WHO seeks tobacco sponsorship bans in RI

Musthofid and Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The World No Tobacco Day celebration Friday seemed to have failed to capture the imagination of Indonesians with the World Health Organization vowing to campaign against tobacco sponsorship.

"We expect that there should be no more tobacco sponsorship in 2003," Uton Muchtar, the WHO chief in charge of the Southeast Asian region, said at a discussion.

The discussion was held at the Gran Melia Hotel in conjunction with WHO's anti-tobacco campaign, whose 2002 theme is Tobacco Free Sports with the slogan Play It Clean.

Earlier, the Ministry of Health celebrated no smoking day with representatives from the WHO representatives to Indonesia, sports celebrities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) activists.

But apart from the discussion and the celebration, there were few anti-smoking campaigns in government offices, media or other public places.

This fact defies the serious problem in Indonesia which is the fourth biggest tobacco consumer in the world after the United States, China and Japan. In 2000 alone, 199 billion individual cigarettes have been sold.

According to Minister of Health A. Sujudi, most Indonesian smokers were young people because around 44 percent of them started smoking at the age of between 10 and 19 years old and 37 percent were those of between 20 and 29 years old.

Uton, who comes from Indonesia, said the tobacco industry had poisoned 141 million smokers in Indonesia or 70 percent of the country's population, more than half of them were poor people.

Celebrated body builder Ade Rai and tennis player Angelique Widjaja along with actress Tracy Trinita are expected to promote WHO's campaign among the national sports community.

Uton likened the tobacco industry to a giant who has brainwashed the people for years that smoking is not a problem and it can get along with sports.

The industry has successfully built a positive corporate image through sponsorship of sports, entertainment, cultural and community health events to lure youths, women and the poor.

"That industry reaps billion or even more rupiah from selling cigarettes. Actually they only sell death and disease," he said.

Internationally, Uton said, tobacco advertisements have drastically reduced as the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the ongoing World Cup in South Korea and Japan affirm.

"But it does not look as easy to do it in Indonesia. The sports must be able to do away with sponsorships from tobacco companies," Uton said.

Many developing countries have started reducing their tobacco consumption up to 10 percent but Indonesia has increased its consumption to 44.1 percent during 1990-1997.

Mawarwati Djamaludin, from the National Agency for Food and Drugs Control, said she expected interference from the government by regulating anti-tobacco sponsorship on sports.

Merdias Almatsier from the National Committee on Tobacco Control, called for the establishment of a regulation which would allow the allotment of tobacco excise, whose amount is expected to be Rp 22.3 trillion in 2003, for sporting events.

"It's an irony that the national health budget, which is affected by cigarette consumption, is not assisted by the income from the excise. Lets say it as a compensation," Merdias said.