One of the convicted smokers, Liem Asan, 63, however, expressed disappointment over Thursday's trial, despite being fined only Rp 40,000, significantly lower than the maximum fine of Rp 50 million as stipulated in the bylaw.

"I didn't know there was such a bylaw. It's even more disappointing as I was arrested while smoking in a relative's store. The smoke was not disturbing other people," Liem told The Jakarta Post after the trial.

Surabaya municipal public order officers (Satpol PP) caught Liem red-handed while smoking at Jembatan Merah Plaza on Sunday.

Two other smokers were arrested the same day at the shopping center. The officers also seized four packets of cigarettes from the smokers.

The 2008 bylaw on non-and limited smoking areas stipulates that shopping centers, other public places and offices are limited smoking areas, while places of worship, children's playgrounds and educational institutions are strictly non-smoking.

The bylaw also obliges the management of limited and non-smoking areas to place "no smoking" signs and designate separate smoking rooms in their respective areas. Failing to do so, they could have their licenses revoked and face a fine of up to 50 million.

"If they want to be fair, they also have to apply the same sanctions to other buildings ignoring the bylaw," said Liem.

He added the building management of many private and government offices in the city seemed to have ignored the bylaw by not providing smoking rooms.

Separately, the municipal Satpol PP's civil servant investigator, Moesaffah, said that although the fine given to the violators was far below the sanction stipulated in the bylaw, the trials were expected to prove to the public that the bylaw would be enforced.

"We will keep conducting raids in shopping centers, railway stations and places categorized as limited smoking areas," Moesaffah said.

He admitted that many of the shopping centers in Surabaya had yet to prepare special rooms for smoking. However, he said, his office would keep issuing both oral and written warnings.

"We don't have the authority to ban their licenses," he said.

Surabaya Mayor Bambang Dwi Hartono said his administration would coordinate with other related institutions, including the police, to take stern actions, such as fining people on the spot, instead of taking them to court.

"Such measures are necessary to avoid long queues at the district court especially because of the tight trial schedules at court," Bambang told reporters.

"That way violators *of the bylaw on smoking* will not need to wait for long to have their cases tried at the court," he added.

Trials on the spot, Bambang went on, would also prevent scalpers from reaping the benefits from the violations. In the long run, he said, such measures would also be imposed on traffic violators.

"The measures will be similar to those in Singapore, where the police has the authority to directly try traffic violators with the control of CCTV cameras placed in every corner of the street," he said.

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