Antismoking moves get mixed response

Antismoking moves get mixed response

Dodi Nurja and Santi W.E. Soekanto, Contributors/Padang, Jakarta

Pendi, an elementary school teacher in Nagari Singgalang, West Sumatra, believes the most effective way to rid his village of the tobacco epidemic is to enforce a total smoking ban and slap a stiff fine on violators.

"Anyone discovered smoking in the village should have to pay a fine of one buffalo," he insisted. "Only then can Singgalang be turned into the only village in Indonesia where no one smokes."

Nagari Singgalang is one of two communities that recently stood up and took a stance against the tobacco epidemic that kills 400,000 Indonesians every year; the other is Bogor city in West Java.

Why the vehemence on Pendi's part? "Because tobacco is the gateway to drugs," said Pendi, who represented the cadiak-pandai (intellectuals) in the village consultations last year that gave birth to a one-day-per-week smoking ban in the village, which is located in Tanah Datar regency. The ban is currently observed every Friday.

Since then, however, more people have started to refrain from smoking in public places in the village at other times. The village administration offices, for instance, are now completely smoke-free. Most mosques and langgar (smaller prayer halls), school buildings and public service centers now have cleaner air.

"We are still working on educating the public about this policy, but praise to Allah, the response has been encouraging so far," said Syafion Datuk Batuah Diaur, the chief of the village, which is located at the foot of Singgalang Mountain. "Many people and their relatives now observe the village council's decision to enforce the smoking ban."

The Badan Perwakilan Anak Nagari (BPAN) (village council) held a meeting one day after the Muslim Idul Fitri festival last year, which was attended by community leaders, cadiak pandai, ulemas (religious leaders), and the representatives of young people and women's groups, as well as locals living in other places who were home for the holiday.

There are 516 other BPAN councils across West Sumatra. Singgalang is 77 km to the west of Padang, the capital city of West Sumatra.

Among the decisions reached by the Singgalang council meeting then were 1) to revive the cultivation of the Singgalang turnip, which had been slowly dying out, and 2) to enforce a smoking ban in the village hall, village administration office, mosques, schools and public service centers such as Puskesmas (health clinics at the subdistrict level) and Posyandu (clinics for infants and mothers).

The two decisions were a response to some of the most critical problems facing the village, according to Syafion. Though there is no data on smoking in the village, most of the 7,377 village residents were heavy smokers.

"I know that most of the family heads here are chain smokers," said Syamsudin Datuk Rajo Anggok, one of the community leaders attending the consultation meeting. "I used to smoke up to five packs a day."

Syamsudin quit smoking two years ago following a series of coughs and breathing difficulties. "It was a tough time for me, when people in the village hall and even in the mosques were still smoking in front of me. Thankfully, it's no longer like that now."

Bas Sutan Batuah, the proprietor of a coffee stall near the village administration's offices, expressed relief that the Hidayatullah Mosque was now free of cigarette smoke every Friday. "If you find anyone smoking now, you can be sure that that person is not from this village," he said. "Most locals already know about and observe the ban."

Bas, who still sells cigarettes, said he had suffered financial losses as fewer people now bought them.

"I have started to cut down but I haven't been able to stop completely," said Tafdil, a farmer who used to smoke up to five packs of cigarettes per day. "Now I smoke only about one pack a day."

"Smoking really depletes my income," said Tafdil, whose sugar cane mill produces only 54 kilograms of sugar a week, which he sells for Rp 3,400 per kilo in Padangpanjang market, some 14 km away.

Datuk Batuah said he shared Pendi's wish of seeing a smoke- free Singgalang, but said hard work awaited them before that particular goal could be achieved. "We must work on this in stages because even on Fridays, there are residents who ignore this ban."

Another community that has bravely decided to fight the tobacco epidemic head-on is Bogor in West Java. Nanik Widayani, an official at the municipal health office, said smoking was recently found to be the cause of most health problems in 68 districts of Bogor. The Clean and Healthy Living Survey found that 28.6 percent of household heads in Bogor smoked, as did more than 10 percent of high school students.

There has also been an increase in the number of tobacco- related diseases, including hypertension and stroke, according to Nanik. At one hospital, for instance, as many as 359 people were hospitalized in 2001 for hypertension, representing a 130 percent increase over the previous year's figure of 156 patients. Up to 549 stroke patients were also hospitalized, representing a 303 percent increase over the previous year's figure of 136.

Nanik came up with the idea of turning Bogor into a Smoke-Free Zone, something that the head of the local health office, Dr Triwandha Elan, originally doubted could be done. "It seemed impossible to me. We had a tough time even enforcing a smoking ban in our own office, much less introducing it to the whole of Bogor," Triwandha said.

Intensive discussions finally convinced Triwandha, who later convinced Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto -- a non-smoker -- to enforce the smoke-free zone. "Unless we try to reduce smoking, we'll be inundated with problems like drugs and AIDS," Triwandha said.

The Smoke-Free Zone would first be implemented in specified public spaces such as schools and government offices, Triwandha said. The mayor immediately warmed up to the idea, and pushed ahead with actions such as inviting junior and senior high school students to participate as stakeholders in the team entrusted with the task of drafting the smoke-free zone ordinance.

Less than two months after the first discussions on the draft, the mayor issued on 26 June 2004 -- which coincided with World No Drugs Day -- three ordinances on the protection of non-smoking residents, on the designation of Bogor as a smoke-free zone, and on the establishment of a supervisory team for the implementation of the decrees.

The decrees do not provide punishments for violators, but Triwandha argued that committed parties are developing their own responses. Local junior and senior high schools, for instance, will reprimand the parents of students found to be smoking.

Government offices and those of private companies and organizations are now required to provide a dedicated smoking area, whereas places such as hospitals and Puskesmas, and the city's 10 junior and 10 senior high schools, now observe a complete smoking ban. Ekalokasari Plaza, one of the malls in Bogor, has also been declared a smoke-free shopping center.

Further, Mayor Diani has expressed his commitment to the ordinances by promising not to renew the existing contracts for cigarette advertising in various forms, ranging from billboards to stickers and posters, or sign new contracts.

"I do not feel that we are suffering losses by not extending the cigarette advertising contracts. This is because the ordinances will provide even greater benefits for residents," he said.

Both writers are journalists. Dodi is based in Padang, West Sumatra, and can be reached at dnurja@yahoo.com, while Santi is based in Jakarta and can be reached at santi_soekanto2001@yahoo.com