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an. 10, p. 2

Anti-tobacco organizations have expressed concern that the tobacco control regulation will do little to wean the country off its cigarette addiction.

Many anti-tobacco campaigners also claim that provisions in the new regulation clearly favor cigarette makers.

“We knew that the slow pace in the drafting of the new regulation meant that the industry was persistent in negotiating the details of the regulation,” Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said on Wednesday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a new tobacco control regulation on Dec. 24 last year, but details of the new rules were only available yesterday when the State Secretariat uploaded the regulation in its entirety onto its website.

Your comments:

Only 1 - 1.4 percent of farmers are employed growing the stuff and 50 percent of these are part time jobs.

In Indonesia it is estimated that 200,000 people die from smoking related illnesses (mostly cancer).

About every two to three years as many people die in Indonesia from cigarettes as are employed growing them. Is that a good balance?

The farmers can find new jobs and crops. The victims cannot find new lives.

Nearly all of Indonesia’s tobacco is for domestic use, so the country doesn’t even earn anything from the increased health burden.

Your average Indonesian smoker spends over 11 percent of income on cigarettes, more than is spent on rent.

While the measures above may only have a small effect, they are a start. For a comparison, it took Australia (probably the model to follow) 30 years to get to the point where 15-20 percent of the population still smoke.

In Indonesia, my guess is that until TV and street advertising are banned and the sponsorship of youth pop events is controlled, the industry will be very successful in recruiting new addicts.

John
Cigarettes kill.

Death doesn’t come immediately, but it does inevitably come, not just to the smoker, but also to those who spend time around them, including their wives, children and workmates.

Smokers are addicts.

The tobacco and additives promoted by Indonesian cigarette producers are all designed to promote the addiction, making many smokers helpless.

They are murderers because they purposely promote smoking without properly informing smokers of the danger of their behavior.

All advertising should be banned, cigarettes should be subject to heavy restraints and packages should contain 100 percent health warnings. Anything less is an affront to the millions of victims.

Terry Hull

Money talks. In Indonesia it shouts.

Sheldon Archer

Smoking kills. That’s a fact. The only people who are in favor of it are nicotine addicts, tobacco companies and farmers. The government should do something to regulate smoking, but they are getting a huge amount of revenue and kickbacks.

Joe H.