss the issue with his friends who were authors. On this subject, Pabhicara wrote, To all of my twitter friends I immediately sent an invitation to think about the existence of PDS H.B. Jassin. Not a moment passed, all are intent to be a savior angel. Everything is backed by love and anxiety. A mounting love of civilization stored in the PDS H.B. Jassin, and anxiety grew to imagine the fate of future generations if they have to lose the PDS H.B. Jassin. Not just through twitter, Pabhicara also used facebook to disseminate his concern. He texted his friends that he believed have a love and concern for the fate of PDS H.B. Jassin. As a result, before 19.00 oclock, came the idea of raising support for the palace of literature that was built with all the love by H.B. Jassin. The problem is, how to raise an idea that can echo to many people? Then, rose the idea of #Koinsastra movement to save PDS H.B. Jassin, Pabhicara wrote. The proliferation of the movement #Koinsastra movement was not popular in Jakarta only. With the help of facebook and twitter, the movement was spread to many cities in Indonesia, among others: Denpasar (Bali), Malang (East Java), Semarang (Central Java), Yogyakarta, Palembang (South Sumatra), Surabaya (East Java ), Bandung (West Java), Balikpapan (Kalimantan), Depok (West Java), Makassar (South Sulawesi), Palu (Central Sulawesi), Kendari (Southeast Sulawesi), and Bogor (West Java). #Koinsastra activities Participants of #Koinsastra have performed a variety of ways to raise funds, such as presenting theatrical performances, circulating donation boxes at colleges, selling paintings by auction, selling pin, publishing books, and giving a charity concert. A charity concert held in Jakarta on 13 April 2011 raised more than Rp. 172 million, two and a half times the amount of the subsidy provided by the city government. #Koinsastra also held a kliping massal programme on May 22, 2011. This activity was held at PDS. This event was attended by 190 people. Ahmad Makki, Kliping Massal event Coordinator, stated that it was meant to involve more people so that they are interested to come to PDS. It is conducted regularly from Monday to Saturday. #Koinsastra Programmes According to Krishna Pabhicara, #Koinsastra is not a temporary activity. Therefore #Koinsastra arrange some activities, namely: 1. #Koinsastra will hold activities to arouse the interest of secondary and high school students in PDS. 2. #Koinsastra activists plan that for every single week there is one school visit to PDS. 3. #Koinsastra seeks the cooperation of the Ministry of Education to recommend high schools to arrange a book tour within the frame of learning the Indonesian language. 4. #Koinsastra volunteers will help PDS in documenting and transferring data to a computer. 5. #Koinsastra requests the communities of book lover, literati, to make the PDS as a venue of their programmes. 6. #Koinsastra plans to digitize the collections of PDS.
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7. #Koinsastra plans to translate several literary works into foreign languages, so that the nation's assets will be more easily appreciated by the readers and researchers from abroad. # Koinsastra as social movement According to Tarrow, Klandermans (2000) define social movement as collective challenges by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interaction with elites, opponents and authorities. Social movements require a collective identity as a remedial glue to build solidarity so as to bring the movement together. About collective identity, Melucci, Klandermans define as an interactive and shared definition produced by several individuals (or groups at a more complex level) and concerned with the orientation of action and field of opportunities and constraints in which the action takes place. Collective identity is then the shared definition of a group that derives from members common interests, and solidarity. Based on the definitions above, #Koinsastra can be called a social movement because this movement is a form of challenge to the elite group (the government of DKI Jakarta) which is considered careless about PDS H.B. Jassin as a cultural heritage. #Koinsastra has a common goal to maintain the sustainability of PDS H.B. Jassin as an institution that holds an important collection of Indonesian literature for the next generations. The sympathizers of #Koinsastra are united by a collective identity, the identity as a movement of people who care about the nation's cultural heritage. Lessons learned From #Koinsastra, we can reap a significant lesson that people actually still care about the libraries that are considered important as an institution that holds the cultural heritage. From this movement we can learn that people are willing to donate funds for the sustainability of a library or documentation center. Librarians may adopt the ways the #Koinsastra movement activists have attempted to assure public support. So are the various forms of creative activities such as mass clippings, theater performances, concerts, charity, and book publishing. Recomendations Here are some recommendations for PDS H.B. Jassin: 1. PDS H.B. Jassin needs to digitize its collections to ensure the preservation of collections, especially the old collections. 2. PDS H.B. Jassin needs to be managed by professional information workers. 3. PDS HBJassin should have a facility that manage the preservation and conservation of the old collections. 4. PDS H.B. Jassin needs to keep cordial relations with the community, especially with the activists of #Koinsastra by providing progress reports about PDS H.B. Jassin performance through media publications as a form of accountability for the support and trust given to the PDS H.B. Jassin. 5. Finally it would be most helpful if the National Library of Indonesia could extend some assistance to PDS HB Jassin either in the form of library technical services or any kind of aid to keep the Center running. One cannot deny the importance of PDS HB Jassin as a major supplement to the social & cultural collection of the National Library.
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Bibliography Anderson, Benedict. 2001. Imagined Community. Komunitas-komunitas Terbayang. Yogyakarta: Insist Press dan Pustaka Pelajar. Eneste, Pamusuk. 1987. H.B. Jassin. Paus Sastra Indonesia. Jakarta: Djambatan. Erll, Astrid & Ansgar Nunning. 2005. Where Literature and Memory Meet: Toward a Systematic Approach to the Concepts of Memory Used in Literary Studies. Dalam Herbert Grabes (ed). Literature, Literary History, and Cultural Memory. Real. Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature. Vol. 21. hal. 261-294. Hosagrahar, Jyoti. 2009. Cultural Heritage. Encyclopedia of Urban Studies. Ed. Ray Hutchison. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 194-99. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. Klandermans, Bert. Social Movements: Trends and Turns. The International Handbook of Sociology. Ed. Stella R. Quah and Arnaud Sales. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2000. 237-55. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. Kleden, Ignas. 2004. Sastra Indonesia dalam Enam Pertanyaan: Esai-esai Sastra dan Budaya. Jakarta: Pustaka Utama Grafiti. Pendit, Putu Laxman. 2008. Membaca Bersama. Dalam Putu Laxman Pendit. Mata Membaca Kata Bersama. Jakarta: Cita Karyakarsa Mandiri. Salmon, Claudine. 1985. Sastra Cina Peranakan dalam Bahasa Melayu. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka. Sumardjo, Jakob. 1981. Segi Sosiologis Novel Indonesia. Jakarta: Pustaka Prima.