No room for big business in Dewan

LAST year, former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was jailed for 20 years over a US$61mil bribery scheme that American federal prosecutors called the “largest corruption case in state history”.

Householder filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Feb 27, about a month ago.

The charges came about because, back in 2019, power giant FirstEnergy bankrolled a plan to ensure Householder was elected to political power. In return, Householder would champion a US$1.3bil bailout Bill to help FirstEnergy’s ageing nuclear power plant.

Earlier this month, former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and, more importantly, former vice-president of external affairs Michael Dowling were also charged over the issue.

Dowling was a lobbyist for the utility. His job had been to convince Householder to ensure that the bailout happened. Prosecutors called it racketeering; Dowling called it lobbying.

Lobbying, you see, is a common practice in almost all countries. Lobbyists speak to lawmakers on the pros and cons of legislation, convincing them to vote a certain way.

We have them in our country, too. The outburst over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, where many groups are pushing for a decoupling of issues, is an example of lobbying.

These groups wanted children born to Malaysian women living overseas to be given citizenship. But they also do not want foundlings or stateless children to be denied citizenship. Some human rights groups have even written to the Prime Minister about it.

It is quite clear that these groups have certain interests in mind and are speaking up about them. They have a right to, and our MPs and government, rightly, have listened to them.

However, when big industries meet MPs in Parliament and seek to protect their own vested interests, it’s a different matter.

I am, of course, talking about the startling revelation by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni that the tobacco and vape industry had successfully influenced the government to drop the generational endgame (GEG) clause from the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023. It would have disallowed the sale of cigarettes or vape products to those born on or after Jan 1, 2007.

“A conflict of views arose due to industry pressure – the industry entered Parliament and the industry met with members of Parliament, which influenced the decision,” he was reported to have said.

His boss, Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, has – after a full six days – clarified that his deputy was mistaken. But was he, really?

Why did it take six days for the government to come up with the explanation? Was it because Dr Dzulkefly was unwell? Surely, someone could have pointed it out to the deputy minister, who could have then made the clarification himself.

Instead, several MPs and experts admitted that the lobbyists had been behind the decision and said: “We should just move on.”

What we do know for sure, even with Dr Dzulkefly’s explanation, is that the industry players had indeed met MPs to convince them to water down the law. There are even photographs of a senior manager of a tobacco firm speaking at a podium with the words “Parlimen Malaysia, Sidang Media” behind him.

Now, that’s the smoking gun.

Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, the man behind the GEG, was not impressed by Lukanisman’s revelation. He had always suspected that big tobacco was behind the stubbing out of the GEG, which would pretty much douse all smoking in the country by preventing persons born on or after 2007 from getting access to cigarettes.

He even labelled the government “cowardly and irresponsible” for removing the GEG component from the anti-smoking Bill.

Like many others, he pointed out that Article 5.3 of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control states that all countries must ensure that their public health policies “are protected from the vested interests of commercial firms and the tobacco industry”.

Malaysia has ratified that agreement.

Dr Dzulkefly, however, says the decision was made because it would be unconstitutional to ban kids from buying cigarettes. It would violate Article 8 (1) of the Federal Constitution, which states that all Malaysians are equal under the law and enjoy equal protection of the law.

The thing is, we have many laws that discriminate. The Citizenship Amendment Bill itself is about correcting one such discriminatory law. Children born abroad to Malaysian mothers do not get citizenship, but those born abroad to Malaysian fathers do.

Mothers are not equal to fathers. That is discriminatory, but we have had no problems with that for decades, and the law is still on the books. Even the court thinks it is not a problem.

Some mothers had gone to court over the matter and are now on the losing end. They won in the High Court, but that was overturned in the Appeals Court. They now have a Federal Court date in June. With that in mind, Article 8 (1) sounds just like an excuse for the GEG issue.

Legal experts like Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi have argued that discrimination would occur only if some of those born on or after 2007 were allowed to buy cigarettes or vape. As long as all in the cohort are banned from buying them, there is no discrimination. “Like should be treated alike,” they say.

My problem, though, is not about smoking. I have no issue with people who smoke. It’s their problem.

The real issue is that big business must not dictate to our lawmakers about legislation. Sure, we want investments and a thriving economy, and laws that help businesses flourish should be encouraged.

However, our MPs should do what is right for the people and not what the big-money businesses want them to do.

If they do, questions will arise. Did the lobbyists just speak to the MPs to convince them about the weaknesses in the Bill? Or did something more sinister happen?

Given what the legal experts say, it is not legally wrong to implement the GEG clause. What is definitely wrong is for MPs to allow big tobacco lobbyists into Parliament to convince them.