Yesterday afternoon, I visited the Gramedia bookstore in central Jakarta, because I haven't visited in a long time and bought books at this store. But how surprised I was when I saw the state of this bookstore. The bookstore that I used to frequent was very big, comfortable, and lots of customers came to buy books or just read. But now the bookstore is almost closed, and few visitors come here.
The air conditioning (AC) in this bookstore is no longer working, so they just hang a fan in the corner of the room, the employees are only cashiers, and the books sold are also few, mostly just novels. This place is very sad now, much different from when I was a child, I still remember when I was in elementary and junior high school, how happy I was when I visited this bookstore, I often bought and read comics here, even when I was in high school and college I also often bought philosophy and politics books in this bookstore.
All my memories have faded because this bookstore seems to be closing permanently, Maybe this is because Indonesian people are very lazy to read. I've been to several bookstores, all of which have experienced a decline in sales and many are permanently closed. No wonder the Indonesian people continue to be poor and stupid in this century.
The reason I say that is because I was born and raised in Indonesia. Lots of people in Indonesia do things that are beyond common sense, I see on the highway there are five motorbikes without helmets, some like to litter, some move from village to village. cities to live like celebrities in soap operas and social media, etc.
Big cities in Indonesia are also getting worse, in this city only migrants whose jobs are not clear, motorbike riders, and minibus drivers just ride on the highway without regard for the safety of others.
Not only the people, but even the government in Indonesia also often do things that don't make sense, the policies they create fool and impoverish the people. The behavior of the government often makes the people hate them, even many governments are trapped in the desire to commit corruption, collusion, and nepotism so that the Indonesian nation is damaged.
The Indonesian people and their government do a lot of useless things in their spare time. Usually, they only see meaningless social media, ranging from celebrity gossip, conspiracy theories, to pornography. Few people like philosophy and science. Now everything is clear that many Indonesians do not have common sense because they are lazy to read books. So, their insight and thinking are very narrow.
Why are Indonesians so lazy to read? The main cause of lazy interest in reading in Indonesia is because the culture of reading and writing has not yet developed. Indonesians still use oral culture, so all knowledge must be conveyed directly, this causes knowledge to only be obtained by certain circles.
Not only that, in this case, the government has failed to increase people's interest in reading. There are no programs made by the government to increase interest in reading, even publishers and writers have never been supported by the government. So, what has the education minister in Indonesia been doing all this time? One more thing that makes Indonesians lazy to read is that they do not understand the benefits of reading, Indonesians have not felt the pleasure of reading quality books.
I want to invite my friends, especially Indonesians, to read books. Reading books is very useful, especially reading quality books, it will make us healthy and happy because the brain and body will be stimulated from the various knowledge contained in the book.
Not only that, reading books will reduce stress, make us smarter, make us civilized and moral, add insight, increase memory, increase the ability to focus on doing things, and entertain ourselves with ideas and imagination. There are so many benefits to be gained from reading books, right?
Therefore, we all must be diligent in reading books. Reading quality books is certainly very different when we read content on social media or watch the news on television. To be a superior and quality society we must have a healthy mind and conscience, this can be obtained by reading quality books. The government must also make programs and policies that can foster interest in reading for the community. That way we will all become a just and prosperous nation.
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You are so right. I am a compulsory book reader and have been reading since I was 3 years old. I consider it the single most important activity in my life, because with it follows so much. All aspects of life are positively affected by reading.
What you say about Indonesia still being an oral culture, goes for many others too. Sadly, I think that sort of mindset is spreading with an international culture being more focused on television and film - even on internet there are an increasing use of videos instead of text.