Government begins drive to make country healthy

JAKARTA (JP): The government launched on Wednesday a comprehensive health promotion drive to achieve the goals of the Healthy Indonesia 2010 program.

The director general of public health at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Azrul Azwar, said during a media conference that when it came to health, Indonesia performed poorly compared to other countries.

Citing a World Health Organization (WHO) report from 2000, Azrul said Indonesia ranked 97th out of 175 countries in health development.

In its health promotion efforts, Azrul said his office had set out three main strategies, including lobbying decision makers to focus greater attention on health issues.

In addition, the health ministry will disseminate information to the public to help support the health promotion program, as well as pursuing efforts to empower the people in the area of health.

"The community should no longer be objects; they must become the subjects in this promotion program. Therefore, the community will take an active role in improving their health and the cleanliness of their environment," Azrul said.

Also attending the media conference was Desmond O'Byrne from the WHO headquarters in Geneva. He said promoting public health was like an investment, because a healthy environment could attract business and tourists. Therefore, he said, the issue should not be handled by the government alone.

Azrul said the program would be expanded to cover all ministries and government agencies so that it would reach a wider audience.

He noted that his office was introducing a new paradigm of health promotion, in which the people would be active participants in the protection of public health.

The chairman of the Indonesian Society for Health Studies and Promotion, Hadi Pratomo, said that not only the community but also those involved in the health industry should adopt this new paradigm.

As part of this new paradigm in promoting public health, Hadi, a physician, said he would now not only ask his patients to stop smoking to improve their health, but would also take part in campaigns to reduce smoking.

"Under the new paradigm, I will also try to change the environments of my patients that can encourage them to begin smoking again.

"I will also take part in a campaign to reduce cigarettes advertisements, to increase cigarette taxes or to prohibit smoking in certain locations," he said. (bby)