Calls mount for RCI into tobacco industry's influence on generation's smoking ban proposal withdrawal
Published on: Wednesday, March 20, 2024
By: FMT
Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control mandates the protection of policies from the tobacco industry’s commercial and other vested interests. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) has called for the government to set up a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the removal of Generational End Game (GEG) components from the tobacco bill due to pressure from tobacco and vape industry players.
CAP said the industry’s lobbying violated the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC).
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The NGO singled out Article 5.3 of the FCTC, which mandates the protection of policies from the tobacco industry’s commercial and other vested interests.
“We want to know why Malaysian policymakers allowed the industry to influence the outcome of the proposed GEG bill.
“Malaysia ratified the WHO FCTC in 2005, close to two decades ago, and yet this happened in the very sanctum where laws are passed,” CAP said in a statement.
The group also expressed its gratitude to deputy health minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni for admitting that industry players met MPs in Parliament to lobby for the exclusion of GEG components.
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“Unfortunately, some policymakers have been complicit in this grand scheme of things, excluding the GEG (components) to serve the agenda of lobbyists who want to keep Malaysians addicted for generations to come so that they can profit from it.
“We want to know who is behind the sabotage of the GEG,” it said.
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CAP also urged Parliament to amend the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health 2023 Bill to immediately reinstate GEG components, emphasising the importance of preventing further corruption in the parliamentary process.
Last Saturday, The Star reported that the Malaysian Women’s Action for Tobacco Control and Health had called on the Conference of Rulers to consider an RCI on health, especially regarding the elimination of the GEG provisions.
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