Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – In a bizarre twist to the ongoing legal debate over tobacco's addictive nature, the government contradicted its own law by siding with the country's powerful cigarette industry.
One of the witnesses, Mualimin Abdi, the director of litigation at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, said it was preposterous to call tobacco addictive.
"It's nonsense to say that it's difficult to quit smoking," he told the Constitutional Court. "It didn't take me weeks to stop smoking. I just stopped. It only takes strong willpower."
After Wednesday's hearing in a judicial review called for by Bambang Sukarno, a legislator from the tobacco-growing hub of Temanggung in Central Java, Mualimin expounded further on the merits of tobacco. "Tobacco is a halal product [accepted under Islam], therefore cigarettes are halal too," he said.
"People should also not close their eyes to the fact that we receive Rp 60 trillion [$6.66 billion] in tobacco excise every year."
The debate centers on an article in the 2009 Health Law that lists tobacco as an addictive substance.
Hearings in the review so far have produced some jaw-dropping testimonies from witnesses for the applicant, including theories that smoking does not cause lung cancer and can actually be healthy.
No less mind-boggling was Wednesday's testimony by witnesses for the state, ostensibly meant to defend the law.
Another state witness, Iswanto, a tobacco farmer from Temanggung, testified that the industry was important to the people of his community.
The other witnesses for the state were lifelong heavy smokers who testified about the toll the habit had taken on their health.
None of the state witnesses was a tobacco industry representative or health expert.
The Constitutional Court invited its own witnesses, three tobacco industry executives, to testify on Wednesday. Justice Harjono justified the move by arguing they were industry stakeholders who would be affected by the outcome of the judicial review.
The executive from Djarum, the country's second-biggest cigarette producer, said any move to further regulate the industry would have a negative impact on the tens of thousands of people employed in the sector.
"In 2010, we had 73,896 employees and had a turnover of Rp 21.8 trillion, of which 56 percent went to the government," said Subronto, an industrial relations executive for Djarum. "Our workers are now being threatened with discriminatory laws."
Yos Adiguna Ginting, director of external relations for Sampoerna, the country's third-biggest cigarette producer, skirted the question of whether labeling tobacco an addictive substance would hurt the company.
"We don't have any tobacco farms ourselves so we don't have the capacity to answer that question," Yos said.
"Sampoerna is open to the idea that smoking may be addictive, but we demand a new law on tobacco product control, one that is comprehensive and pays attention to all stakeholders, including the government, workers and producers."
Speaking after the hearing, Tulus Abadi, from the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI), criticized the court for inviting the executives to testify, arguing that their take on the judicial review was irrelevant.
"We question the relevance of the cigarette industry in this discussion," he said. "Addiction is a medical phenomenon, not an economic one. The cigarette industry shouldn't be considered a stakeholder in the Health Law."
Another witness who testified on Wednesday was Hakim Sorimuda Pohan, a former House of Representatives member who helped draft the original 2009 Health Law.
He said lawmakers' intention in labeling tobacco as addictive was to stem the number of children who take up smoking.
"Health economists have calculated the loss caused by smoking is five times what the state gets in tobacco excise," he said. "The generations that we lose cannot be justified by the money that we receive."
He added tobacco production had increased sevenfold between 1970 and 2009, while the country's total tobacco-growing area had only increased by one-seventh during the same period.
Critics have long lambasted the government for turning a blind eye to the dangers of tobacco in favor of the hefty revenue raised from the industry.
Indonesia is the only country in the Asia-Pacific region that has not ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The FCTC requires its members to ban all tobacco advertising, including sponsorship and promotion by the tobacco industry.
The government's stance on the issue can also be seen in the highest institution in the land: the State Palace. Under to a 2010 gubernatorial decree, smoking is forbidden in all buildings in Jakarta. Yet smoking remains allowed in the palace's media room, which is air-conditioned, no less.