What we do not need: Iwan Fals and cigarettes

What we do not need: Iwan Fals and cigarettes

Santi W.E. Soekanto, Journalist, Jakarta

Virtually every newspaper and magazine in the country was
delirious with adulation when they reported last week the concert
of music heroes Iwan Fals and Padi Group in Jakarta. They raved
how impressive the concert and Iwan were, how the star came
across as a humble and sympathetic man, and how they understood
why the mostly young audience loved this Time-Asia version of an
Asian hero.

No one including Iwan seemed to realize that the numerous
banners and posters of A Mild cigarettes decorating the event
might mean the emergence of more young smokers and, eventually,
more wasteful death. Iwan and the other stars have, perhaps
unwittingly, helped convince the young people that cigarettes are
compatible with the vivacity of music and youth.

That is what Indonesia does not need: More smokers and heroes
who advocate this "gateway" to drugs. Campaigns for tobacco-
control, however, have so far had to face such a "giant" namely
the tobacco firms that produce brands such as A Mild and promote
them at concerts and sporting events.

Friday May 31, 2002 is World No Tobacco Day and Indonesia
needs this celebration because more people are smoking in the
past decade here and in the Southeast Asian region than ever
before. The World Health Organization (WHO) has found that 1.1
billion people in the world smoke today, and the figure could
rise to 1.6 billion by the year 2025. In countries with higher
income averages, the number of smokers in general has been
declining in the past few decades but increasing among poor and
middle-income countries such as Indonesia.

Reports said that in 2000, Indonesians smoked close to 200
billion cigarettes and the number is expected to grow by 5
percent a year in the future as it has for most of the past 15
years. It was reported last year that despite the economic
meltdown, which cut the annual per capita income to $650 in 2000
from $1,100 in 1997, Indonesians did not stop smoking. Even
during the worst of the late 1990s economic crisis when millions
of people were finding it difficult to have even one meal a day.
When people did not have enough money to buy lunch, nasi bungkus,
they went out and bought a cigarette.

In addition, Indonesia has the highest ratio of smokers to
population in the region. In fact, Indonesia is the world's
fourth largest tobacco consumer after the United States, China
and Japan. When overall consumption among the developed countries
declined by 10 percent between 1970-1990, it grew by 60 percent
among the developing countries. In Indonesia, tobacco consumption
between 1990 and 1997 grew by 44.1 percent.

According to the National Agency for Drug and Food Control
(BPOM), 6.5 million people become affected with smoking-related
diseases every year. The data said that smoking causes 90 percent
of cases of lip cancer, throat cancer, bronchitis and lung
problems. It showed that smoking caused 75 percent of chronic
pulmonary disease and 40 percent of cases of cerebra vascular
disease.

Estimates suggest that tobacco-attributable mortality has
risen from 2 percent to 3 percent of all deaths in 1980 to 3 to 4
percent in 1986. This would suggest that about 57,000 deaths a
year (primarily males) are already attributable to tobacco use,
and this number can be expected to increase dramatically within
the next few decades.

Why is Indonesia such a big nation of smokers that wastes so
much for health service costs for victims of smoke-related
diseases? Blame it on the addictive nicotine, but also blame it
on the giant tobacco firms who for years have been deceiving
people into thinking that it is cool and glamorous to smoke.
Blame it on their marketing and promotional machines that
convince the young people that tobacco goes hand in hand with the
livelihood and vivacity of sports and music.

This giant pumps hundreds of millions of dollars every year
into sponsoring sports events worldwide. In the United States
alone, for instance, according to the Federal Trade Commission,
the major domestic cigarette companies reportedly spent $113.6
million on sports and sporting events in 1999.

This giant, in the first eight months of 1999, sold
approximately 127 billion cigarettes and, admittedly, provided a
livelihood for millions of people in Indonesia. In fact,
cigarette taxes were a major source of finance in the ministry's
budget last year, contributing around Rp 22.3 trillion and
earning the title of the top national taxpayers year after year.

These firms, which have agents in countries such as Singapore,
Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, Netherlands, Australia, France, Germany,
Switzerland, California, Brunei Darussalam and the United Arab
Emirates are spending big money to counter the tobacco-control
campaign by targeting increasingly younger people. A recent
Global Youth Tobacco Survey showed that most of the youths in
Southeast Asia are highly exposed to tobacco promotions. In
Indonesia, nearly half the youth studied reported seeing tobacco
ads, which gave them the feeling that smoking makes them look
"trendy."

Even Taufik Kiemas has reportedly hinted that the anti-tobacco
campaign here should not proceed too quickly because that would
adversely affect the source of livelihood of those millions of
workers in the industry and their families, not to mention his
governments largest source of tax revenue. If this is true,
that's one of the biggest guns that Indonesian tobacco firms
could come forward with.

There are already intensive efforts underway to warn as many
people as possible about the dangerous association of tobacco and
smoking, helped by parties such as International Federation of
Football Association (FIFA). The federation last November 2001
signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with WHO for the removal of
tobacco from all football events associated with FIFA. In fact,
the kick-off of 2002 FIFA World Cup coincides with the World No-
Tobacco Day on May 31.

This is an important step because football is the most popular
sport in the world and billions of people, especially youngsters,
love football heroes. When FIFA tells them to never smoke, they
hopefully will listen.

In Indonesia, the office of the WHO Representative has
appointed three well-known young figures to convince the
Indonesian youth that smoking is definitely not "cool" and in
fact dangerous. The three Health Champions of Indonesia are
tennis champion Angelique Widjaja, body builder Ade Rai and top
model Tracy Trinita.

Unfortunately, not too many youngsters rave when they watch
Angie, Ade or Tracy in action. Tobacco-control campaigners need
bigger guns.

Someone like Iwan Fals.