Jakarta - Located at Warung Daun, Jl Cikini Raya, Central Jakarta, Indonesian NGO Coalition for Tobacco Control thought that the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did nullifying the tobacco emergency conditions by delaying the accession treaty. They are now looking forward to the new government that will be led by Joko Widodo (Jokowi) -Jusuf Kalla (JK).
Indonesian NGO Coalition for Tobacco Control client sent a critical review of the role of government in tobacco control issues to the House of Transition Team of Jokowi-JK for the protection of public health and human rights.
Indonesia was the only country in Asia that had not ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) or Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
"The government should be in favor of public health. Based on the Law of Long Term Development Plan, any development should be health oriented society. If Indonesia does not regulate tobacco problem, it will threaten the demographic bonus and endurance in a long term," said Vice Chairman of the Institute for Foreign Relations of Muhammadiyah Central Board, Sudibyo Markus at Warung Daun, Cikini, Jakarta, Tuesday (23/9).
Government under-JK Jokowi expected to fulfill a commitment to the health issues, the protection of human rights, and protection from the dangers of adolescent drug.
"Jokowi JK should have the guts for this accession. Hopefully he can meet the expectations of the public health problem," said Sudibyo.
The same thing was said by Ifdhal Kasim, the former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in 2007-2012 periods. According to Kasim, Indonesia will have a framework of international-level tobacco control by acceding to the FCTC. The existing regulations will be monitored so that the application will run effectively.
"By joining the countries that have signed the convention, Indonesia will have a systematic, structured framework and it can be evaluated. How many rules are there about existing tobacco control? We do have many rules but the main problem is the absent of evaluator so it seems that the program is not run well," he said.
Not only delivering benefits, Dr. Dibyo also shared his views about future losses in Indonesia if Indonesia did not accede to the FCTC immediately. According to him, Indonesia would be embarrassed if it did not end up acceding to the treaty although it had promised to accede twice.
"If the accession is not carried out, it will certainly be ashamed of us. It could be happened because Indonesia is one of the founding father of FCTC of the treaty states. Besides, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonopromised has signed FCTC. Even, baby smoker news in foreign news was very massive." he concluded . (Dhar)
Tags: Tobacco, Cigarettes, Muhammadiyah, Indonesia, Health