Social Affairs Minister Under Fire for Distributing Free Cigarettes
Jakarta. Tobacco-control activists have threatened to file a law suit against Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa for distributing cigarettes to an indigenous tribe in Jambi.
Campaigners have given Khofifah a two-week deadline to apologize for the action or they say they will launch legal action against her.
"We will file a legal suit at the district court because the social affairs minister was deliberately ignoring public health by distributing free cigarettes," Tulus Abadi, operational manager at the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), said at a press conference on Friday.
Khofifah has come under strong criticism after a picture of her distributing care packages — which included cigarettes — to the indigenous Anak Dalam tribe in Jambi circulated on the internet.
The minister was visiting the tribe to express her condolences for the death of eleven people who died of starvation.
"Whatever the reasoning was, it is incomprehensible that a high official would distribute cigarettes to her own people," Tulus said.
"It would have been more becoming if money spent on the cigarettes had instead been used to buy basic necessities or other useful things."
YLKI claimed Khofifah's distribution of cigarettes was in direct violation of the 2012 government regulation on tobacco control, which forbids free distribution and discounts for tobacco products.
YLKI and the Advocates' Solidarity Movement for Tobacco Control (SAPTA) say they will investigate the origins of the cigarettes, as there is suspicion that cigarette makers had directly provided them.
Azas Tigor Nainggolan, chairman of the Jakarta Citizens Forum (Fakta), said that he was mulling over whether to widen the suit to include the Health Minister for failing to uphold tobacco-control regulations.
"It behooves the health minister to rebuke her colleague, the social affairs minister, because her mission is to bring about a healthy Indonesia," Azas said.
"If public officials don't comply with regulations, why should you expect the public to do so?"
Khofifah has dismissed the criticism by saying the free cigarette distribution was just a way to get on the good side of the locals.
"I don't want to argue but you'd better go there yourself. Greet them and ask them about their culture. Do not see things from a Jakarta-centric perspective," she said, as quoted by Merdeka.com.
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