Made Arya Kencana, Denpasar – The country's leading children's rights group is threatening to sue the government unless it issues a regulation banning all tobacco advertising, which it blames for the large number of child smokers in the country.
Arist Merdeka Sirait, the chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), said on Saturday that the paperwork for the lawsuit was being drawn up and the suit could be filed by the end of this month.
He accused the government of ignoring the impact on society of smoking and said it was not serious about restricting cigarette advertising, sponsorship or promotions.
"This country has been losing out to the tobacco industry for far too long," Arist said at a workshop in Denpasar – "It figures, though. Even against mass organizations, the government loses."
He said that although mandatory warnings on cigarette packs and higher taxes had been imposed over the years, the real problem was that tobacco advertising remained largely unrestricted and was targeted at young people as much as adults.
He argued that China, though home to the largest number of smokers in the world, had a virtually negligible proportion of child smokers, thanks largely to stringent regulations on advertising, promotions and sponsorship.
In Indonesia, children between the ages of 10 and 14 account for some 1.2 million of the country's 89 million active smokers, according to data from Komnas Anak.
More worrying still, Arist said, new data showed that there were 239,000 smokers under the age of 10. In one case, the commission found a child in South Sumatra who had started smoking at just 11 months old.
He said the vast majority of child smokers, 83.7 percent, took up the habit because they were influenced by cigarette ads, particularly on television.
Other factors included the handing out of free packs of cigarettes at places and events where children and young people typically gathered, including malls, concerts and sports events, Arist said.
A recent study by the medical school at Bali's Udayana University found that 60 percent of youths in Denpasar aged 13 to 22 years old who smoked were still in junior high school.
"They start off smoking in the school toilets, then they pick up the habit and eventually develop a high-level addiction to smoking," said Made Kerta Duana, a researcher from the school's Community Health Studies program.