Representative Claims and Policy Contestation: Mobilising Indonesian Farmers in Tobacco Control Politics

In Indonesia's tobacco policy debates, the Indonesian Association of Tobacco Farmers (APTI) claims to speak for farmers who grow tobacco, opposing tobacco control policies on the grounds that they harm farmers’ livelihoods. This article interrogates that representative claim. Drawing on Saward's theory of representation and claim-making and on fieldwork across six tobacco-growing regions of Java, it examines APTI's claim both against the institutional context in which APTI operates and the priorities farmers themselves articulate. It finds the claim to be a problematic one. Founded by government and entangled with the tobacco industry through its funding and leadership, APTI represents a diverse farming population as a single constituency and prioritises policies of interest to cigarette manufacturers. APTI's advocacy is better understood as speaking in farmers’ name than necessarily in their interests, raising broader questions about who is entitled to represent whom in policy debates.