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Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo announced on Friday that a city bylaw to totally ban smoking in all public buildings would soon be finalized. 

If the ban is treated seriously, unlike earlier attempts to restrict smoking in public areas, Jakarta could finally join the growing list of major cities around the world that have virtually eliminated smoking inside bars, restaurants, offices and shopping malls. 

As an interim measure, Fauzi on Friday issued a decree to revise a widely ignored 2005 bylaw on smoke-free areas that mandated the creation of smoking rooms in public buildings. 

Under the 2005 bylaw, smokers can be fined Rp 50 million ($5,400) or even jailed for six months for violating the ban, but enforcement has been virtually nonexistent. 

The revised bylaw, which still has to be ratified by the City Council, states that smoking areas have to be separated physically from any public building and cannot be located next to an entrance or exit door. This would replace the current system of smoking rooms. 

“It is easier to shoo smokers away than to make special rooms for them, and that is what is already happening in other countries right now,” Fauzi said. 

The revision is being pushed by the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) in cooperation with Swisscontact Indonesia, a nongovernmental organization. The revision is based on tests conducted in 34 city buildings by Swisscontact in 2009 that found evidence of nicotine in almost all surveyed locations. 

“Schools and hospitals are categorized as ‘totally smoke-free areas,’ however, we found that 32 percent of the tested locations in schools and 68 percent in hospitals had nicotine residue,” said Dollaris Suhadi, executive director of Swisscontact Indonesia. 

Based on the current bylaw, there are seven areas where smoking is not allowed: public spaces, health facilities, workplaces, houses of worship, aboard public transportation and in areas dedicated to education and children’s activities. 

Smoker Stephan Pramono, 27, said he was skeptical of the new bylaw. “The regulation cannot be properly applied if the people who work for the government themselves don’t do it,” he said. “I know that many civil servants smoke in their offices.” 

Dimas A Kusuma, marketing communications manager for Plaza Semanggi mall, said that the biggest challenge would come from shoppers. 

“When the 2005 bylaw was issued, we had a 90-day joint campaign with community organizations and NGOs to socialize the new smoking rules,” he told the Jakarta Globe on Friday. “Tenants do not complain, but customers do, because some of them are really addicted to smoking, especially after drinking or eating.” 

The mall, which bans smoking throughout the building, still fights an uphill battle despite telling security guards to remind smokers who are inside to extinguish their cigarettes. 

“I think the new regulation will be easier to accept because smokers know to smoke in one designated area, and now the new regulation has moved that area outside,” Dimas said. 

Tulus Abadi, chairman of the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI), said that according to a survey his group conducted last year, only half of 60 malls in Jakarta complied with the 2005 bylaw. 

“During our survey we still found cafes or restaurants that did not provide a special smoking area, or insufficient no-smoking signs or customers smoking in non-smoking areas,” he said. 

The survey found that 45 percent of government offices also ignored the smoking ban. 

“The implementation of these regulations relies on the regional government’s seriousness in enforcing them,” Tulus said. 

“We are hoping that Jakarta can follow international standards that ban smoking not only in malls and offices, but also in pubs, cafes and discotheques,” he added. 

“We hope that the new bylaw can be issued by the government this year or in early 2011.”
Friday’s gubernatorial decree is far from being the Jakarta administration’s first attempt to stamp out smoking. Here is a full list: 

Gubernatorial Decree No. 11 of 2004 [ Surat Keputusan Gubernur ] to prohibit smoking inside government offices. 

Gubernatorial Decree No. 75 of 2005 specified certain areas as smoke-free. Bylaw No. 2 in 2005 on air pollution control was issued to enforce Decree No. 75. It also mandated smoking rooms in public buildings. 

Gubernatorial Decree No. 88 of 2010 has now revised that bylaw to say smoking rooms must be separate from the main building, and not near entrances or exits. This will be the basis for a new bylaw.