Jakarta, June 16 (Antara) - The pros and cons behind Indonesia acceding
to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control (WHO FCTC) have long been speculated, and the government's
indecisive stand has placed it in a difficult position.
Various circles from the health sector and the younger generation have,
so far, called on the government to ratify the FCTC treaty, which had
been circulated by the WHO since May 21, 2003, in an effort to curb
tobacco consumption.
However, the government has yet to accede to the convention as over six
million people earn a livelihood as workers in tobacco industries or as
tobacco farmers. Tobacco also contributes trillions of rupiah in taxes
to the state
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Youth
Movement (GM-FCTC) has questioned the government's reluctance to accede
to the convention amid increasing number of young smokers.
The GM-FCTC viewed the government's hesitance to ratify the convention
as odd, especially during a time when 180 countries in the world,
realizing the importance of controlling tobacco consumption, have
acceded to the FCTC.
"It is ironical for Indonesia, as one of the initiator countries of the
FCTC, to have not yet affirmed its commitment to controlling tobacco
consumption by acceding to the FCTC," Margianta Surahman, a spokesman of
the GM-FCTC, noted in a press statement in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Margianta,
popularly known as Gian, stated that tobacco control youth activists
across the nation have supported President Joko Widodo's stand to accede
to the convention. Moreover, the number of young smokers in the country
has continued to increase.
Indonesian Minister of Empowerment of Women and Child Protection Yohana
Yambise has expressed concern over the increasing number of children
taking to smoking in the country.
"A total of 54 percent of Indonesian children are now smokers," she
noted after a limited cabinet meeting on the Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control led by President Widodo in Jakarta on Tuesday (June 14).
The minister has vowed to wean away children and women from smoking as
it could cause lung cancer, miscarriage, cervical cancer, and heart
problems.
The minister urged to put in place a special rule to save people,
especially women and children, from the harmful effects of cigarette
smoking.
"We already have Presidential Regulation No. 109 of 2012 in place that
bans children from smoking, but shops still sell cigarettes to them. A
stricter regulation is needed. In other countries, cigarettes can only
be sold at shopping malls," she stated.
Therefore, the GM-FCTC has called on President Widodo to protect children from the dangers of cigarette smoking.
"The
nation's key interest is to protect the Indonesian people; hence in
this case, safeguarding children from the dangers of cigarette smoking
must be given priority," Gian affirmed.
Gian reiterated that the accession to the FCTC is a commitment made by
the government of a country to protect the future of its healthier and
more productive population.
According to Gian, the accession to the FCTC has the ultimate goal of
serving the nation's interests, not only in terms of protecting the
people's health but also driving economic growth.
"Therefore,
we, the younger generation of Indonesia, are still waiting for
President Jokowi, as the vanguard for the protection of people, to take
part and make a commitment to undertake efforts to curb the use of
tobacco," he emphasized.
Two
years ago, controversies on the plan to accede to the convention also
arose between health supporters and those coming from the tobacco
industries and farmers.
A legislator from the Nation's Awakening Party Faction (FPKB) in the
House of Representatives (DPR) at that time rejected the ratification of
the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, as it would be seen as a
disadvantage to many people, since tobacco contributes to the welfare of
workers in the tobacco industry.
"Tobacco is a big income source in Indonesia. You can imagine, there
are about 6.1 million people working in the tobacco industries.
Ratifying the convention will kill them," Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri, the
then FPKB secretary, said during a discussion at the Parliament
building.
Admittedly,
cigarettes contribute big taxes to the state. In 2012 and 2013, for
example, the country received at least Rp84 trillion and Rp85 trillion,
respectively, in tobacco taxes. The figures rose to Rp112.5 trillion and
Rp139.5 trillion respectively in 2014 and 2015.
In 2010, tobacco taxes were worth Rp63 trillion and drastically rose
over 100 percent to Rp139.5 trillion in 2015. This is about eight
percent of the revenues in the 2015 state budget.
So, from an economic point of view, tobacco is a source of revenue for
the state and income for millions of people, which is why the government
has not yet ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco.
Moreover, more than six million people working in the tobacco
industries and farmers earn their living in the tobacco sector.
President Jokowi said he would consider the fate and survival of
tobacco workers and farmers before deciding to accede to the convention
and sign the FCTC treaty.
According to Jokowi, based on the WHO data up July 2013, a total of 180
countries have ratified and acceded to the FCTC, representing 90
percent of the world population.
With regard to accession to the FCTC, the president said Indonesia was
not willing to merely follow the trend, but it should really take into
account the nation's interests, particularly with regard to the health
of citizens to safeguard the younger generations in future.
He said that Indonesia needed to think of the interest of the often
forgotten parties, namely the survival of tobacco farmers and workers
who earn a living in tobacco industries.
"This is not a small case. It concerns a lot of people. We have to consider all aspects," the president said.
In order to discourage smokers, the government banned smoking in public
locations. It has also issued Regulation No. 109, 2012, which bans the
sale of cigarettes to young people below 18 years old.
Besides that, beginning June, 2014, cigarette packets were required to
carry pictorial warnings with gruesome images of people suffering from
different tobacco-related diseases such as oral, gangrene, mouth, neck
and lung cancers.***4*** (A014/INE)
EDITED BY INET.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 16-06-2016 15:43 |
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