Comment: Editorial: The smoking gun

March 17, p. 6

The anti-smoking campaign, long fighting a cause almost lost against the powerful cigarette lobby, received key support from a most unlikely quarter: Muslim clerics. Clerics from Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic community organization, have issued an edict declaring smoking to be haram, or forbidden, effectively making it a sin for any Muslim to smoke.

 Your comments:

What would we expect the government to do if an enemy was set to kill 450,000+ of its citizens — every year?

What would we expect the government to do if it was discovered that someone was producing addictive drugs that were killing 450,000 Indonesians — every year?

I, for one, would expect swift action to deal with such a huge threat to the people and the country.
Tobacco is just such an enemy — an addictive drug that kills more than 450,000 Indonesians every year.

And it is totally within the powers of the government to confront the enemy. So what do we find
the government doing about this huge threat?

It appears to do nothing. Apart from worry about the money and the free cigarettes they will get from the tobacco (drug) companies and promoters (pushers).

So even when a religious organization makes what is a logical decision to protect its members from illness and death, all we hear is whimpers from a minister about the economic impact.

Does that mean the money is more important to the government than the lives of its citizens?

Imagine if instead of buying cigarettes (money for foreign-owned tobacco companies), Indonesians put the same money into their children’s education we would have better educated, healthier people.

But it seems that millions of Indonesians are destined to remain addicted to the tobacco drug and the government remains addicted to the money; neither able to see clearly through the smokescreen.

Nairdah
Sydney