Will retailers ask for Mykad before selling tobacco to 18 year olds?

SHAH ALAM - In January 2022, Health Minister Khairy Jamaludin announced his intention to outlaw anyone who turns 18 years old next year from buying tobacco products.

The proposal was applauded by the public health NGOs concerned over the high prevalence of tobacco consumption in Malaysia.

Despite the numerous laws introduced by the health ministry since 2004, according to the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019, there are 4.8 million smokers in 2021 versus 4.7 million smokers in 2011.

Meanwhile, despite the health ministry having the power to act against cigarettes sold below the Minimum Retail Price, 6 out of 10 packs are sold below the official price of RM12.00 per pack of 20 sticks.

Now, the health ministry seeks to table a new law in Parliament that discriminates between adults based on their birth year.

Anyone born on before midnight Dec 31, 2004 is allowed to buy tobacco products while anyone who had the misfortune to be born one minute later is forever banned from making an adult lifestyle choice.

Beginning from Dec 15, 2021, the legal age to vote was reduced to 18 years old, allowing adults to select their representatives in Parliament and State Assemblies but the same 18 year old will not be able to go to their local retailer to purchase a packet of tobacco products.

The older generation has always tried to control the generation after them on the basis that “I now know better”.

This led to the ban against rock music and long hairs in the 1980’s, rap music in the 1990’s, black metal in the 2000’s and so on.

It is like having our school teachers scolding us for playing football in the rain and mud.

If tobacco products can be made illegal for anyone born after 2005, will the health ministry prevents from extending the same prohibition to other unpopular products such as sugary drinks or alcohol.

Malaysia has the highest prevalence of obesity among adults in South-East Asia.

According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019, 50.1 per cent of our adult population were reported to be overweight (30.4 per cent) or obese (19.7 per cent).

The health minister should also include a ban on sugary drinks and alcohol from being consumed by adults while he is working on protecting future generations from tobacco products.

Does the Generation End Game policy institutionalises the discrimination and criminalisation of a generation of Malaysians after 2005?. Given the lackadaisical enforcement minimum age laws, which incidentally is also the responsibility of the health ministry to enforce, there will be consumption even by those born after 2005.

Which retailer will ask a person who clearly looks like an adult for his Mykad during purchase of a tobacco product? Suddenly a person who seeks to purchase a packet of cigarettes is now a criminal and subject to penalties.

If implemented here, Malaysia will be the first country in the world to enact a Generation Endgame law. Even New Zealand, where the idea was proposed after years of study and public health campaigns, has yet to draft a legislation for its Parliament.

Malaysians deserve better than to be experimented with an untested policy that is entirely alien to the freedoms of being a Malaysian.

Mark Chong is a reader of Sinar Daily.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Sinar Daily.