Singaraja- Literacy, the word was the topic of discussion at the meeting in the Nitisastra Seminar Room, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Ganesha University of Education (FBS-Undiksha), Thursday (10/2/2022). The topic was listened to by lecturers and students from the Department of Indonesian and Regional Language and Literature. Looking serious is a sign that this topic is interesting. The discussion was also colored as a space to answer curiosity. That is a glimpse of the Literacy Safari event which is one of the programs of the National Library.
“Reading is Healthy, Writing is Great” is a tagline campaigned throughout the event. A tagline that feels simple, but full of meaning. At the same time as a form of “resistance” to the current literacy conditions that are still facing challenges.
Gol A Gong, Indonesian Reading Ambassador was one of the speakers at this event. He considered that currently there is an identity crisis phenomenon in the world of literacy. He gave an example of digital literacy. The direction is not entirely for productive things, but instead is used to spread hatred, a hoax to scare people, insult his friend to kill a character. He emphasized that this phenomenon can be avoided with good literacy. “I’m telling you if you read, you will have a sound mind, a critical mind that those things are not good,” he said.
Specifically for the tagline “Writing is Great”, according to his writing can provide various advantages for writers. Like being a source of income or what he says is bringing in money. Besides that, it is also to show reasoning ability, critical power, and so on. “So I want to tell you that I am a person who is empowered with books, so the impact of reading books is beneficial, worth the money,” he said.
The father of four children also gave a brief view of literacy in Indonesia. During the literacy safari, he saw that in every city, in every activity there was always a book launch. “There were junior high school students who published 200 books in 3 years. So he writes productively, “he said. From these findings, he considered not reading interest or a low reading culture. But what happened was that access to his books was difficult and uneven. This needs to be the concern of related parties, starting from the local government, the campus academic community, as well as writers who come together to realize, and form regional regulations regarding the bookkeeping ecosystem. “Because the state has initiated it in the form of Law Number 3 of 2017 concerning the bookkeeping ecosystem. If there is a regional regulation, then in each region, for example, Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, then North Maluku, and the frontier, outermost, innermost regions can take care of themselves because there is a legal umbrella (perda) regarding the bookkeeping system,” he added.
The implementation of the literacy safari at Undiksha is in collaboration with PT Pegadaian (Persero) CP Singaraja. Branch Manager I Gusti Agung Bagus Diatmika also provided material on literacy. According to him, literacy, especially related to finance, is very beneficial for the community to prevent them from falling into the practice of loan sharks, then unanswered loans. “With this literacy, both friends on campus and the community are also information literate,” he said.
He emphasized his commitment to support the literacy movement so that it is closer to the community. “We want to prevent the community from being bound by bondage practices, so we are also participating in strengthening literacy in the financial sector,” he added.
Dean of the Undiksha Faculty of Languages and Arts, Prof. Dr. I Made Sutama, M.Pd., expressed his appreciation for choosing Undiksha as a place for a literacy safari. “The literacy safari is actually the Jakarta national library program. However, as academics, especially in the field of language and teaching, we feel we have a moral responsibility to support it in the midst of a situation where our society’s literacy is not very good in various ways, be it literacy, technology or economics,” he said.
This activity provides positive benefits, especially for students. FBS will make literacy more massive, including in society. “This is our field and it has actually been carried out several times and must be continued by the study programs here, especially by the Indonesian Language and Literature Study Program, especially with regard to literacy,” he concluded. (hms)
