Life-saving law could be delayed yet again

AFTER numerous delays, the Bill that could end smoking in Malaysia may still be off the table for 2023.

This is because the Budget 2024 debates, which began on Oct 16, are expected to hog the House’s order of business until the third or fourth week of November.

It is during this last week that the Health Ministry has a narrow, three-day window in which to table and pass the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill.

“We missed the first three days (of the sitting). Now we are looking at the last three days of the sitting,” a health ministry source says.

It was initially scheduled to be tabled on Oct 10, but it was postponed at the eleventh hour, and the government has been criticised for pussyfooting and the constant delays.

The current Dewan Rakyat sitting ends on Nov 30 and much to the dismay of health advocates, if the ministry fails to table it this year, the next opportunity would be in February or March next year when the august House convenes its first meeting of 2024.

But the debates on Budget 2024 are not the only hurdle to tabling the Bill which will make it illegal for those born in and after 2007 to purchase cigarettes.

The Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) on Health had reviewed the Bill for a second time and has since released its findings and recommendations.

“The recommendations of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Health will also be added to the Bill,” said the source, adding that there could be further tweaks.

So it is also possible that the Bill will be retracted to make way for these changes.

It is understood that behind closed doors, questions have been raised by Cabinet members and MPs on the Bill, and this has put further pressure on the ministry.

Sources claim that certain industry associations have lobbied strenuously against the Bill as tobacco, food and beverage businesses claimed that they would experience devastating losses if the law came into effect.

Some have said that there may be layoffs as a result of the law and it is believed that some lobbyists have also sought political backing to block the Bill.

The health fraternity on the other hand is pulling out all stops to get this Bill passed into law with experts issuing statements to the ministry almost every day.

Already, other countries are considering similar laws. Britain, for example, is mulling a law that will not allow 14-year-old children today to purchase cigarettes.

New Zealand, meanwhile, has passed a law where no one will be able to buy tobacco products in four years.

The Bill’s supporters have strong arguments for why Malaysia needs to pass this law which would put an end to smoking for an entire generation as its famous moniker suggests – the Generational End Game.

After all, Malaysia spent RM1.34bil to treat cancer in 2017 – according to The Direct Healthcare Cost of Non-Communicable Diseases in Malaysia, a report released by the ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The healthcare cost of lung cancer treatment is huge and smoking has been identified as one of its primary causes.

Apart from the smokers themselves, second hand smokers are also at risk of falling ill.

The intention of the Bill – to create a generation that has never touched a cigarette – is good but the success of the law still lies in its stringent enforcement.

But for now, the Bill looks like it could follow in the footsteps of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, which was first tabled in 2009 but only passed in April 2014.

Let’s hope that passing the anti-smoking law will not take as long as the GST.

After all, health is wealth and this will save lives.