Campaigns wage war on omnipresent 'kretek'

Campaigns wage war on omnipresent 'kretek'

Dean Yates, Reuters, Bojong Gede, Bekasi, West Java

Indonesia's most famous novelist, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, nearly
totters over from age and illness.

Grabbing the arm of a visiting reporter to steady himself,
Pramoedya, 79, sits down at a table inside his comfortable villa
in the leafy province of West Java before reaching for a packet
of Indonesia's clove-scented cigarettes called kretek.

Wearing blue tracksuit pants and a stained white T-shirt, the
former political prisoner and perennial nominee for the Nobel
Prize in Literature lights up, savoring the taste. Pungent smoke
shrouds his face. Health warnings be damned.

"If my doctor says I shouldn't smoke, I'll fire him. Really,
why take away something so joyous in life," said Pramoedya.

And therein lies one of the big hurdles for anti-smoking
campaigners and doctors worried about the cost of smoking-related
illnesses in impoverished Indonesia.

Not only do they have to fight Indonesia's powerful cigarette
industry, they are taking on a product that for millions is more
than just a smoke, but something inextricably tied to the
country's history, culture and identity.

Kretek is as much a part of Indonesia as Java's famous shadow
puppets. In a land already rich with exotic smells, the aroma of
kretek lingers from airports to roadside eateries, from cities to
thatch huts in remote corners of the archipelago.

Even foreigners who hate smoking tend to like the smell.

"The taste of kretek is Indonesia," adds Pramoedya, who puffs
through two packets a day despite a poor heart.

But kretek have roughly double the nicotine and tar levels of
ordinary cigarettes, and with 90 percent of Indonesian smokers
choosing kretek, health experts are concerned.

"With the level of smoking in Indonesia the long term effect
is definitely going to be an issue in the future," said Georg
Peterson, World Health Organization representative in Indonesia.

The Health Ministry, in a soon-to-be-released report compiled
with WHO help, estimates 400,000 people died in Indonesia from
smoking-related illnesses such as cancer in 2001.

Indeed, while anti-smoking campaigns cut into sales in the
West, consumption grows in Indonesia.

It is now the world's fifth-biggest consumer of tobacco. More
than 62 percent of Indonesian men smoked in 2001, up from 53
percent in 1995, official figures show.

Indonesians smoke more than 200 billion kretek a year. And
more than two-thirds start puffing before they turn 19.

Kretek was invented in Indonesia in the late 19th century,
initially to ward off a sore throat and asthma. They got their
name from the crackling sound they make when they burn.

Cloves are the main raw material after tobacco.

A typical kretek also contains a secret sauce, which can
contain scores of flavors, from chocolate to dried fruits. Some
taste sweet, others spicy, but they are distinctly Indonesian.

In a glossy book published in 2000 called Kretek: The Culture
and Heritage of Indonesia's Clove Cigarettes, author Mark Hanusz
says kretek capture the soul of the nation.

"Kretek is the common thread which ties Indonesian people
together in spite of their historical, cultural, ethnic and
religious differences," Hanusz writes.

That history goes back a long way. European powers, including
the Dutch who ruled Indonesia for 350 years, fought to control
the country's trade in spices like clove and nutmeg.

Anti-smoking campaigners also have to deal with kretek makers
who run an industry with US$8.7 billion annual turnover.

Tobacco excise tax accounts for eight percent of the debt-
laden government's revenue, while the industry formally employs
around 200,000 people, many women who still hand roll sticks.
Many more depend on the industry, from distributors to cigarette
sellers.

Several big firms dominate the market, but hundreds of smaller
producers vie for a slice of the action. Throughout Indonesia,
kretek advertising is omnipresent -- on billboards, television
screens and banners strung across town streets.

The government dropped regulations last year which would have
put maximum limits on nicotine and tar content.

Health Minister Ahmad Sujudi told Reuters the regulations
would be revised and might become law.

Sujudi denied suggestions Indonesia was reluctant to sign the
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a landmark
international agreement that aims to protect future generations
from the dangers of smoking. It was agreed last year in Geneva.

The purpose of the legally binding convention is to support
member states develop tobacco control programs.

Back at his cozy villa, Pramoedya says he will keep smoking
kretek until he takes his last breath.

"With kretek my imagination lives, the tension is gone,"
Pramoedya said with a smile.

REUTERS

GetRTR 3.00 -- MAR 17, 2004 08:35:47