KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 – Senior officials from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) never told the Health parliamentary special select committee (PSSC) that the tobacco generational end game (GEG) was unconstitutional, said Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The Kuala Selangor MP and former health minister, who heads the Health PSSC, referred to Lampiran D in the committee’s report tabled last October 9, pointing out that “we were all very clear that there was no issue” regarding the constitutionality of the proposal to ban tobacco and vape products for anyone born from 2007.
“There were reps from AGC all the time, almost. Oftentimes, they were there. And there’s never been any issue to raise on unconstitutionality or issue of constitutionality at all,” Dzulkefly told reporters at the sidelines of a cervical cancer briefing by the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) for MPs in Parliament here today.
He urged all MPs on both sides of the divide to work together to pass the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 when it hits the floor of the House next week.
“We urgently need to pass the bill to address the lacuna in the law, after liquid nicotine was removed from the Poisons List. If we pass this bill, it will also be Malaysia’s first ever tobacco and vape control Act,” Dzulkefly told CodeBlue.
In a statement last Saturday, Attorney-General Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh claimed that the AGC has “consistently”, since last year, expressed its views that the GEG could be challenged in court because it contravened Article 8 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees equality before the law.
Former Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who first proposed the GEG in the 2022 tobacco bill he brought to Parliament last year, has also contested the AG’s claim that the government’s legal advisors had always perceived the generational tobacco and vape prohibition to be unconstitutional.
Khairy, who headed the PSSC for the tobacco bill last year in the 14th Parliament, quoted the MOH’s legal advisor who, in a PSSC meeting in August 2022, cited case law from four cases to argue that the GEG did not violate Article 8 or Article 5 of the Federal Constitution on personal liberty.
Dzulkefly posted on X last August that the Health PSSC worked specifically with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the AGC itself, together with health experts, to draft a revised version of the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill that was tabled in Parliament for first reading last June.
Unlike other PSSCs that rarely revise bills, the Health PSSC headed by Dzulkefly proposed the exact text for amendment to the bill that was included in its report.
The Health PSSC’s report listed several senior AGC officials participating in various proceedings – beyond the MOH’s legal advisor – that included those from the drafting, prosecution, and research divisions. Officials from the AGC’s drafting division included senior assistant parliamentary draftsmen.
The bipartisan Health PSSC concluded that the tobacco and vape GEG provisions should be retained in the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill, besides suggesting a reduction of the maximum RM500 fine to RM200 for those in the GEG group caught smoking or vaping.
Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa declined to comment when asked by reporters if the GEG has been decoupled from a revised version of the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill that the MOH plans to present to Cabinet tomorrow.
“I had my press statement yesterday, so you can refer to that,” she said.
Bernama reported Dr Zaliha as saying yesterday that the MOH would present a revised version of the tobacco and vape control bill to Cabinet tomorrow that takes into account the views of the Attorney-General.
The text of the health minister’s statement was not published on Dr Zaliha’s or the MOH’s official social media pages.
