•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

From 1950s heartthrob James Dean to Winona Ryder’s chain smoking in “Reality Bites,” to Will Smith lighting up a cigar every time he kills an alien in “Independence Day,” Hollywood never ceases to glamorize smoking. In the past several years, however, thanks to health campaigns, such glamorization has been curbed on television and in the movies.

In Indonesia, though, not only are there no restrictions on heroes and heroines smoking on screen, the country is also one of only two that still allows cigarette advertising. The other is Zimbabwe, which like Indonesia is one of the largest tobacco exporters in the world.

As a result, global cigarette companies, whose sales have experienced a slump in the West, are pushing marketing campaigns in developing Asian countries like Indonesia. Just take a look at the television or walk the streets: cigarette commercials and gigantic cigarette billboards are everywhere.

“The worst thing is, the aggressive marketing is targeted toward youth,” said Widyastuti Soerojo, from the Indonesian Public Health Association’s Tobacco Control Support Center.

The message has not changed: smoking is cool, manly or sexy, and is associated with success and money. And it works. Smoking prevalence among young people has increased, according to the Public Health Association.

An Early Start

Tobacco companies are even targeting children, sponsoring school events and giving out free packs of cigarettes to students.

Indonesia has 63 million smokers, and the World Health Organization’s Global Youth Tobacco Survey of 2006 reported that more than 1 in 10 students aged 13 to 15 smoked cigarettes. The same survey also reported that 6 in 10 students were passive smokers, while a survey the year before by the Ministry of Health said a staggering 43 million children were exposed to smoke from the people around them. A number of studies also show that the age most Indonesians start smoking is as young as 10 years old.

Ade Priatna, a 16-year-old junior high school dropout in North Jakarta, admitted that the images from advertising, television and movies had influenced him and his peers to smoke.

“Peer pressure is also a factor. We’d call each other sissy if we didn’t smoke,” Ade said.

Taking Action

In a bid to prevent children from smoking, the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak) has requested the Supreme Court to issue a legal directive confirming that cigarettes contain addictive substances. Should the court do so, the central government would automatically be required to ban the sales of cigarettes to children and pregnant women.

The commission has also filed a judicial review against a 2002 law on broadcasting, on the grounds that cigarette advertising is increasingly targeting children.

Tobacco companies continue to regularly sponsor sports events and pop concerts in Indonesia, despite being banned from doing so in other countries such as the United States. Some foreign artists have even had to take a personal stand against the sponsorship.

Last year, singer-songwriter Alicia Keys asked Philip Morris International to pull down its promotional material at her show in Jakarta, or else she would refuse to perform. Keys acted after being alerted by the Washington, DC-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. She apologized, saying she was unaware of Philip Morris’s sponsorship.

Addicted to the Industry

The government has taken only restrained steps to limit smoking and done nothing to ban advertising, claiming that millions of people are dependent on the tobacco industry, from farming and production to sales of cigarettes. The tobacco industry also paid more than $4.5 billion in taxes last year, or about 10 percent of the country’s total revenue.

Many experts, however, have warned that the social and economic costs of tobacco far outweigh the financial benefits. The WHO estimates that 400,000 Indonesians die from smoking-related diseases each year.

“People are sick more often and are not being productive,” said David Stanford, an advocacy consultant for the Indonesian Consumers Foundation.

He said statements from senior government officials that tobacco control, such as increased taxes, would kill the industry and the livelihoods of millions of people was just a myth. “Tobacco taxation actually increases government revenues, curbing the social impact and preventing health hazards,” Stanford said.

Referring to a 2005 study by the Health Ministry’s Research and Development Body, Widyastuti said the economic losses due to tobacco consumption in Indonesia were actually higher than the total tobacco tax revenues.

The survey revealed that tobacco use was attributed to about 400,000 deaths a year from 11 prominent smoking-related diseases. The total direct costs of spending on cigarettes and health care for smoking-related diseases was Rp 105.4 trillion ($10.22 billion), while total indirect costs due to loss of worker productivity was Rp 61.6 trillion.

The combined total of Rp 167 trillion, Widyastuti said, was about five times higher than the government’s excise tax revenues. “It all boils down to addiction. The only solution is regulation to increase cigarette prices,” she said.