Individual efforts make a difference<\/p>\n
Thousands of Jakartans have seen small groups of university
\nstudents standing at intersections or near toll road entrances
\ncarrying donation boxes inscribed with bold statements like \"Fund
\nthe fight for the people\". The money will go, among other places,
\nto finance their street rallies outside of the House of
\nRepresentatives or the State Palace.<\/p>\n
For years, students have been protesting against
\nadministrations that oppress and kill people in Aceh, Papua, East
\nTimor, Maluku and Jakarta. Five years ago, the students were even
\nsuccessful in helping to remove from office Soeharto, whose 32
\nyears of corrupt rule inflicted much suffering on the people.<\/p>\n
Sadly, the students have yet to take up the fight against
\ngovernment policies that effectively allow the killing of,
\naccording to health expert Dr. Anhari Achadi, up to 400,000
\nIndonesians through tobacco-related diseases. Maybe because many
\nof the students are smokers themselves.<\/p>\n
But there is always hope. On Sept. 15, Professor Umar Chatib
\nWarsa declared the University of Indonesian a smoke-free campus
\nand promised to work to turn all campus facilities, both in
\nJakarta and Depok, West Java, into non-smoking areas.<\/p>\n
\"We are proud to have reached this far, proud that as a campus
\nthat bears the name of our nation, we will be working to help
\nachieve a healthy Indonesia,\" Warsa said in a simple ceremony
\nthat also featured members of the Indonesian Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n
\"We seek to set an example for the public, to show that we not
\nonly talk or criticize, but can also walk the walk as well,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The university has 190 full professors, while one-third of its
\n2,500-strong teaching staff hold doctorates.<\/p>\n
\"I do not want them to get sick through their own fault;
\nnamely because they smoke. We are telling them not to smoke,\"
\nWarsa said.<\/p>\n
A high school near the University of Indonesia campus in Depok
\nhas also been declared a smoke-free zone. It may seem like slow
\nprogress, according to Anhari, who represented the health
\nminister at the ceremony, but this progress is what Indonesia
\nneeds the most in its campaign to reduce the mortality and
\nmorbidity rates related to tobacco use.<\/p>\n
\"We may have to wait a 100 years before our campaign to reduce
\ndemand (for cigarettes) bears significant fruit,\" he said.<\/p>\n
But if that is what it takes to \"respect the right of more
\nthan 60 percent of Indonesian adults to clean air\", Indonesia's
\ntobacco-control campaign should proceed.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian government has been harshly criticized for
\nrecently lifting restrictions on tar and nicotine content in
\ntobacco products -- which means tobacco firms are now allowed to
\nproduce even deadlier cigarettes.<\/p>\n
But at the grassroots level, individual campaigns are getting
\nstronger. There are people like writer Azimah Rahayu, who said in
\na recent article that more people should have the courage to just
\ntell smokers not to light up in public places. If they resist,
\nAzimah said, \"we should give them plastic masks\" so only they
\ninhale the smoke.<\/p>\n
\"We should tell the smokers they might have the right to
\nsmoke, but we definitely have the right not to inhale their
\n'garbage' so they should inhale it all themselves,\" Azimah wrote.<\/p>\n
There are people like Tiernan Downes, an Irish national in
\nJakarta who made the antismoking campaign a personal \"goal\". Over
\nthe years he has written to various businesses -- from PT Angkasa
\nPura and PT Kereta Indonesia to Dunia Fantasi, asking that non-
\nsmokers' right to clean air be respected. Some of Downes' efforts
\nhave paid off, some received courtesy \"thank-yous\" and were
\nbrushed off.<\/p>\n
But Downes believes that individual campaigns will pay off in
\nthe long run.<\/p>\n
\"Have you seen people smoking in cinemas? Have you seen people
\nsmoking on airplanes? Have you seen people smoking in the bowling
\nalley in Plaza Senayan? Have you seen people smoking in MMC
\n(hospital)?.<\/p>\n
\"They generally don't because they accept the rule. If the
\nrule wasn't there they would (smoke), so an attempt to make more
\nareas non-smoking is going to help, even if people don't stick
\n100 percent to it,\" he said.<\/p>\n
About two years ago, Downes complained to Merpati Airlines
\nbecause on flights over two hours in length they allowed smoking.<\/p>\n
\"I kept calling and writing to the airline, and they told me
\nthey were considering the matter. A few weeks later they sent me
\na link to their website saying they had made all flights non-
\nsmoking.<\/p>\n
\"We can also make a difference by doing small things, at least
\na difference in our own little environment. We don't have to
\nallow people to smoke in our houses.<\/p>\n
\"We can make a difference ... if one person alone can get a
\nnumber of businesses to change, hundreds or thousands of people
\ncould make big changes, fast,\" Downes said.<\/p>\n
-- Santi W.E. Soekanto<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/individual-efforts-make-a-difference-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }