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Jakarta Post 4 feb
Smokers get breathing space as buildings take softly-softly approach
Adianto P Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Management of buildings along Jakarta’s main thoroughfares in Central Jakarta are taking different but mostly accommodative approaches to the new rules on smoking from the air pollution control bylaw.
Some office buildings have set up a smoking area, such as in the lobby, while allowing tenants to decide smoking rules within their own space. Others have not introduced strict regulations banning building occupants or their visitors from lighting up.
“Inside their rooms…it is up to the tenants, we can only give them guidance,” an employee at 17-story Wisma Nugra Sentana on Jl. Sudirman told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He said the management had circulated letters to all tenants urging them to avoid smoking in shared public spaces, such as the lobby, corridors, toilets, pantry and emergency staircases.
“We plan to have television sets inside the smoking area and also establish special smoking rooms for executives working here,” he said of the building, which has about 100 tenants.
The management set up its smoking area on the ground floor, equipped with an exhaust fan and ashtrays as stipulated in the 2005 bylaw.
Under the bylaw, which takes effect on Saturday, those who smoke in a restricted area or in public places could face six months in jail and/or a Rp 50 million (about US$4,900) fine.
The bylaw prohibits smoking in public places, defined as schools, hospitals or medical centers, offices, hotels, restaurants, children’s playgrounds, shopping centers, bus terminals, train stations, airports, places of worship and public transportation vehicles.
An employee at Biz Cafe in the office building feared the regulation could cause big losses for the restaurant.
“That’s why we asked the building operator to give us space for a smoking area in our restaurant because many of our customers are smokers,” he told the Post.
The restaurant has now set aside eight tables under a staircase for smoking guests.
The management of Sarinah shopping center on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, is not providing a designated smoking area.
“We have decided not to set up a special area for smoking because we use one-central air condition system,” Suhodo, an employee of the building management, said.
He said that the management could only distribute warnings to all tenants and place stickers at places where smoking is prohibited.
“Smokers can light up anywhere outside Sarinah building,” he said.
The transition has not been too difficult for many of the city’s hotels, which have long provided smoking and nonsmoking floors, and designated smoking areas in their restaurants and bars.
“We already separate smoking and nonsmoking rooms in our hotel. We have two nonsmoking floors,” said Linda Hakim, public relations officer of the Sahid Jaya on Jl. Sudirman.
Linda said the hotel was still sizing up the options for its smoking room, noting many hotel clients smoked.
“We are still considering a plan to establish a smoking area on the ground floor. So far, our guests can still smoke in the lobby or outside the ballrooms,” she said.
A ban on smoking in public places took effect on the weekend in the capital of Indonesia, but residents say it’s unlikely to discourage hardened smokers from lighting up.
The ban applies to Jakarta’s restaurants, hotels, schools, office buildings, airports and public transport.
It also includes a ban on pedestrians smoking on the streets, with the city planning to deploy 1,000 officers to nab offenders.
Smokers and building owners who violate the ban could face six months in jail and fines of almost five and a half thousand US dollars.
Indonesia is one of the largest tobacco markets in the world and contributes about 6.5 percent of Indonesia’s annual budget through taxation.
ABC Asia Pacific TV / Radio Australia