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Indonesia tops ASEAN in policy interference by tobacco industry: SEATCA index
A 2020 index for Asian and Southeast Asian countries ranks Indonesia as the ASEAN state with the highest level of interference from its tobacco industry in government policies over the last five years, and even during the current health crisis.
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or five consecutive years between 2015 and 2019, Indonesia has had the highest level of tobacco industry interference in its policies among ASEAN countries, a recently released index frp, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) has found.
The Bangkok-based NGO assists ASEAN member countries in the accelerated implementation of the provisions in the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).
SEATCA on Nov. 20 released two separate 2020 Tobacco Industry Interference Index reports, one for Asian countries and the other for ASEAN countries. The index gauges the implementation of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC in nine Asian countries and nine Southeast Asian countries, which are given annual scores based publicly available evidence.
With a score of 82 in tobacco industry interference, Indonesia scores the highest after Japan (88) in the Asian index, while it tops the ASEAN index.
Brunei (14) and Pakistan (41) have the lowest levels of tobacco industry interference in Asia and are said to be making progressive improvements, while Brunei ranking the lowest in both Asia and Southeast Asia.
“These reports shine a light on tobacco industry misconduct and how governments in Asia are succeeding or failing to stop industry influence and interference in policy development and implementation. Unfortunately, many are failing,” SEATCA executive director Ulysses Dorotheo said recently.
The index has found that some countries, including Indonesia, regard the tobacco industry as a legitimate stakeholder in policy development and provide legalized permission for active participation in developing government policies.
Most damningly, the SEATCA reports say that Indonesia is among those countries where the tobacco industry is buying influence through social and development causes “to promote itself as a ‘good corporate citizen’ and to gain access to non-health government sectors”.
“As in Indonesia, where Djarum continued to sponsor badminton, Japan allowed JT [Japan Tobacco Inc.] to sponsor volleyball, chess, golf teams and tournaments and to promote the events in the media,” say the reports, referring to the cigarette giants in the two countries.
Further, Indonesian laws allow national and local administrations to receive support from the Djarum Foundation, the Bentoel Group and Sampoerna for initiatives on the environment, cultural heritage and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Indonesian government has also painted the tobacco industry as “highly strategic to support the national economy, and therefore must be protected by law”, according to SEATCA.
It adds that Jakarta has continued to defend the cancellation of the scheduled 2019 tobacco tax hikes and the revocation of the tobacco excise simplification road map as a way to sustain the tobacco industry’s survival.
“Despite recommendations from the [Food and Drug Monitoring Agency] (BPOM) to ban the distribution of e-cigarettes, the Health Minister’s decision remains undeclared, pending assessment of dissenting positions (including the tobacco industry’s),” says the ASEAN index report.
The index also points out senior government officials who joined the tobacco industry in 2019, for example the Industry Ministry’s former director for beverages, tobacco and refreshments and the head of the data and information center who are now part of the Indonesian Cigarette Producers Association (Gappri).
“The tobacco industry is masterful at operating away from the public eye while exerting its influence at different levels and in different sectors of government,” the reports say.
The author of both reports, SEATCA monitoring and evaluation manager Jennie Lyn Reyes, regretted how the tobacco industry had continued to interfere in policy despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Unmindful of the health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tobacco industry continues to undermine public health policies. A whole-of-government approach is vital for effectively countering tobacco industry interference,” Reyes said.
“Governments need to proactively put in place safeguards to prevent unnecessary interactions with the tobacco industry, limit necessary ones and set up disclosure procedures to protect public health policies,” she stressed.
SEATCA recommends that governments reject any partnership with the tobacco industry and that state interactions with the industry should occur only when necessary to effectively regulate the industry and its products.
“Tobacco-sponsored corporate social responsibility [CSR] activities are fake, and must be banned completely across countries,” it stated. Meanwhile, benefits given to the tobacco industry must be revoked, and patronage politics and revolving doors that create potential conflicts of interests must be ceased.
The Jakarta Post contacted Djarum for comments on the SEATCA index, but it deferred to Gappri. The association, however, was not immediately available for comment.
Sampoerna, on the other hand, admitted that it had provided support to its business partners, SMEs and local communities during the pandemic, but claimed that its measures were simply to assist those in need because it was “the right thing to do”.
“Put simply, if we are asked for help in combatting the pandemic, of course we will provide it if we can. We are very proud of how Sampoerna and our employees have stepped up to this challenge,” Sampoerna director Elvira Lianita said on Wednesday in a statement to the Post.
Elaborating, Elvira said that the company had distributed personal protective equipment and hygiene kits to farmers, provided training for SMEs on how to adjust their businesses to the changes in consumer behavior, and donated COVID-19 test kits to local communities.
“We believe that all these efforts will support the government’s national recovery program at both regional and national levels,” she said.
Elvira said Sampoerna regretted that a foreign-funded organization would attempt to use the pandemic to further their political agenda by criticizing an Indonesian company for stepping up to provide much-needed local support.
The comment is presumably directed at SEATCA, which bills itself in the reports as “a multi-sectoral non-governmental alliance” and “an official NGO Observer to the WHO FCTC Conference of Parties and a co-initiator of the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC)”.
Separately, the Bentoel Group’s legal and external affairs director, Mercy Francisca Hutahaean, said that the tobacco company had centered its programs on environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, and that it had a long-standing commitment to contributing to the communities where it operated.
“As a responsible tobacco company, we also take the responsible marketing of our products seriously. Alongside complying with all Indonesian laws and regulations, all of our marketing activities are also compliant with our strict international marketing principles,” Mercy told the Post on Tuesday.
