T

he Jakarta Environment Management Agency (BPLHD) will officially scrap all smoking rooms in public buildings in the city from November, six months after the issuance of the 2010 gubernatorial decree on this.

“BPLHD will conduct inspections in 800 locations,” Dollaris Riauaty Suhadi, the executive director of Swisscontact Indonesia Foundation, a consultant to the agency, said on Wednesday.

The decree, signed on May 6, stipulates smoking is not allowed inside buildings, and people who want to smoke must do so outside.

The regulation is an extension of a smoking ban which had allowed smoking in designated smoking areas in workplaces and public spaces.

The decision came after a joint survey, by BPLHD, the Swisscontact Indonesia Foundation and the University of Indonesia Demography Institute, showed smoking rooms in buildings did not prevent smoke infiltrating non-smoking areas.

BPLHD head Peni Susanti said the gubernatorial decree would bring in an effective moral sanction against violators.

“The sanction will be in the form of [publicizing] violators in the mass media,” she said.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said these sanctions were suggested by NGOs after learning that fines were not
effective.

“Money is not a problem for Jakartans. It will be more effective if the violators’ pictures are displayed in media, with a tag saying that they allowed smoking pollution to occur in their stores,” he said.

City Hall closed all smoking rooms since Wednesday, followed by 40 city agencies and municipal offices.

Fauzi said he hoped the public could help monitor the implementation of the smoking ban by reporting any violations to the official website of www.pedulijakarta.com.

He said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had called him by phone after learning that smoking rooms would be scrapped in Jakarta.

The mayor, Fauzi said, suggested to go all the way like New York, banning smoking even in public parks. “I told him that we are not ready to apply such a move now. But one day, we are going to be there,” he said.

Chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) Azas Tigor Nainggolan said his organization would help monitor the implementation of the new regulation.

“We are ready to issue legal warnings to malls that breach the regulation and sue them,” he said.

Tulus Abadi from the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) earlier said the city should impose stern sanctions like revoking permits so as to make the regulation work.

In 2008, the YLKI had found violations of the stipulated smoking ban in half of 60 malls in Jakarta.

A 2004 national socioeconomic survey said that about 138.8 million Indonesians are smokers.

—JP/ Indah Setiawati