The fifth hearing in an anti-tobacco court case adjourned Thursday at the Central Jakarta District Court when government representatives failed to show.

A group of four NGOs brought suit against the executive branch and the House of Representatives in June this year to force the two branches to consider ratification of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

By late August court-ordered mediation between the two sides had broken down.

In their suit, the anti-smoking NGOs accused both state institutions of failing to protect Indonesians from the dangers of smoking.

During the mediation, the NGO plaintiffs proposed the government ratify the FCTC and the House include a bill to control tobacco impact in their 2008-2009 legislative agenda.

A bill for the law was drafted back in 2005, but it has been consistently squelched by the House's legislative affairs body which has deemed it "not a national priority".

The defendant questioned the institutional capacity of the plaintiff group, which consisted of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), the Jakarta Residents Forum (FAKTA), the Institute for Combatting Smoking (LM3) and the Coalition for a Healthy Indonesia (KUIS).

The plaintiff's lawyer Christina Widiantarti said Thursday, "As an advocate specializing in defending poor citizens in Jakarta, I believe the poor are the most vulnerable to tobacco because they opt to buy cigarettes rather than milk for their babies, even sometimes neglecting to pay for their children's education."

Tulus Abadi of YLKI previously cited the National Economy and Social Survey from 2003 to 2005. It showed poor families' biggest expenditure was on rice, absorbing 19.30 percent of their income. Surprisingly, the second biggest was on cigarettes, which used up a hefty 12.43 percent.

"Through the ratification of the FCTC, cheap cigarettes, which can be bought retail, would be limited because the government would be obliged to levy a higher cigarette tax," Christina said.

Since the FCTC was opened for endorsement in Geneva in 2003, Tulus said, 157 countries had ratified it, making Indonesia the only country in Asia not on board.

According to Tulus, Indonesia currently ranks last but one among countries exercising low cigarette tax rates. Indonesia's 37 percent national average is second to Cambodia which levies a 20 percent tax. Other countries worldwide have levied higher cigarette tax rates, 60 percent on average.

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