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Antismoking activists have slammed the latest conspiracy theory that global forces want to hurt Indonesia’s economy by destroying its tobacco industry.

A book, “Killing Indonesia: Global Conspiracy on Destroying Clove Cigarettes,” was out on bookshelves this week to defend Indonesia’s tobacco industry, especially clove cigarettes, which are a locally made product dubbed by the book as the country’s cultural legacy.

The book claims the global anti-tobacco campaign is merely a foreign plot to kill Indonesia’s clove industry.

It said that if foreigners succeeded in restricting clove cigarettes, they would replace them with foreign-made ones, known as “white cigarettes.”

One activist derided the claims.

“Our society has a very limited understanding of the dangers of smoking because the sources of information have always been marginalized, so people will absorb whatever they hear,” said Fuad Baradja of the Indonesian Smoking Control Foundation (LM3), speaking at a seminar in Jakarta on Sunday.

Fuad said he suspected the book was just the latest attempt by the cash-rich tobacco industry players to influence public opinion, especially because the intensity of antismoking campaigns had risen in recent years.

It’s not about local cigarettes versus foreign ones, Fuad said.

“This is about people’s health,” he said.

Since the 19th century, Indonesia’s tobacco industry has been one of its most profitable, despite being taxed heavily and vilified by the antismoking lobby.

Today, Indonesia has more than 65 million smokers, the third most in the world. A list of the country’s richest people includes several owners of cigarette companies.

The government views the industry as playing a key role in the national economy, given the revenue big tobacco contributes and the 824,000 workers it employs.

From 2005 to 2009, the government’s excise tax revenue increased from Rp 33.3 trillion ($3.7 billion) to Rp 56.7 trillion, thanks to cigarettes, which account for 97.8 percent of all excise tax receipts.

The increase was largely because of rising excise rates on cigarettes. In 2010, it went up from an average of 9.6 percent to 21 percent. In 2011, it increased it again by 5 percent.

The increases are said to be aimed at both boosting revenue and limiting consumption.

But it seems only the former objective is being met.

“Every year the government raises the tobacco excise, but tobacco firms’ profits keep increasing on the back of higher consumption,” said Cece Ridwanulloh, an analyst from Ekokapital Sekuritas.