Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Six Indonesian women groups under the Women's Network for Tobacco Products Control (JP3T) voiced their rejection of the upcoming World Tobacco Asia (WTA) 2012 event in Jakarta on Wednesday.
They said the event was contradictory to ongoing tobacco control efforts. The country's decision to host the high-profile WTA meeting later this month was a setback as it had expanded its fight against tobacco use, they said.
Women's Voice Empowerment Movement (GPSP) chairwoman Endang Dungga said that welcoming WTA 2012 to Jakarta would give the country more smoking-related problems as it would lure more people into smoking.
"By allowing this event to take place, the government has for the umpteenth time proven its failure to protect the rights of people to health, as more women and children are left unprotected against cigarette smoke," she told a press conference.
The GPSP is one of six women groups, including the National Coalition against Gender-based Violence, the Women Participation Institute (LPP), Friends of Women and Children (SAPA), Care Group of Violence against Women and Children Elimination (KePPak) and Rindang Banua, which have joined forces to reject WTA 2012, scheduled to take place at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Senayan, from Sept. 19 to 21.
It is the second time Jakarta is the host city for the WTA event after it hosted a similar event for the first time last year.
According to the WTA official website, Indonesia's cigarette market is considered the world's fastest developing market in which 30 percent of the adult population smokes, making the country the fifth-largest cigarette market in the world.
"Indonesia is a recognized tobacco-friendly market with no smoking bans or other restrictions, in contrast to neighboring ASEAN countries. In 2009, the Asia-Pacific region added 6 million new smokers and will add another 30 million smokers by 2014," it says.
WTA 2012 offers the international tobacco industry "a forum to build relationships and demonstrate products and services to Indonesian, Asia-Pacific and Australian tobacco communities".
"It's so sad to see Indonesia is considered as the world's ashtray," said LPP director Yoke Sriastuti.
The recently-published "Global Adult Tobacco Survey: Indonesia Report 2011" shows that tobacco usage in Indonesia remains high. The prevalence of male adult smokers has stood at 67.4 percent, one of the highest male smoking levels in the world.
Exposure of women and children to passive smokers at home is also one of the highest in the world, with 133.3 million or 78.4 percent of adults exposed to secondhand smoke at home, says the report.