KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — Youth collective Gagasan Belia today handed over a memorandum demanding that the government take more time to pass the Tobacco and Smoking Products Control Bill 2022.
Its representative Mohammad Alshatri Abdullah said that the organisation supports all efforts to reduce smoking but brought up concerns over the Bill, popularly known as the Generational End Game (GEG), related to worries about violation of basic rights, its impacts on the poor, and the wide scope of powers granted to law enforcement.
"This Bill was first suggested by Singapore and New Zealand. But they have also taken two years and up till now, it has not been passed in their respective parliaments,” he said.
"I want to ask the health minister, why is there a rush to push this Bill?"
He said his organisation feels that education and awareness should be the focus of any attempt to reduce smoking, not enforcement of the law, and that there needs to be education and awareness on addiction and harm reduction strategies.
The memorandum was handed over to Dr Muhd Hairul Nizam Abd Hamid, chief assistant senior director of Tobacco Control and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) division of the Health Ministry.
Also present were Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh, Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and a representative for Jelun MP and former health minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.
"I understand that the select committee that has been established to see all of the (Bill’s) amendments will present its report to Parliament so we have to wait and see what amendments it will introduce,” said Yeoh, adding that she hopes the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development will safeguard the rights of the young.
Syed Saddiq said that he had put forth suggestions to improve the Bill and that he will push for them to be included until he has seen them implemented.
An online petition rejecting the GEG on petition platform Malaysia Bersuara has collected 768,207 signatures at the time of reporting.
The Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations Malaysia has also urged the Health Ministry to "consider the science of harm reduction before rushing ahead with the GEG.
On July 27, the Bill was tabled for its first reading in Dewan Rakyat, which highlighted a ban on smoking any tobacco products or tobacco substitutes as well as the ban on the use of smoking devices, by any individual born on and after January 1, 2007.
It is currently being reviewed by the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022.
