Semarang, Central Java. A thick, blue cloud of tobacco smoke scented with frankincense wafts through the Campurejo village hall within the Central Java capital.
“This is that the No. one tobacco during this village,” says Ngatimah, one in all the ladies puffing away on hand-rolled cigarettes.
“It’s most higher after you roll it yourself. The tobacco is like a part of your soul.”
Ngatimah has come back to the village hall with many different girls who toil within the tobacco farms here, to do to prove their purpose that smoking doesn't kill.
“I’ve been smoking since i used to be in primary college,” the 37-year-old says. “I smoked after I was pregnant, however I’m healthy. after I don’t smoke, I feel weak.”
The women have gathered during a show of opposition to a bill being deliberated at the House of Representatives that will eventually cause a full ban on tobacco advertising.
The bill demand additional stringent regulation of tobacco advertising and would outlaw the sale of individual cigarettes. It conjointly demand producers to print warning footage additionally to written labels on each pack of cigarettes and would ban smoking during a host of public areas nationwide.
These restrictions, the farmers argue, would impact cigarette sales and ultimately threaten the livelihoods of tobacco stakeholders in villages across the country.
“If they put in force passing the bill, we are going to select war!” H. Dollah, a tobacco farmer, shouts at the village hall meeting. “A war against the government’s policy! Tobacco or death!”
Economic Bedrock
Gustiawan, the Campurejo village head, has thrown his backing behind the farmers. He argues that tobacco cultivation has been the bedrock of the villagers’ existence for many generations, and to require it away would deprive them of the sole means they savvy to form a living.
“The individuals aren't progressing to sit back. They’re progressing to fight for his or her livelihoods,” he says.
Camilun, one in all the feminine farmhands, says the government’s argument that tobacco kills is nonsense.
“Just inspect recent man Tasmo,” she says, pertaining to one in all the village elders. “He’s one hundred twenty five years recent and still smoking, and he’s still alive. individuals can inevitably die whether or not they smoke or not. That’s why we have a tendency to during this village opt to smoke till death!”
Dubious claims aside, the opponents of the bill insist the collapse of the tobacco trade here would be devastating.
Wisnu Brata, chairman of the Central Java branch of the Association of Indonesian Tobacco Farmers (APTI), says the tobacco harvest this year is predicted to get trillions of rupiah for the province.
“Last year, all 19,000 plenty of the best tobacco grown in Campurejo village was sold out,” Wisnu says.
“Thirty-two individuals here were able to prolong the hajj due to their earnings from the harvest.”
The loss of income to farmers and traders as a results of tobacco regulation, villagers say, isn't as bleak a clear stage because the loss of labor for the thousands used on the tobacco farms.
“At the beginning of the growing season, we have a tendency to build around Rp twenty,000 a day, that is simply enough to form ends meet,” Ngatimah says.
“So if the bill is passed, we’ll be creating a lot of less. It’s progressing to kill us.”
The Black Prima Donna
Suminto could be a legend in these elements. At 70, he's still a significant smoker of the srintil form of hand-rolled cigarettes — created using tobacco with high amounts of nicotine and spiced with cloves.
“Suminto’s a champion smoker,” says Selamet, a neighbor in Semarang’s Petarakan village. “A novice would feel dizzy once smoking a srintil, however he’s still going robust.”
The tobacco for these cigarettes is extremely prized as a result of it grows solely within the fertile valley between the active volcanoes of Sumbing and Sindoro. it's therefore troublesome to grow that it's been known as “the black prima donna.”
The payoff for those growing this selection is large. throughout the 2009 harvest, srintil fetched a record worth of Rp 850,000 ($100) per kilogram. that very same year, the additional common Virginia tobacco sold for a median of Rp forty five,000 per kilogram.
Subakir, head of Legosari village in Semarang, one in all the most srintil-growing areas, says he expects to reap 800 kilograms of tobacco per hectare of land this year, that at this market worth of Rp 800,000 per kilogram would internet him Rp 640 million per hectare. Even while not the Rp fifty million per hectare for farmhands and Rp ten million per hectare for fertilizer, he would still flip a healthy profit.
The Haram Quandary
Srintil is additionally the variability of tobacco that will be most full of the passage of the tobacco bill, though. underneath the bill, sales of tobacco varieties with high nicotine content are going to be strictly regulated, creating them less widely on the market.
Subakir says that will devastate the native economy and therefore the livelihoods of farmers growing this specialty selection.
“Tobacco suggests that most for us here,” Subakir says.
“Our whole lives rely upon it. regardless of what happens, we've got to stay growing tobacco.”
He conjointly criticizes the anti-tobacco activists’ demand the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the country’s highest Islamic authority, to issue an edict branding tobacco haram, or forbidden in Islam.
The MUI has to this point resisted the calls, and for sensible reason, Subakir says. “All the mosques that you just see during this village and plenty of others were designed using cash from the tobacco-growing trade,” he says.
“If the MUI ever declared tobacco haram, then the mosques would even be haram. Anyone here attending to prolong the hajj would cancel their plans, as a result of all of them finance their visits with cash earned from farming tobacco.”
Subakir echoes the decision created by those in Campurejo village.
“For us, it all comes right down to tobacco or death.”
12 years ago
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