The brass tacks on alcohol consumption in Indonesia should be: is a ban enforceable and is it being done as part of a public health initiative rather than a moral crusade? Since neither is true, no one should seriously support this ban. But should there be an effort by the government to gradually reduce alcohol's harm and make it disappear from shelves?
You bet.
Excerpt from "Strategies to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol" : Draft : 2009
"The level of regulation on the availability of alcohol will depend on local circumstances, including social, cultural and economic contexts as well as existing binding international obligations. In some low- and middle-income countries, informal markets are the main source of alcohol and formal controls on sale need to be complemented by actions addressing illicit or
informally produced alcohol.
Furthermore, restrictions on availability that are too strict may promote the development of a parallel illicit market."
apps.who.int
Admittedly, I only kinda skimmed the document (it's long and full of meaningless, non-actionable, buzzwords), but my take is that the WHO would not support an all-out ban as a first method of control. I realize you didn't say they would... But I was curious enough to see what methods of harm reduction they do encourage.
Most of what they have in there is community action and government support stuff, the sort of things that you would expect to see in a campaign for mental health care or poverty reduction. Perhaps that isn't surprising, as there are correlations between alcohol consumption and poverty/mental health issues.
For me, I'd take government soft action (education, healthcare, and even convoluted purchasing schemes like you see with marijuana clubs in Amsterdam) over government hard action (fines and prison sentences) any day of the week, on just about any social issue. I know that stuff is expensive, but alcohol can always be taxed.
There may be an illicit market increase because of taxes, but if a government is so poor at enforcing its laws that taxes cannot be implemented effectively, all the more reason said government should not be trusted to put people in jail over social issues. I want my government to be like my doctor, encourage good behavior and treat me when I need it, even quarantine me if I am a danger to others. I don't want someone to enforce best practices when I'm mostly just endangering myself.