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.