Rizki, 22, was about to get off a bus at the Blok M terminal, South Jakarta, when a public order officer caught him for smoking a cigarette.
The officer informed him that he had violated a bylaw on smoking in two restricted areas: public transportation and bus terminals.
“Really? I don’t even know about the bylaw,” a confused Rizki told the officer. “I often smoke on the bus because there are no written rules about not doing so.
“If you forbid me from smoking in public areas, I can do it. But if you ask me to quit smoking, well, that will be hard,” he said.
Rizki was one of dozens of commuters and bus drivers caught smoking at the bus terminal on Wednesday.
Officials from the Jakarta Environmental Management Body (BPLHD) took down each violator’s personal details as part of judicial investigation procedures, while members of antismoking NGOs, including the Indonesian Network of Women Against Tobacco and the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, lectured on the bylaw and the dangers of smoking.
That was the scene on the first day of antismoking raids conducted by the BPLHD, municipal agencies and NGOs.
