Cigarettes: License to kill for Rp 27 trillion<\/p>\n
Santi W.E. Soekanto, Journalist, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Today, 27 March 2003, the South Jakarta District Court is
\nexpected to hand down its verdict on the class action filed by
\nantismoking campaigners against the alleged violation by tobacco
\nfirms of the tobacco commercials ban, and the activists' demand
\nfor Rp 5 billion in compensation for \"victims of tobacco.\"<\/p>\n
The verdict was scheduled for March 13, but presiding judge
\nTjaroko Imam Widagdi said judges were \"not ready\" -- a delay that
\nmight or might not have something to do with haggling over the
\nidea promoted by business interests to scrap a ruling on nicotine
\nand tar content in a government regulation.<\/p>\n
The business interests group reportedly prevailed, and
\nPresident Megawati Soekarnoputri lifted on March 10 restrictions
\non the nicotine and tar content in tobacco products -- in effect
\nallowing the continued production of a \"weapon of mass
\ndestruction.\" Last year, of 215 billion cigarettes produced, 84
\npercent were kretek, having a high tar and nicotine content.<\/p>\n
The business interests have reportedly undertaken a costly
\nexercise -- transporting tobacco farmers by the busload from
\nTemanggung, Central Java, to persuade lawmakers in Senayan to
\napprove the lifting of the restriction, lobbying the ministers of
\nagriculture and trade and industry; even sending representatives
\nto a global negotiation on tobacco control in Geneva.<\/p>\n
But what a gain have they made!<\/p>\n
Experts and business representatives agree that it is
\nexpensive to lower tar and nicotine levels. The lifting of the
\nrestriction means that the tobacco firms would not have to spend
\nat least Rp 50 billion in laser machines that can bring down the
\ncontent of the poisonous substances, according to Tempo. It also
\nmeans the producers would not have to replace local tobacco,
\ncontaining high levels of nicotine, with Virginia tobacco, which
\ncosts twice as much. The farmers could go on planting tobacco and
\ncloves, and the government could hope that its target of Rp 27
\ntrillion in revenues from cigarette duties would be met this
\nyear.<\/p>\n
Those standing to lose out are not the activists, but ordinary
\npeople who smoke and continue to be killed by tobacco-related
\ndiseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that
\ntobacco kills 4.9 million people worldwide every year and will
\nkill 10 million per year by 2030. Without a war on tobacco,
\ncigarettes will kill 500 million of the 6 billion people alive
\ntoday on earth.<\/p>\n
A verdict from the South Jakarta District Court on the class
\naction, depending on its content, could become a new weapon
\neither in favor of antismoking campaigners or against them.<\/p>\n
Revoking the restriction on tar and nicotine content
\n\"represents a setback for the government's health development
\ncampaign,\" said Anhari Achadi, an expert at the Ministry of
\nHealth.<\/p>\n
\"Most people realize that smoking harms your health, but this
\nawareness is still being undermined by this 'temporary interest'
\nin a revenue of Rp 27 trillion per year,\" Anhari told The Jakarta
\nPost. \"It is really a challenge for the health ministry to
\nconvince other sectors about the long-term danger of cigarettes
\nto the quality of our human resources and to health costs that
\nwill eventually be greater than the revenues ... .\"<\/p>\n
This is not to mention that it is usually the poor in
\nIndonesian society that burn Rp 90 trillion -- as the excise of
\nRp 27 trillion is 30 percent of the total cigarette price -- on
\ncigarettes every year. \"This is greater than the total amount in
\nloan that Indonesia has been begging from bodies such as the
\nInternational Monetary Fund, World Bank and Consultative Group on
\nIndonesia,\" wrote an Indonesian doctor working in an
\ninternational health facility in the U.S.<\/p>\n
What is even more ironic, the doctor said, is that the money
\nthat Indonesians burn on cigarettes ends up in bank accounts in
\nthe U.S., as the leading producers of cigarettes here are
\npermanent residents of California!<\/p>\n
We would save US$9 billion per year if cigarettes were to be
\nbanned. This might not be realistic today, but a \"comprehensive
\nmeasure to reduce demand and supply\", as Anhari put it, would not
\nonly save money but benefit the whole nation, healthwise.<\/p>\n
The Sisyphean task of fighting the dangers of tobacco in
\nIndonesia -- where even its lung center, Persahabatan hospital,
\nEast Jakarta, is full of patients and visitors who smoke -- is
\nmade even more difficult, not only by large tobacco business
\ninterests in Indonesia, but those in the U.S. as well.<\/p>\n
In the face of tobacco-related deaths, the U.S. has become a
\ndefender of the production of this weapon of mass destruction.<\/p>\n
In Geneva, late last month, about 170 nations met in a bid to
\nagree on a global treaty on tobacco, the Framework Convention on
\nTobacco Control (FCTC). The treaty requires nations to implement
\nserious tobacco control programs. It would, for one, require
\ncigarette companies to print health warnings on packs that would
\noccupy at least 30 percent of their surface. It would eliminate
\nlabeling that misleads smokers into thinking that a \"light\" or
\n\"mild\" cigarette is less harmful than other types.<\/p>\n
The pact would require signatories to move toward a
\ncomprehensive ban on cigarette advertising \"within the limits\" of
\na nation's legislation. Signatories would be required to fund
\ntobacco-control programs and consider taxes that helped to reduce
\nsmoking. Most participants agreed to the final text of the
\ntreaty, which will be presented to WHO in May for adoption.<\/p>\n
A Chicago Tribune columnist, Derrick Z. Jackson, wrote on
\nMarch 10 that \"the ink had not even dried when the U.S.
\ndelegates started making noises that the Bush administration
\nmight not sign it.\" U.S. health attache to Geneva David Hohman
\nsaid the U.S. wanted the treaty to allow a nation to opt out of
\nprovisions it found objectionable. \"For the U.S., that means just
\nabout the whole treaty.\"<\/p>\n
Jackson said that in the 2002 election cycle, Big Tobacco gave
\n$6.4 million of its $8.1 million in political contributions to
\nthe Republican Party.<\/p>\n
According to reports, the U.S. is not happy with the idea of
\nfederal funding of antitobacco programs. The U.S. is against the
\ntreaty's ban on free samples; it is not happy about the proposal
\nto have giant health warnings on packs. The cigarette industry is
\ncrying that such large warnings would violate its trademark
\nrights.<\/p>\n
In short, when Indonesians smoke Indonesian cigarettes, they
\nenrich certain people based in California. When they smoke
\nAmerican cigarettes, they are not only killing themselves while
\nenriching others in Virginia and North Carolina, but are also
\npaying to keep Bush in office and to continue the production of
\nthis nicotine-based weapon of mass destruction.<\/p>",
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