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AKARTA: Anti-tobacco activists teaming up with the Coalition against the Falsehood of the Cigarette Industry are calling on Industry Minister Saleh Husin to withdraw a tobacco production road map, saying that it had the potential to increase smoking in Indonesia.

The coalition says the road map benefits cigarette companies and at the same time leaves Indonesians at greater risk of tobacco-related disease.

Hery Chariansyah, the director of the anti-tobacco group Raya Indonesia, said the coalition had conveyed its appeal to Saleh in a second letter this week after the minister failed to respond to its first letter.

'€œHe has not responded to our [first] letter. This shows that he doesn'€™t have the goodwill to protect our people from the dangers of cigarettes,'€ he said at a discussion in Jakarta on Thursday.

In its first letter dated Jan. 4, the coalition proposed a meeting with Saleh and requested the minister cancel the tobacco road map. The coalition also asked the minister to respond to the letter no later than 14 days after receiving it.

Hery said that as Indonesia was not a capitalist country, the government should strive to increase the welfare of everyone, not just that of tobacco companies.