FCTC seen as a threat to farmers
Growing pressure from foreign NGOs demanding that Indonesia immediately ratify the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has been met with strong resistance from East Java Governor Soekarwo, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.
Soekarwo has asked foreign NGOs not to intervene in matters related to tobacco farming and product manufacturing in Indonesia, including East Java.
“No, no,” he was quoted as saying. “It has nothing to do with those NGOs. Tobacco is the livelihood of East Java’s people. Why do they have to dictate how we handle our tobacco affairs? I don’t like it. Mind your own business,” Soekarwo said last week in Surabaya, East Java.
Farmers in East Java plant tobacco on about 108,000 ha – about 55 percent of the area planted to tobacco throughout Indonesia.
Soekarwo said East Java had a close relationship with Indonesia’s tobacco product manufacturing industry, which employed about 600,000 workers: workers who would be affected if the government ratified the FCTC.
A similar sentiment has been conveyed by tobacco manufacturers in Indonesia. At the end of May, they wrote a joint letter to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressing their concerns over the sustainability of the tobacco industry. They expressed their concerns that the government would bow to growing pressure from NGOs and immediately ratifying the FCTC.
The chairman of the cigarette manufacturing association Paguyuban Mitra Pelinting Sigaret Indonesia, Djoko Wahyudi, said one of the requirements stipulated by the FCTC was the prohibition in cigarettes of additional materials, including cloves. But 95 percent of cigarettes in Indonesia were kreteks – clove cigarettes.
“The FCTC will kill kretek, a genuine Indonesian product,” Djoko said. “We hope and call on the Indonesian government to stay committed to protecting the national tobacco manufacturing industry as a whole, which comprises tobacco farmers, workers and industrial players.”
Djoko claimed the FCTC was part of a hidden agenda of foreign parties to kill Indonesia’s tobacco manufacturing industry, which more than 6 million Indonesian people depended on for their livelihoods. The tobacco industry contributed Rp173.9 trillion (US$12.91 billion) to tax revenues in 2015, making it the third-largest tax contributor in the country.
Echoing Djoko’s opinion, Indonesian Tobacco Growers Association chairman Soeseno said he supported Soekarwo’s move to reject the FCTC ratification because it contained several excessive regulations that could kill the tobacco industry in Indonesia.
“If Indonesia ratifies the FCTS, we will have to convert our tobacco plantations to other commodities; this will threaten the prosperity of around two million farmers and millions of tobacco workers in Indonesia,” said Soeseno, who added that there was no other commodity that could provide greater profits for farmers.