On FRIDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2023, the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Yang Berhormat Nga Kor Ming had announced that the Cabinet had agreed to lift the ban on the sales of fire-crackers in Malaysia.
The announcement was received with a sceptical reception; even though there is an ongoing ban on firecrackers in Malaysia since the 70s, the contraband is readily available.
According to the Minister, the ban was lifted as a means to raise the Government's coffer.
The writer wishes to apologise for incorrectly using the word 'coffee'. He needed a cup of coffee then. It should have been 'coffer'. This unintendedly implied corruption money.
The Sceptics
The sceptics, I count myself as one, cite two key concerns. Both concerns come from security perspective.
Underground Grenade Manufacturing Factory
During the 70s, underground elements linked to Malayan Communist Party managed to obtain equipment and material to build an underground factory to manufacture hand grenades to be supplied to the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) armed units. Using equipment stolen from a metal company, they converted a disused factory to manufacture at least a few thousand units of hand grenades. For the explosive, they had two sources; explosive powders from firecrackers, and stolen explosives from a quarry. The factory operation was put to a stop by members of highly secretive Team F, led by a legendary police officer, Datuk Leong Chee Woh.
Bright Sparkles Incident
While there are hundreds and thousands of firecrackers-related incidents in Malaysia, the one incident that has seared into the minds of Malaysians who had lived through the 1990s is the Bright Sparkles tragedy.
On 7th May 1991, tragedy struck when a massive explosion at the Bright Sparkles factory located at Sungai Buloh destroyed the factory. 200 tonne worth of explosive material was stored at the factory ground. The resulting explosion was felt as far as 7km away, and windows at some houses at Selayang were shattered.
26 lives were lost in the tragedy, with pieces of the victims flung found kilometres away. Another 83 were injured, either due to flying debris or from the poisonous gas from the chemical stored at the factory.
The Other Side of the Coin
While I am a skeptic to the uplifting of the ban, the uplifting might turn out well.
As mentioned earlier, firecrackers have been readily available in Malaysian markets for years, albeit obtained from underground sources. The uplifting of the ban means these firecrackers can now be obtained legally.
Legalisation means the government can now impose safety requirements on these suppliers and distributors. Safety checks can be performed on storage locations to ensure that the safety guidelines are adhered to.
Even security concerns that the explosive material in the firecrackers would fall into the hands of terrorists can be averted and mitigated as compared to the current situation where firecrackers are still readily available even though they're technically banned.
Another positive impact of the legalisation would be a new class of employment can even be created, as the explosive safety officer position might be something that we will see in the near future.
Of The Best Intent and Purpose
Even with the best intents and purposes, with the planned legalisation of firecrackers, comes one question. As firecrackers are still illegal, would the income gained by those who had dealt with these soon-to-be-legalised contraband be considered illegal? Would the income that they had pumped into the financial sector still be considered illegal income that would necessitate reporting institutions to raise Suspicious Transaction Reports to the Bank Negara Financial Intelligence Enforcement Division?
And even if the above has been answered, would the government and its various agencies enforce the planned requirements? Or would it just talk only? Like in the Bright Sparkles tragedy, it was discovered later that the factory was never licensed to manufacture the explosive material.
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