Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has taken aim at incumbent Dr Zaliha Mustafa over delays in getting the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 through the Dewan Rakyat.
In an interview with BFM’s Morning Run, he said it was extremely disappointing and that the extra steps taken by the Health Ministry would lead to further delays.
“We thought that the bill would be passed in this session and the health minister had indicated when she removed liquid nicotine from the Poisons Act schedule to effectively legalise vaping.
“We thought that the lacuna in the law would be plugged by the passage of this legislation during this session. And it doesn't appear likely because now this has been kicked to the special committee that's going to take a bit of time and Parliament’s session ends tomorrow,” Khairy (above) added.
The second meeting of the Dewan Rakyat ends tomorrow and it does not reconvene until Oct 9. The Health Ministry’s decision to refer the bill again to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) effectively ended any chance that it would be passed soon.
“What shouldn't have happened in the first place was for liquid nicotine to be removed from the list of controlled substances under the Poisons Act. That was a mistake.
“Tengku Zafrul (Abdul Aziz) asked me to remove liquid nicotine from the Poisons Act when he was finance minister and when I was health minister for the same reason they wanted to collect revenue and I refused to do so.
“Because that's the prerogative of the health minister. The poisons board which is chaired by the health director-general as well did not recommend it,” said Khairy.
Hard work done
The former health minister further said: “I've done all the hard work on this. I took it for second reading. It was debated, and then it was taken to the committee. I chaired the committee, we made amendments to it.
“There were certain provisions which some lawyers, legislators felt were a little bit draconian. We changed all of that. We had bipartisan support from everyone, including key members of the committee.”
Khairy indicated that key individuals including Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said were part of the committee.
“Everyone signed off on it. I was about to table it and Parliament was dissolved. So we were already at the finish line. And when I handed over the responsibilities to the new minister I told her that you really just have to kick it into the goal and you're literally inches from the goal line.”
He added that he didn’t understand the reasons for the delays.
“Hundred percent that it was an open goal and even prime minister (Anwar Ibrahim) to his credit, mentioned the generational end game, which is essentially the most controversial provision within the legislation in his budget speech.
“He clearly mentioned that the government supports in principle, the generational end game, which is to ensure that no one born after 2007 will be sold any smoking products, whether it's macro products or heated tobacco or vapes,” said an exasperated Khairy.
Treating illness cost much more
Khairy said the cost of actually treating diseases and illnesses from smoking is much more than the revenue obtained from the tobacco industry.
“It's something like RM6 billion to RM8 billion a year compared with the RM2 billion that you collect from tobacco taxes. But it also comes in a more nefarious form, which is in the form of lobbying from the tobacco industry,” he added.
The former Rembau MP even claimed that there were “one or two ministers… peddling the tobacco lobby views”.
“While I'm disappointed that this has been kicked to the special committee, I would rather that it be kicked to the special committee for maybe a couple of months, and for the legislation to be passed in its entirety, rather than bits and pieces,” he said. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.