" If the word of God had come down to the Indonesian archipelago this is where it would have been "
-. John H. McGlynn, co-founder and chairman of Lontar Foundation
much of the world, Indonesia is an exotic country is next to Bali and Java, where the coffee comes. It is as a land of smiles, the Gamelan, spices, volcanoes, Komodo dragons and photogenic rice terraces viewed
It is also seen in the international media as a land of natural and man-made disasters. Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, airplane crashes, deforestation and occasional terrorism.
There are few foreigners who make the effort to dig deeper to find out what Indonesia tick. A Jakarta expat who has, and has also more than most of us do, so Indonesia ticking, John McGlynn is.
Although we have friends in common, we had not been met, yet I had visited the Lontar Foundation center in a side street of Pejompongan, Central Jakarta. From the outside it is looking for a modern house, but once impressed inside I by the comfort; dark wood floors creaked several niches were to provide with full but neat wooden bookshelves, and there was enough comfortable rattan chairs, the familiarity of a well-run library. I was very impressed with the large oil painting that could be classified as "Indonesian art" not easily, but the ambience.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Lontar that is for their translations in English Indonesian noted "literature", a word often capitalized that. As a non-academic, I viewed with some trepidation I was taught 'classic novels' to analyze and not look at the stories and the background circumstances of writing. But John defines "literature" in the broadest sense of the word, "as in the field of research reports, scientific papers and patent regulations to film all the way up scripts, comic novels and poetry."
John first came here in 1976 to study Indonesian, which he did for the first time in Malang and later in Jakarta, at the University of Indonesia. In 1978 he returned to the US to complete his studies, a master's degree in Indonesian literature at the University of Michigan in 1981. After winning, he returned to Indonesia and it was while working as a freelance translator, he along with Indonesian writer Sapardi Djoko Damono, Goenawan Mohamad, Subagio Sastrowardoyo and Umar Kayam decided Lontar to found in 1987
Lontar is primarily Johns "Baby". As Pak Goenawan said, "John worked unswervingly for our purpose; to bring Indonesian literary expressions in the world."
Even for a polyglot, which is no easy matter. The lingua franca during the Dutch colonial era was Malay, the language developed in the region by traders over a thousand years. It was originally written in an Indic script and then, after the arrival of Islam in the archipelago, in an Arabic-based script called Jawi.
Jawi script
, the Dutch linguist Charles van Ophuijsen will then in 101 conducted a systematic Spelling, one that matched with the Dutch spelling practices. In 1947, after the revolution of Indonesian Independence, this notation system was replaced with Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan (Improved spelling). The EYT system thus represents the third orthographic change.
Indonesian grew with Javanese, spoken by the majority, and added other regional languages of complexity. Only in 1972 that EYT system with Malaysia agreed that had involved the College and its own regional languages and thus Soeharto was Suharto and Jakarta was Jakarta.
All this was largely irrelevant could not read and write most Indonesians, the high proportion of them. In rural Indonesia and urban kampungs the fantasy worlds such Hindu classics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata stories from visiting dalang (puppeteer) who forwarded their moral values and during Soeharto of were related Orde Baru often inserted his political messages.
In 1870, some of the Dutch founded schools opened the doors for Bumiputera (native Indonesians), though a few privileged. Moreover, it was not until 1950 that a six-year program of compulsory primary education was introduced to the newly independent Indonesia.
Thus, when Soeharto taken power in 1966, the literacy rate was c.50%. The adoption of "The Functional Literacy Programme", which ran until 1979 from 1966 and was followed by other programs, raised the literacy rate of c.83% for adults and for children under C.0% in 1998, the year Suharto (was ) stood down. But her goal was not for freedom of thought for the economic, productive reasons.
In contrast, writing, especially fiction, the context of the "place" has, and in John's words, "the better books have real people in them" and can therefore be subversive - a lot of Indonesian literature has nationalist struggle as the historical background. Post-independence, locked up with the bureaucracy and military available, President Sukarno and Suharto and exiled writers. The dawn of reformasi in 1998 and the growth of the Internet and other communication technology has on text seen many more Indonesians news, blogs, social media and novels.
But what John speaks out in the essay writing silenced voices Steamed expressions for an anthology of New Writing from Indonesia Indonesian Literature today from the University of Hawaii published in 00 applies today. He wrote. "Having grown up under restrictions on freedom of expression and of the investigation, a whole generation has been traumatized in always a society of peace and prevention until the youth was brought up today the way of repression and a new generation have forgotten their right to freedom of expression is true openness and democracy come to respect to Indonesia and defend. "
There is also the need to promote the love of reading in early childhood that believes John, should begin at home , However, although I think that schools play a greater role, many parents and teachers still have inculcated the mentality during the Suharto regime, and only those who are enlightened, and not narrow-minded promote prejudice or selfishness, freedom of thought caused by easy access to fiction.
is Good Writing Well read and access to it. So is a Lontar objectives is "to stimulate the further development of Indonesian literature."
In addition to its library of printed materials containing more than 3,000 books, and other Indonesian literature related to texts, maintains the Foundation a digital library which provides maintenance and access to materials from the foundation of his 20 produced -year history and collected, including:
- videos of the Indonesian Writers series, Indonesian performance traditions, and Wayang Kulit / shadow puppet theater series
- audio interviews and recordings with Indonesian authors and witnesses of significant events in the history of Indonesia
-. Archive photographs of traditional manuscripts, colonial postcards and historical images from the new Order of the present
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
John McGlynn -. Image of Frendi
John says that the goal of Lontar "promote knowledge of Indonesia through its literature" to be, and it is natural that he for preparing Indonesia as guest of honor in Frankfurt Indonesian National Committee -. 2015 "a member of is
, the first Frankfurt book Fair soon after the movable type printing press near 1439 in 1949. today exhibition of the world's largest and most prestigious book is, it invented Revived Johannes Gutenberg took place since. 1986 a country or region was chosen as a "guest of honor".
but with several ministries and a large number of departments involved and the Goethe-Institut, Lontar and others, he thinks that the preparations should have started earlier when to also have only a larger selection of books in Frankfurt as the end of last year.
over the years John has worked with more than 100 translators and from the well knows, time needed to make a to produce literary translation that "to the original text both felicitous and appealing to the target audience." A worrying fact is that this 100 translators "not more than a dozen are both really fluent in both Indonesian and English."
John also notes that "for the rest, is a heavy dose of machining typically required"
However, good news has been added recently. the Ministry of Education and Culture has a translation program that establishes "I-Lit (Indonesian Literature in Translation) program".
For those who love to wear on their travels many books, the Kindle is perfect, John says, but we both agree that goes with such devices lost something. Printed books are shared, and you can by browsing their shelves of well-thumbed books.
Lontar Books are learning in Indonesia at Periplus bookstores and abroad by Amazon as a print-on-demand paperback lot about people. They are also available as e-books through book Cyclone
site :. Http://lontar.org/
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