City prepares for smoking ban

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite doubts over the effectiveness of the new ban on smoking in public places, the Jakarta administration is moving to implement the ruling in government offices.

Governor Sutiyoso briefed all five mayors and the Kepulauan Seribu regent on Monday on the implementation of the bylaw.

"I will require offices and buildings belonging to private companies to implement the ruling only after I issue an ancillary gubernatorial decree," he said.

A two-by-three meter glass smoking room is already in place near the rear entrance gate at City Hall.

Only a few smokers were using the room, others saying they were reluctant because it felt "like being in a fish tank".

"I spotted several passersby lighting up cigarettes this morning and advised them to smoke in the room, but they preferred to put out their cigarettes in the ashtray," a public order officer told The Jakarta Post.

In the City Council building, two smoking rooms are available in the basement and one in the speakers room.

City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya said the administration would not provide a lot of smoking rooms in its offices in order to encourage smokers to kick the habit.

However, some smokers at City Hall doubted the effectiveness of the new bylaw.

"I think this ruling will only be effective for a month and then the situation will return to normal, as if the smoking ban never existed, just like so many other city regulations," said a civil servant who did not want to give his name.

Jakarta has a bundle of bylaws that failed because of ineffective enforcement and poor monitoring, like the bylaws on public order and sanitation.

Central Jakarta Mayor Muhayat said he would summon his subordinates, including district and subdistrict heads, to brief them on the implementation of the bylaw later on Monday.

"We want to ensure that the ruling is carried out down to the lowest administrative level, which is the subdistrict level," he said.

Central Jakarta is the only municipality that has provided a smoking room in its municipal building, in line with the bylaw, which stipulates that city offices must be smoke-free zones.

Too many offenses, not enough punishments

Bylaw Provisions Sanctions

No. 5/1988 - no littering in parks, streets, three months in prison or a on sanitation public places, rivers Rp 50,000 fine

- no vandalism of walls, trees,

poles, bridges, fences

No. 11/1988 on public order - pedestrians must walk on sidewalk, six months in prison or a

crosswalks Rp 50,000 fine

- public transportation passengers must

wait for buses at bus stops

- no squatting on road shoulders,

under bridges, in parks

- no businesses allowed in parks, on the side of

railway tracks, on road shoulders