Is It Possible Jakarta to Become [Cigarette] Smokeless?

Anywhere you go, either it is a remote place in the frozen climate close to the Arctic,  an arid desert in the middle of Sahara or a humid tropical rain-forest in Indonesia,  and not to mention densely populated cities everywhere in the world, you will find people smoke a cigarette. Jakarta is no exception. 

We have no idea how and when this strange habit first came up to people burning a bunch of dried tobacco leaves and sucking the smoke down into his lungs.  But one is certain, it was Columbus who was responsible for bringing tobacco seeds from America to Europe. From the WHO data, it is clear that tobacco is a major cause of death.  Globally the smoking-related deaths, which more or less reflect Indonesia condition, are 29 percent lung cancer, 24 percent heart disease, 16 percent chronic lung disease, 6 percent stroke, and the remaining are other various diagnoses.  

The tobacco companies in Indonesia produce an estimated 20 billion sticks a year or statistically every person in Indonesia, including children and babies, smoke more than one cigarette every day. The money burnt each year by the smokers is about Rp 20 trillion but that amount of money turns the business of cigarette on which many tobacco farmers, laborers, retailers, the cigarette industries as a whole and part of the government coffer depend on.   

 For the foreigners who visit Jakarta for the first time, they may smell some strong bizarre burning clove odor. That is the “kretek” cigarette, typical tobacco blended with clove, widely consumed by Indonesian people. Jakarta smokers have a bad habit of smoking anytime and anywhere wherever they pleased. They don’t care, no matter whether they are in the street, crowded train or bus, cinema, restaurants, amusement centers or else you name it. Whether you like it or not, you have to join inhaling the cigarette smoke or you have to leave the spot.  

With the aim to reduce the pollution of cigarette smoke, the city government has set an ideal program to free the cigarette smoke in Jakarta by 2012. Jakarta is the first area to initiate cigarette prohibition in its territory. The policy is now followed by many other cities such as Surabaya, Padang, Bogor, Lampung, Bukit Tinggi, and Denpasar. The policy is the strong commitment of the city governments to the health of the citizens. 

Jakarta Gubernatorial regulation No. 88/2010 regulating the smoking prohibition inside the buildings was put into effect since April 1, 2011, after it was socialized during the last six months consecutively since October 2010. The penalty for the smoker violating the regulation is exceedingly severe at Rp 50 million (US$ 5 thousand) but has never been implemented until today. Maybe because the penalty is so high that nobody puts it seriously. Once a  city-police caught a man smoking a cigarette and urged him to pay the fine. The accused took out his wallet and gave the police Rp10,000 (US$ 1) the only money he possessed. The law-enforcer gave him back the money and walked away saying nothing.

Within that time span, there were 92 buildings were considered bad related poor law enforcement related to non-smoking areas. Following the socialization of smoking prohibition issued by the city government, the citizens have got a better perception about it. Even Environment Controlling Body has received 169 complaints about locations which did not supervise yet the non-smoking areas. This indicates that Jakarta citizens have participated in the program. 

Despite protests from cigarette smokers, city government was determined to create clean air from cigarette smoke. Even the efforts are fully supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Their representative in Jakarta said the Gubernatorial Regulation No.  88/ 2010 is in line with international rules. Tobacco is responsible for the death of 1 in 10 adults.