A child death through lack of money in one of the world’s most resource rich countries.

Reading Ambassador (Duta Baca Indonesia), television celebrity Tantowi Yahya said at the proclamation event in Pontianak for the "West Kalimantan Reads" movement that Indonesians were not voracious readers for largely reasons of poverty:

"Above all it's based on economic factors, on whether families can afford to buy books and newspapers."

Poor families would naturally prioritise food, school fees, and school textbooks, over the purchase of recreational reading material.

He suggested two methods to ameliorate the problem:

• libraries; from the national down to the village level, to enable poor people access to books for free
• parents, especially mothers, should read in front of their children regularly, to sow an interest in reading in their spawn

Tantowi Yahya extolling the virtues of reading

However on at least the first point - libraries - Tantowi said Indonesia still had very far to go in providing adequate public facilities, and that most regional government heads had little interest in developing library facilities:

How many local politicians campaign on building up library infrastructure?

There was one bright spot, he said, that being the province of Riau, where the Governor had built a very big and comprehensive public library right next door to his own office building: [1]

The example of Riau has to be followed in other regions.

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