Smoking Ban Fatwa Divides Indonesia

A fatwa by Indonesia's top Islamic party banning smoking in public places is dividing the world's most populous Muslim state amid a conflict of interests between health and business. "We will submit the fatwa to the Supreme Court as a basis of upgrading it to become apart of additive essence," Aries Merdeka Sirait, secretary general the National Human Rights for Children Protection, told IslamOnline on Saturday, January 31.

He said if the court considered tobacco an additive essence, then smoking will be banned in the Muslim country.

"So, the fatwa would be in effect not only for children and pregnant women," said Aries.

Nearly 700 scholars of the Ulemas Council on Sunday, January 25, banned smoking in public places and for children and pregnant women.

The scholars, however, failed to agree an outright ban on smoking, fearing it could harm the country's economy.

The fatwa is not legally binding for Muslims, who make up some 86.1 percent of Indonesia's 235 million population, but can influence government policy.

"I am happy and glad about the fatwa," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said.

When asked about the impact of the fatwa on the country's tobacco industry, Supari said the issue is beyond her authority.

"That is not the concern of the health minister, but rather the trade and industry minister."

Indonesia is the world's third biggest cigarette consumers after China and India.

At around $1 a pack, cigarettes in Indonesia are among the cheapest in the world.

More than 60 million Indonesians are active-smokers.

Conflict of Interests

But cigarette producers warned that the fatwa would badly harm the country's economy.

"This limited fatwa is hitting our profits, let alone legalized by the Supreme Court," Amin Wahyu Hidayat, deputy secretary the Cigarette Companies Association in East Java, told IOL.

"Hundreds home cigarette industries in East Java will die, especially the government is due to the increase the cigarette tax about 33 percent in next February."

Amin said the fatwa will also impede the community surrounding the cigarette factories, as the stakeholders of small-scale cigarette industries.

"If the revenue decreases then we have no option to keep them with our company," he said.

The Indonesian Tobacco Farmer Association expects the production of home cigarette industry to drop about 50 percent after the fatwa.

The 8-billion-dollar tobacco industry is a main source of income in Indonesia.

Taxes on cigarettes account for about 10 percent of government income.

The industry also provides millions of jobs for many Indonesians.

"Most of people here rely on the industry," said Muhammad Syafiq, head of MUI Kudus, East Java.

The Indonesian United Cigarette Factories (Gapri) estimates that nearly 30 million people depend on the 4,575 industries of cigarette and tobacco.

"If smoking is fully banned so the salary of the workers and the income of tobacco farmers could be haram," Gapri chairman Ismanu Soemiran said.

The Indonesian government admits the conflict of interests.

"That is the only factor of why we have not found a concrete policy to reduce cigarette consumption," Dr. Yulizar Darwis, Health Service Building Director at the Heath Ministry, told IOL.

He said the ministry is trying to persuade the ban supporters and opponents to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to cut cigarette consumption.

Indonesia is the only Asian country in Asia to have not signed the framework due to the conflict of interests.

"Even the parliament has not found the way out," said Yulizar.

The government has set a roadmap to reduce cigarette output to 260 billion sticks by 2020, against 231 billion in 2008.

"We have been many times meeting with the parliament over the issue but the result is still the same," said Yulizar.

Source: IslamOnline