The Malaysian Ministry of Health’s (MOH) intention to ban the sale of cigarettes and vape to those born after 2005 will be an exercise in futility because of the high prevalence of corruption within our public institutions and illicit trade.
The Ministry of Health is taking a bold stance in addressing the persistently high smoking incidences in Malaysia by confirming that Malaysians born after 2005 will not be able to purchase tobacco products, smoking substances, substitute tobacco products and smoking devices. Nevertheless, putting in place a drastic prohibition measure at this juncture will only encourage corrupt practices that could lead to illicit trade.
Corruption in Malaysia is a growing concern as the country has dropped five spots in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2021 to the 62nd position out of 180 countries (in terms of public sector corruption). I strongly believe that corruption has and will continue to play a critical factor in the illegal cigarettes trade that cost the government RM5 billion a year in uncollected tax revenue.
As we already knew, 6 out of 10 cigarettes sold in Malaysia are contraband cigarettes brought in from other countries through a complex criminal network and sophisticated logistic eco-system. Naturally, this multi-billion Ringgit illegal cigarettes operations can only exist because certain law enforcement officials have been coerced to look the other way, whether through money or through threats.
While there remains a good number of honest and trustworthy law enforcement personnel, they would certainly be overwhelmed when smoking prohibition laws come into play. Criminal syndicates will have a windfall as a new market segment will be opened to them.
As a start, these criminals will immediately market to the ‘banned’ generation as they are not confined by any regulations. The exponential increase in illegal income from this activity will be re-channelled towards infiltrating our enforcement institutions at a level much worse than what we see today.
While the Minister of Health, YB Khairy Jamaluddin, may be confident that MOH can put in place many methods to enforce the ban, most if not all enforcement methods are susceptible to corruption.
Time and again, we have seen the cleverest and state-of-the-art enforcement initiatives put into place being undermined by corrupted individuals who are in the position to sabotage the system or circumvent the process to enrich themselves and criminal operators.
If the Malaysian Government is serious about addressing the smoking bad habit, it should first put in place laws that prohibit corruption, which will, in turn, safeguard enforcement efforts and destroy the illegal cigarettes trade.
Dato’ Fazli Nordin
Managing Director of Retail & Trade Brands Advocacy Malaysia (RTBA Malaysia)
