Lombok’s Tobacco Road Is A Highway to Hell for Some

Siti Fatimah sat in front of a burning stove as a kettle hissed. The water was poured into glasses filled with ground coffee and sugar and the scent of coffee filled the house in Lombok’s Surabaya village.

Her guests were quick to compliment her brew. “Lombok coffee is the best with cigarettes,” one of the guests remarked. Fatimah’s wide smile suddenly disappeared and she said softly, “Bitter. It’s bitter.”

She paused as though deciding whether to continue her story.

“Tobacco separated me from my loved ones. My husband left me and I am childless. I’ve lived alone for years mired in debt because of tobacco,” she said, counting the amount she had to repay with her ten fingers.

“My husband is no longer here. To me, he is only a name but his debts never go away. I don’t know where he is now. Maybe he ran away to Malaysia. All because of tobacco,” she said.

Ten years ago, Fatimah and her husband joined the tobacco bandwagon, expecting a windfall from the business. He borrowed money from everyone he knew to grow tobacco on their tiny half-hectare plot of land.

“Fifty million rupiah, collected from loans was a lot of money then,” she recalled.

“He was so convinced that we would make money and be able to pay off the debts once we harvested our tobacco. We never did,” Fatimah said.

Anti-smoking campaigns are increasingly popular these days because of health concerns. But even before the leaves were rolled into cigarettes, tobacco took its toll on Fatimah and many others in the village.

Papuq Aisyah is another villager with a similar story. One of her granddaughters left home to look for her husband who ran away to avoid debt collectors. Papuq was one of the guests at Fatimah’s house.

Papuq said the young couple also chose to plant tobacco. It was OK at first. “They did not make a lot of money [from tobacco] but were also not broke because of it. But later, they never had a proper harvest and they become too indebted to support their every day life.

“They sold everything, even their wedding rings,” Papuq said.

Fatimah and Papuq live surrounded by a sea of tobacco fields. Under the scorching sun, the smell of tobacco leaves is everywhere. In this tiny village alone there are at least 300 tobacco farms.