Pontianak mayor purges smokers

The Mayor of the Indonesian city of Pontianak, Sutarmidji, has told his subordinates to stop smoking or be sacked, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

The Post described the demand as having been made in an effort to make the West Kalimantan capital child-friendly.

“To support his policy to create a child-friendly city and his call to stop smoking, the administration has prepared a community health center as a stop smoking clinic,” said Darmanelly, head of the Pontianak Community Empowerment, Women and Children Agency (BPMPKAB).

Last week, Sutarmidji claimed that none of the heads of city agencies and districts were smokers.

“I have told people, if you find those officials smoking, tell me, I will fire them,” he said during a meeting with officials from the BPMPAKB agency.

Sutarmidji was quoted as saying that more than 2,900 patients were being treated for tuberculosis at a lung hospital in Pontianak, ‘82 percent of them due to the effect of smoking, both passive and active’.