FCTC treaty: Putting up a fight against the tobacco giants
FCTC treaty: Putting up a fight against the tobacco giants
Santi W.E. Soekanto and Ratih Sayidun, Journalists, Jakarta
Using many modern-day heroes such as the popular boy band Padi
and the singer Nugie, the Indonesian tobacco industry has been
intensifying its campaign to recruit new smokers from among the
young.
One needs only to look in any direction to see evidence of a
frenzy of sponsorship of major artists and musical events by
tobacco firms, packaged in such a way as to tell the young that
it is cool and trendy to smoke. The sky appears to be the limit
for an industry that seeks to ensure that Indonesians will
continue to smoke billions of cigarettes for years to come.
Why? Because despite the recent revocation of a restriction on
tar and nicotine content in cigarettes, which some NGOs have
protested as a shameful concession on the part of the government,
the tobacco industry here and elsewhere is facing another foe:
the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
A total of 192 member countries of the World Health
Organization (WHO) adopted on May 21 the world's first
international treaty on public health.
Even the United States did an about-face and supported the
document, which it had been fighting tooth and nail since its
conception some four years ago. One can only imagine what kind of
trade-offs, and with which parties, were agreed upon for the
change of heart by Washington.
The FCTC deals with just about every element needed for an
effective tobacco control measure. It requires signatories to
consider public health objectives when implementing tobacco tax
and price policies, and to discourage duty-free sales. It calls
for a comprehensive ban on all direct and indirect advertising,
sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products within five years
of ratifying the treaty, within the limits of the laws of each
country.
It requires parties to implement measures that protect
nonsmokers from tobacco smoke in workplaces, public
transportation and indoor public places. Health warnings must
take up at least 30 percent of the display area in tobacco
packaging. It prohibits misleading or false claims about the
health risks of tobacco.
Yet the tobacco industry is still riding high. Budi Primawan,
the corporate communications manager of PT British American
Tobacco Indonesia Tbk in Jakarta, reported that it was true that
an increased excise tax leading to price increases in 2002 saw
the company's volumes decline from 9.4 billion cigarettes in 2001
to 7.5 billion cigarettes in 2002.
But he also reported an increase in the company's net profit
to Rp 118.2 billion for 2002 from Rp 113.9 billion in 2001,
despite a 3.54 percent decrease in its net sales from Rp 713.9
billion in 2001 to Rp 688.7 billion last year.
The FCTC can only be as powerful as national legislation makes
it, and Indonesia is notoriously slow in transforming
international resolutions and conventions into national
legislation.
Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi has promised to "make efforts
to ratify (the FCTC) and turn it into law", with the cooperation
of the legislature and NGOs.
But he also thinks it will be a while before Indonesia has a
law on tobacco control. "The convention hasn't even reached our
hands yet," he said during a press briefing on May 26.
He added that the campaign for a supply reduction was a very
sensitive matter. "The reduction of tar and nicotine content (in
the supply side of the industry) will only benefit (importers) of
foreign cigarettes while harming the domestic tobacco industry."
Meanwhile, his ministry revealed that 60 percent (or 84.4
million people) of active/current smokers are officially
categorized as poor, that 6.5 million Indonesians today are
struggling to overcome tobacco-related diseases and that tobacco-
related deaths amounted to 4 percent of all deaths in Indonesia.
The contradiction in the ministry's stance could be a
reflection of the dilemma facing Indonesia.
Those in the industry argue that any tobacco-control efforts
would rob farmers and tobacco-growers of their livelihood, and
that increased taxation would impoverish farmers further.
To what extent is tobacco really important to our economy? In
2002, Indonesia accounted for 2.3 percent of the world's tobacco
leaf production, less than 1 percent of the agricultural
workforce relies on tobacco farming and about 1.2 percent of the
industrial workforce does so. Revenue from the cigarette tax do
form an important part of total government revenue -- about 7
percent in 1999-2000.
But the health costs of smoking should not be underestimated.
As many as 43 million Indonesian children and 65.6 million women
are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke at home. Cigarette
smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known
carcinogens. People who are exposed to these carcinogens suffer
from some of the same illnesses as active smokers.
What legal mechanisms are available to protect these people?
Who will protect them?
Certainly not our judiciary. The South Jakarta District Court
recently rejected a class action suit by a group of antitobacco
activists against tobacco producers for violating the existing
rulings on tobacco advertising.
Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI),
which spearheaded the lawsuit, said the court's ruling was
"unfair"; it only recognized the NGOs' right to advocate against
smoking while rejecting their demand for Rp 500 billion in
compensation.
As activists plan to appeal the ruling, "the giant" is
striking back. Tobacco producers are countersuing the antitobacco
activists for slander because they held a press conference before
the court session hearing the suit. The tobacco producers claim
that their sales dipped because of the slander, and are demanding
that the YLKI and the other NGOs restore their "good name".
The NGOs are being bad-mouthed -- their demand for
compensation of Rp 500 billion (which they intended to use to
fund an independent body to push for antitobacco measures) has
been interpreted by some as proof the suit was merely a money-
seeking venture.
"We asked for Rp 500 billion because that is the same amount
the tobacco producers spend promoting a product that kills
people," Tulus said, "This is something that even the tobacco
industry has admitted."
Budi said that PT British American Tobacco Indonesia Tbk
followed all regulations on the marketing and promotion of
cigarettes, and only sold its products to adults over the age of
18.
Tulus, who recalls constant fights between his cigarette-
smoking father and nonsmoker mother, who was frustrated by how
much of the household money was spent on cigarettes, laments the
absence of a strong tobacco control policy in Indonesia.
"The smokers here are mostly the poor," he said. "We are
witnessing the impoverishment of the people through cigarettes.
We are witnessing mass suicide taking place through tobacco use."
The first step for Indonesia to stop that mass suicide would
be to ratify the FCTC as soon as possible.