Indonesia Elections 2024: Why the country sees more smokers, coffee drinkers when it’s election season

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BUSINESSES RAMPING UP PRODUCTION

Mdm Rosalina, the owner of cigarette company Mustika Tembakau Indonesia, said that during previous elections, demand for her products increased by 30 per cent.

However, she stated it is not always easy to meet the demand.

“We may have problems obtaining the material, such as getting enough tobacco, which hampers our production,” she said. 

This time, she has tried to preempt it by securing as much tobacco as possible before campaigning started in November.

Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono said in June last year that the number of Indonesian smokers has been on the rise.

Indonesia has the third highest number of smokers worldwide after China and India, with about 112 million smokers, according to government data. 

“We are in third place, maybe because we are also a tobacco-producing country,” said Mr Dante last June. 

The government has tried for years to dissuade people from smoking as it has negative health consequences, such as the risk of contracting tuberculosis or cancer.  

But it has been a double-edged sword as the country gets about 10 per cent of its state revenue from the tobacco products industry.

Mdm Rosalina believes that smokers should know the health consequences as they are stated on the cigarette packs. 

“The consequences are on the package. So that is already a reminder – it all depends on the consumer whether they want to consume (the cigarette) or not.

“Cigarettes greatly contribute to the country’s income,” she added.

East Java province is the main producer of cigarettes in Indonesia.

Mdm Sulami Bahar, the head of East Java’s cigarette entrepreneur (Gapero) association, said that legislative candidates even make special requests to small-scale cigarette factories during elections. 

“They want us to create cigarette packs with their pictures on them to distribute to potential voters.” 

As a cigarette producer herself, she has also received such requests this time. 

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No prescription, no problem. But is it safe to buy cheap medicine from Malaysia?

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One reason that it was less potent than expected and thus “less useful”, said Wang, might have been that it was not kept cool — between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius — “to maintain the stability of the medication”.

“This extends to other medications that require cold storage,” she added, citing insulin as another example of medication that would be less effective if not stored properly. “And that’s one of the risks with online shopping.”

Chia’s item arrived in a normal box, and it turned out that the website he found did have this disclaimer: “We do not offer cold chain delivery for this item.”

But even with physical purchases in stores in Malaysia, buyers from Singapore bear some risks, Wang cautioned.

“These are prescription medicines for a good reason. You do require a doctor to follow up … to make sure that the medicines are appropriate for you,” she said.

“Bypassing the doctor’s follow-up, you’d miss … the monitoring that’s usually required for prescription medicine for its safe use.

“When you get a refill (of) cholesterol-lowering medication, for instance, you don’t really sense whether your cholesterol is high or low. And it’s not possible for you to sort of tell on your own whether it’s working or not.”

Watch this episode of Talking Point here. The programme airs on Channel 5 every Thursday at 9.30pm.

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What’s next in Pakistan election deadlock

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Philippine landslide death toll climbs to 35

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Philippines landslide toll jumps to 54 dead

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MANILA: The death toll from a massive Philippine landslide near a gold mine abruptly rose to 54 on Sunday (Feb 11), local officials said.  Nineteen bodies were recovered from beneath the rubble in the southern mountain village of Masara on Sunday, with 63 other miners and residents still missing, said theContinue Reading