T

he administration of the West Sumatra provincial capital of Padang has won the 2017 Tobacco Control Award by private anti-tobacco group the National Commission on Tobacco Control (Komnas PT) for its plan to totally ban cigarette advertising.

Padang health agency head Feri Mulyani said the ban would be effective from Jan. 1 next year. “The city is committed to protecting youths so they will not be smokers in the future,” Feri said, adding that 70 percent of smokers in the city smoked inside their houses.

Padang will follow other cities in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-largest smoking country, that have legally imposed total cigarette advertisement bans, including Payakumbuh and Padang Panjang in West Sumatra, as well as Bogor in West Java and Jakarta.

Feri said a 2012 regional regulation on smoke-free areas in Padang would be revised to insert a new provision on the total advertising ban, though opposition from numerous councilors and advertisers in the city could become a stumbling block for the landmark plan.

The 2017 Tobacco Control Award also went to the Tebuireng Islamic boarding school in Jombang, East Java, which is run by the family of Hasyim Asyari, the founder of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, and food company PT Nutrifood Indonesia.