Both Khairy Jamaluddin and Hannah Yeoh are known to be amongst the most capable and dynamic "young" leaders in the country; and both of course have strong links to the Youth and Sports ministry - the former having served as its ex-minister while the latter is the current one!
That being the case, it's only natural that both act as the de facto voices for the younger generation; but unfortunately though, it looks like they have found themselves on the opposite sides in the proposed Generational End-Game (GEG) provision in the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 - which controversially is still “hanging in the air.”
According to a recent report by the Galen Centre , Hannah Yeoh became the first Cabinet member to acknowledge that the government finds the tobacco/vape GEG to be "unconstitutional" as advised by the Attorney General Ahmad Terrirudin; she had apparently stated that: “A law that’s unenforceable and unconstitutional will cost the government millions. Not supporting GEG does not mean I support smoking or vaping.”
As expected, the feisty former health minister Khairy had then shot back at her via Instagram Stories; without actually naming Yeoh, he had mentioned that even though she is an ardent child rights advocate minister and is currently in charge of young people, yet she has been opposing the GEG from before till now!
Incidentally, the same report had also stated that according to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) the GEG is believed to contravene Article 8 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees equality before the law.
Meanwhile, Khairy also aired his anger on the alleged opposition to the GEG by claiming that the AGC had reversed its stance on the GEG because of Datuk Azalina Othman, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) whom he said was a fierce critic of GEG - and that she doesn’t want it passed!
In fact, according to him other opponents of GEG in the current Cabinet are allegedly the tourism minister Tiong King Sing and the "gaffer" - a term which is often referred to the big boss - which could only mean PM Anwar?
Furthermore, he had pointed out that although the government collects about RM5 billion from cigarette taxes annually, RM6 billion is spent a year to treat cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and other smoking-related illnesses - an amount that is estimated to balloon to RM8 billion in the next few years; thus he has urged the health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa to maintain the GEG in the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023.
Indeed, it is believed that the Health Ministry has been working “overtime” to present a revised bill to Cabinet as soon as possible – without confirming if the revised bill would be a version decoupled from the GEG – so that the bill can be tabled and passed in the current Dewan Rakyat meeting that is scheduled to end on November 30.
Meanwhile, according to an earlier Codeblue report by the Galen Centre, the Malaysian Family Medicine Specialists’ Association (FMSA) had strongly criticised the government’s decision to postpone the second reading of the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 and, more alarmingly, to remove the generational end game (GEG) clause from the bill.
According to the FMSA, the Cabinet’s decision to delay and to decouple the GEG is a direct violation of child rights as laid out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); it also said that apparently the government's hesitancy stems from the country's Attorney-General's view that the proposed cohort or age-based prohibition – which seeks to ban tobacco and vape products for anyone born from January 1, 2007 – is unconstitutional. Could this be what is stalling the rollout of the new bill with the GEG?
Nevertheless, Khairy appears adamant that the government incorporates the GEG clause in the bill and he appears to have good grounds for it too; after all, in December last year even New Zealand had passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes whereby it can’t be sold to anybody born on or after January 1, 2009!
So who exactly is to be blamed here for the delay then? Maybe, our Attorney General's Chambers can learn from the New Zealand's lawmakers on how to fine tune the bill and make it legally enforceable?
Whatever it is, the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health 2023 bill has to be rolled out soon - before more and more of our younger ones are enticed and become addicted to vaping!
Yet, strangely, amidst the raging storm, two parties who have been extremely passionate about saving the lives of oppressed Palestinians - PM Anwar and the opposition PAS - have been relatively silent on all the brouhaha over the bill here, although it may affect the lives of thousands of “our own citizens and children” in the future!
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