'No tobacco' campaign to begin in five cities
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare are set to launch a massive campaign on "Youths Under 18 Without Tobacco" in five major cities next Thursday.
The event, jointly conducted by several non-governmental organizations, will be simultaneously held in Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, Surabaya in East Java, Medan in North Sumatra and Yogyakarta.
"The opening is set to be held here (Jakarta), where we'll go from school to school and explain to students and teachers about smoking and its consequences," the Ministry of National Education's director of Physical Quality Development Soeharto said on Thursday.
"Why 18-year-olds? Because we believe people above that age are mature enough to make their own choices," he said, adding that there is growing trend of females starting to smoke at an early age, such as when in junior high schools.
Most students who smoke could also begin using drugs such as marijuana, he said.
To alleviate the problem, schools must be designated as nonsmoking areas, the Ministry of National Education's Inspectorate General Muljani A. Nurhadi said.
"Actually we have already issued an education ministry decree on smoking-free school environment No. 4/U/1997 since early 1997 but to no avail due to a lack of support," he said.
"It's quite difficult to implement the decree as many teachers are also smokers. Therefore, we have changed the approach.
"The awareness has to come from each school and they have to take the initiative to set a code of conduct on smoking," Muljani said, adding that so far only the two ministries have imposed no- smoking areas in their premises.
The campaign would hopefully "save" at least 20 percent of the 40 million secondary-level students nationwide, Muljani said on the sidelines of an antitobacco campaign attended by former "Winston Man" Alan Landers alias Allan Stewart Levine, 57, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Landers quit smoking after being diagnosed with lung cancer 12 years ago. He will join the antitobacco campaign at SMU 70 high school on Friday, together with representatives from 50 schools in Jakarta.
Both ministries are also cooperating with the House of Representatives (DPR) to introduce nonsmoking zones in the DPR premises.
Former minister of education Fuad Hasan, who served from 1985 to 1993 and was a chain-smoker, recounted how difficult it was to quit smoking.
"I would advice nonsmokers not light up. But I can't tell smokers to stop since I myself couldn't. Smoking is addictive. I found myself waking up in the morning and lighting up instead of greeting my wife and kid," he said.
Fuad's horse, Nadia, wouldn't like to be pecked if he had just smoked, he added.
"I believe that every smoker wishes to quit but they don't have the will to do so. Despite the fact that I started smoking before 17, I thank God that I'm now 71 years old and healthy," Fuad said.
A holistic approach on healthy habits must be introduced by policy makers, the administration and related NGOs, he said.
"Hundreds of years ago smoking was considered stylish and was part of socializing. Now there is a resistance toward it.
"So antitobacco campaigns must also be followed by the campaigns against environmental damage such as air pollution as well on promoting healthy habits such as eating a balanced diet and engaging in sport," Fuad said. (edt)