Resty Woro Yuniar – Indonesia's struggle with deadly bootleg liquor, exacerbated by limited access to legal alcohol and deep cultural stigmas, has left the nation with the world's highest recorded methanol poisoning death toll, exposing a grim public health crisis.
The Methanol Poisoning Initiative, a project by Medecins Sans Frontieres and Oslo University, reports that Indonesia has recorded 329 methanol poisoning fatalities over the past two decades, making it the worst-affected country among 184 monitored.
Data from Indonesia's statistics agency shows that as of 2022, the country's alcohol consumption rate was just 0.33 litres per capita, much lower than the Asean average of 9.55 litres expected this year, according to statistics firm Statista.
Methanol poisoning has been in the spotlight following the recent deaths of six tourists in Vang Vieng, Laos, from consuming tainted alcohol at a local hostel, highlighting the risks of unregulated alcohol in Southeast Asia.
However, Indonesia's struggles with bootleg liquor are unique. As the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia imposes strict regulations on alcohol, making legal liquor both scarce and expensive. This scarcity pushes many, particularly young people, towards cheap, illicit alternatives or even to concoct their own home-made brews, analysts say.
"People who drink alcohol are [seen as] people who behave inappropriately, so that the practice of [safe] drinking alcohol is not something that can be openly discussed," said Devie Rahmawati, a lecturer on social and cultural communication at the University of Indonesia.
Most methanol-related fatalities in Indonesia are linked to a type of bootleg liquor known locally as oplosan. Traditional drinks like arak – a moonshine typically made from fermented rice, coconut palm flower, or sugar cane – can also be tainted with toxic methanol to increase potency.
'Burning throat'
Lack of access to legal alcoholic drinks drove Rio to try arak and oplosan when he went to college in the city of Surabaya in East Java province in the 2010s.
"I first tried alcohol when I was in junior high school, when beer was still sold at [the mini-market], my body didn't look like a junior high school student at that time so I could buy them," Rio, who declined to give his full name for a privacy reason, told This Week in Asia.
"When I was in college, beer wasn't sold freely any more, it was already difficult to find, so I was looking for arak," he said. "My friends and I collected money to buy arak, which was sold for 10,000 rupiah to 15,000 rupiah (US$0.63 to US$0.94) for one [pre-used mineral water] bottle. They were made from fermented rice and jackfruit."
In April 2015, Indonesia banned the sale of beer and alcohol in mini-markets, except in tourist areas like Bali. Now, people can buy them only in supermarkets, high-end hotels, bars, and restaurants.
Rio said he and his friends once bought oplosan mixed with spirits, or denatured alcohol, from an unlicensed kiosk.
"It tasted spicier, and it smelled more pungent than usual, like the smell of gasoline, turns out it's mixed with spirits. I tried only two or three shots. I couldn't stand it, so I finally stopped," the 32 year-old said.
Rio, who now works as a civil servant in the city of Bogor, said he still had a "headache and sore body" three days after drinking the oplosan.
"Thank God I was never treated at the hospital from drinking it. One of my friends in university used to drink oplosan almost every day in his kampung (village) with his friends, and he has damaged his liver," he said.
A 2016 study by Jakarta-based non-profit Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), examined the potential consequences of an alcohol prohibition in Indonesia. Its findings revealed that methanol is typically found in oplosan drinks that are mixed with non-food ingredients such as mosquito lotion, battery fluid and headache pills.
The study found that demand for alcohol remained high a year after the mini-market sales ban, which drove people to "dangerous, illegal alternatives," Ridha Intifada, a researcher who was involved in the study said.
Deaths from drinking bootleg liquor are a recurring tragedy in Indonesia. In August, three students died after consuming oplosan mixed with perfume in Magelang, Central Java, while in November 2023, oplosan claimed the lives of 14 men in Subang regency, West Java.
"Young people want to be seen as cool, so they'll get drunk. Beers or [local] red wine can cost around 100,000 rupiah, while mixed concoctions are still affordable, maybe now it costs 50,000 rupiah, so many young people choose it," Rio said.
After graduating from college, Rio said that he no longer consumes arak or oplosan and now prefers drinking beers and liquor at bars or clubs.
Counterfeit alcohol is also a major problem in Indonesia, with vendors often tampering with legitimate products by adding methanol to cut costs.
In December 2023, three jazz band members in Surabaya died after drinking liquor from a hotel bar, which police later confirmed contained methanol.
Pop culture influence
Devie of the University of Indonesia said deaths from fake alcohol typically affect the lower middle class, who "cannot access" legal liquor.
"Individuals who drink the mixed concoctions tend to be young people, because of the influence of their social circle. They don't know the right limits in drinking alcohol," she said.
Pop culture is also to blame, as many young people in Indonesia view the West's drinking habit as "cool behaviour," Devie said.
"Indonesia has a disease called [colonial] mentality, where everything consumed and done by white people becomes a benchmark that a society that was once colonised wants to achieve. They only follow the lifestyle without any knowledge [of safe drinking]," she said.
To snuff out the crisis, some lawmakers from Islamic parties have sought to introduce a law since 2014 to prohibit the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol, but deliberation on the controversial bill has moved at a snail's pace in parliament.
In its 2016 study, CIPS argued prohibition would "push the alcohol distribution underground and out of control of the government and negatively affect public security."
According to Devie, local community leaders such as village heads could be utilised to share information with young people about the dangers of bootleg alcohol on their health, as they could be "immune to doctrines about drinking."