Businesses can adjust to smoking ban, Ikram tells Syed Saddiq

 

Muslim NGO Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia (Ikram) intends to resolve the concerns of Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman over Putrajaya’s ambitious age-based smoking ban bill.

In a statement, Ikram Health spokesperson Azhari Azizi maintained that the ban aimed at preventing those born after 2005 from buying or consuming tobacco products was to prevent nicotine dependency.

Syed Saddiq had argued that the ban would result in small retailers and businesses losing a portion of their income and inadvertently encourage calls for more bans based on religious or moral grounds, and further drive black market cigarette demand.

Speaking on the impact on small retailers, Azhari reminded that the ban would only impact those born after 2005, thus buying these traders time to plan for a new business model in line with the generational ban.

“Eatery owners’ associations raised similar concerns during the initial announcement of the implementation of a smoking ban on food premises in 2018. After its implementation, eateries were able to adapt to it.

“In fact, we can see more and more customers in attendance bringing family members with small children to restaurants now.

“We must believe in the ability and wisdom of our entrepreneurs to adapt. We can’t expect their business model to have to depend on the existence of new tobacco product addicts forever,” he said.

Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman

Laws exist to protect people

Azhari cited a 2019 study in which two out of five students were exposed to passive cigarette smoke, even when they were not active smokers.

He cited another study conducted in the United States which estimated that 34,000 deaths due to heart complications were related to passive cigarette smoke.

“Individual freedom still has its boundaries and is stopped when the act of smoking may cause harm to others who do not choose to smoke. We have a lot of laws governing the freedom of individuals to avoid danger to themselves and others.

“An example would be the laws mandating seatbelts and helmets. Another would be the ban on morphine, cocaine, syabu and heroin.

“We have never felt that these laws prevented individual freedom, but understand that it is there to protect us from danger.

“That is also the role of the government in ensuring the safety, well-being and health of each individual is maintained,” Azhari added.

Lowering demand for black market cigarettes

He also contended that preventing the next generation from getting addicted to nicotine would lower the demand for black market cigarettes.

“Don’t equate a sudden ban with the generational end game. When there are fewer new smokers, there will be fewer targets and black market activity. It (the black market) can only target existing smokers,” he said.

Azhari admitted that there needed to be more enforcement to prevent smuggling activities.

“We should ask the Customs Department what has resulted in Malaysia becoming the largest market for contraband cigarettes in the world? Are there integrity issues in enforcement circles?

“Even so, we have recently witnessed stricter enforcement against contraband cigarettes, resulting in the seizure of contraband cigarettes worth millions of ringgit. If this is continued and improved, of course, the concerns about contraband cigarettes can be reduced,” he said.

Azhari said that the generational smoking ban was an indication of the government’s message that tobacco products are dangerous enough to qualify for those products to be banned.

“When the government tells the people that tobacco products are harmful to health, but at the same time allows the sale of cigarettes legally as well as enjoying huge revenues from the cigarette tax, it sends a mixed message to the community,” he said. - Mkini