Letter: Banning cigarette ads

I refer to an article titled "Govt urged to ban cigarette ads," (The Jakarta Post, June 1, p. 1)

I am delighted that the young people have taken to the streets on this life-and-death issue. But it shouldn't be just for one day. There needs to be a concerted pressure until this evil is removed from our streets.

This is a real menace which must be abolished. Since the police don't seem to care about enforcing the law (children on overcrowded motorbikes, for example), I would suggest that unless the government impose a ban in the very near future -- let's give them three months -- we rip down these posters and signboards and (safely) cut off their electricity supply.

Although graffiti is not usually a good thing -- making our streets ugly -- there is nothing more ugly than the sight of these deadly products being promoted to our youth. It is easy to show what the messages really mean and we should make it clear.

"Winners wanted" really means "Losers" to replace the young people who have coughed their last. The pictures of handsome young men climbing mountains and sitting with tigers should be replaced with the same young men falling into lakes of tar and being mauled by the nicotine tigers, which cause amputation through peripheral vascular disease.

Am I advocating breaking the law? If religious leaders can get away with saying that if the government doesn't disband a sect they would take the law into their own evil hands, why should I not say the same for an entirely beneficial purpose?

RAFIQ MAHMOOD
Bogor, West Java