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t was raining that afternoon. A man was standing in front of a motorbike where his son sat comfortably right next to a street vendor where I was buying mineral water. This would be a romantic portrait of father-son relationship '€” if only the father was not smoking. It is a sad situation, yet for most people in the country, it looks normal.

The ASEAN Tobacco Atlas 2014 found 121 million smokers in the Southeast Asian region and half of them were living in Indonesia. Earlier in 2009, the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) reported that 78.1 percent of 13- to 15-year-old school children were exposed to secondhand smoke, with 72.4 percent having at least one parent who smoke and 71 percent realizing that secondhand smoke is harmful to them.

Apparently, the GYTS survey indicated that school-aged kids had already perceived secondhand smoke as a risk. Unfortunately, many secondhand smokers have a high level tolerance when dealing with smokers. The passive smokers rarely have their willingness to express their dislike of the secondhand smoke.

This is quite peculiar since, logically, resisting the urge to smoke might be hard for smokers but it is good for their health, while refraining from rejecting secondhand smoke and being involuntarily exposed to the smoke is clearly bad for passive smokers.

Who is then taking the responsibility for keeping others from health risks? It is too easy to decide, but understanding this idea does not guarantee one'€™s courage to ask someone not to smoke nearby, especially if the smoker is a close friend or a family member.

Just two months ago, a middle-aged mother proudly told me that her 20-year-old son did not smoke and every time she smokes her son leaves her. Surprisingly, she said she was okay with it.

People exposed to the smoke appear somewhat as stoics, which in this case has worsened the smoker'€™s ignorance. As I am talking about well-informed youths and adults, what do you expect from less educated ones, let alone little kids?

In relation to the local Indonesian culture and values, expressing dislike for secondhand smoke is often discouraged by the fear of being impolite. It is normal for younger people to feel reluctant to express their aversion to secondhand smoke to their elders or their own peers who smoke. The cultural barrier is definitely challenging.

A bigger problem comes from cigarette producers, who know so well about how to gain benefits from Indonesian'€™s social norms and values. A semiotic analysis was conducted as a part of research by the US University of Arizona and Yogyakarta'€™s Gadjah Mada University in 2008, which showed six overarching themes related to social values in cigarette advertisements: tradition, loyalty, modernity, globalization, nationalism and expression of critical political views.

Mainstream media have been portraying the '€œculturally normal'€ values of smoking for as long as I can remember.

The 2009 GYTS found that more than 75 percent of students saw cigarette advertisements in the past 30 days, while the 2011 Global Adults Tobacco Survey (GATS) discovered 82.5 percent of adults noticed cigarette advertisements.

Both surveys also reported that a significant portion of the students and adults did smoke. I wonder, how many of them did not smoke and dislike secondhand smoke '€” yet felt reluctant to express it.

The letter '€˜P'€™ in World Health Organization'€™s MPOWER policy package stands for '€œProtect people from tobacco smoke'€. Governments, academics and partner organizations have been working together making interventions at the higher level, yet strong and persistent grassroots community empowerment must not be forgotten.

Thus, society must learn to see and treat secondhand smoke like never before. Public health experts have outlined three facets of personal responsibilities to communicate health messages for behavioral change: causation of harm, obligation toward significant others and offering agencies.

To give emphasis on the second one, these three facets can be translated into the concept of '€œfear of hurting our loved ones'€. Love is a universal language isn'€™t it? Even cigarette ads often use it to promote their products.

As such, this idea in the context of anti-tobacco messages must also be introduced, highlighted and emphasized to educate people of all ages, either smokers or non-smokers.

Each individual sharing a common concern on this issue can start making changes just by expressing their fear and dislike of secondhand smoke. Not only school-aged children, pregnant women, mothers and all non-smokers should also realize that smoking and secondhand smoke are equally harmful and they should no longer stay quiet about them. This should also apply to public space superintendents who, I find, lack the willingness to enforce the smoking ban.

There are so many ways to express the dislike without having to feel it will offend others. One can just politely ask smokers not to smoke nearby, especially in places where smoking is clearly forbidden. Say what you need to say. The point is, it is not taboo for passive smokers to tell people not to smoke around them.

Tobacco cessation is second to impossible here in Indonesia, but when our passive smokers exercise their freedom of expression and their right to health, local norms and values can be readjusted, stoicism over secondhand smoke be undermined, smoking behavior be denormalized and eventually it will be much easier for Indonesia to protect its people from tobacco products.
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The writer is a policy analyst at the Health Ministry'€™s directorate general for nutrition and maternal and child health.
The views expressed are her own.