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Indonesia’s weak regulations and abysmal law enforcement on tobacco use are being blamed for the continued growth in the number of new smokers.

Fuad Baradja, from the Indonesian Smoking Control Foundation (LM3), said the country’s failure to ratify the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was indicative of its apathy when it came to battling smoking.

The convention is an international treaty that mandates its 152 signatories implement methods to reduce tobacco use.

Fuad said Indonesia was one of only three countries that did not restrict cigarette advertising. It also has the third highest number of smokers in the world, after China and India.

“It’s all about political will. If our government had the will, nothing would be too difficult,” he said.

Data from AGB Nielsen Media Research shows that tobacco firms were among the top 10 spenders on advertisements across all media in the first quarter of this year. Gudang Garam, which makes clove cigarettes, was the third biggest buyer of television commercial slots, spending Rp 73 billion ($8 million).

Last January, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) called for a limited restriction on tobacco use, a move that prompted the Ministry of Finance to warn that revenue from tobacco excise could be severely affected.

Lily Sulistyowati, director for health promotion at the Ministry of Health, said last Friday that the government was powerless to combat the tobacco industry’s aggressive advertising campaigns to attract new smokers, including among women and young people.

“Our budget is tight,” she said. “Even the total health budget is still less than 5 percent of the total state budget. How then can we fight them?”

A clause in the Health Law passed last year sparked a heated response from tobacco farmers after it labeled tobacco and its derivative products as addictive substances.

At least 2.4 million farmers work the country’s tobacco fields and 1.5 million farm cloves.

In April, a tobacco plantation owner, Bambang Sukarno, challenged the new law in the Constitutional Court.

He said the law’s reference to tobacco being an addictive substance could endanger the livelihoods of many people.

Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said recently that her ministry was still discussing the further implementation of the 2009 Health Law.

“It is a very sensitive law,” she said. “We cannot act abruptly.”

Endang also denied the government was reluctant to ratify the WHO convention because it was afraid of upsetting the tobacco industry.

“Nothing in our law calls for a total ban on smoking. We cannot stop people from lighting up,” she said. “The best thing we can do is regulate where they can and cannot smoke.”

Fuad, from the Indonesian Smoking Control Foundation, however, said the government needed to take decisive action, including leading by example by forcing civil servants to obey bylaws restricting smoking in public buildings.

“The solution is simple: raise the tobacco tax, bring in a total ban on cigarette ads and sponsorship and stop being spineless,” he added.