KUALA LUMPUR – The Control of Smoking Products For Public Health Bill 2023 is the “best” draft legislation on the matter available, and will lay the groundwork for a return of the Generational Endgame (GEG) in the future, the health minister’s special adviser Dr Kelvin Yii said today.
Yii (Bandar Kuching-PH) made a forceful appeal to MPs in the Dewan Rakyat where voting on the bill is set to take place today.
“Let’s work hard together, let’s prepare the ground to make GEG possible in the future.
“It may not be what we want, but this is the best RUU (bill) right now. Set aside your personal agendas and prepare the ground for GEG in the future,” Yii said during MPs’ final debate on the bill before Health Minister Datuk Dr Zaliha Mustafa wound up the session.
Yii touched on the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ (AGC) view that the endgame provision – a lifetime ban on smoking for anyone born on January 1, 2007 and after – is unconstitutional, stressing that it would be irresponsible for the government to have tabled legislation that could be challenged in court.
“I’m on record that I don’t agree (with it being unconstitutional). But we cannot ignore the AGC’s view. We cannot push through a bill that is unconstitutional, that is not responsible.”
To have tabled an unconstitutional bill would have been futile, he added, as the government would not get the “buy-in” and support needed to turn it into law.
Yii reiterated that the urgency to pass the bill without GEG provisions was “urgent” in view of the loophole whereby vapes and nicotine are unregulated.
“It was a difficult decision to decouple GEG from other smoking controls. But we don’t want to postpone such an urgent issue (smoking regulations).”
He also called the bill an achievement, as it is Malaysia’s first stand-alone legislation to control smoking, which up to this point has been regulated by the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004 under the Food Act 1983.
“It is an achievement to have a stand-alone bill… now we can be on par with other countries in terms of legislation to control smoking.”
Yii also addressed MPs’ questions as to why vapes and e-cigarettes are not specifically mentioned in the bill.
“This bill is drafted to be broad, to cover devices used today and those that may emerge in the future,” he said. – November 30, 2023