KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 – Coffee shop operators have urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to review the tobacco bill, ahead of the Dewan Rakyat meeting that resumes tomorrow.
In a letter last June 1 to the prime minister, the Malaysia-Singapore Coffeeshop Proprietors’ General Association (MSCSPGA) urged the government to address the illicit cigarette trade, instead of banning tobacco and vape products for the next generation that it claimed would drive adult smokers turning 18 next year to illegal cigarettes.
MSCSPGA claimed that the sale of legal cigarettes in coffee shops in Malaysia contributes to a “significant” amount of earnings, even though it is illegal, under current tobacco regulations, to smoke in eateries.
“The implementation of smoking ban for next generation will not only reduce potential revenue for the businesses, but also come with a hefty price for its members,” MSCSPGA said in its letter to Anwar, copied to several DAP MPs’ email addresses, including ministers and deputy ministers from the party.
“The responsibility of enforcing these laws will fall on us just like when the smoking ban at eateries was implemented. On the smoking ban for future generation, the retailers will be required to perform checks on the year of birth for every individual who purchase cigarettes even though they are adult at age of 30 or 40 years old in future.
“This makes the whole business transactions more tedious. In turn, the customers will find these checks troublesome and instead turn to illegal cigarettes operators that are ready to supply illegal products at a much lower cost.”
Not only did MSCSPGA oppose the generational end game (GEG) provision in the Control of Smoking Product for Public Health Bill 2023 that bans tobacco and vape products for anyone born from 2007, the group also denounced the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) plans to ban the display of cigarettes in retail.
“This will add complexity to the business and incur additional operation burden to the businesses,” said MSCSPGA that represents about 20,000 members of coffee shop operators in Malaysia.
“In our view, all these proposals should not be considered because the government’s focus should be to address illegal cigarette trade situation in Malaysia.”
MSCSPGA’s arguments against the tobacco bill, citing the purported economic cost of tobacco regulations, are standard talking points in the tobacco industry.
The coffee shop operators’ association did not mention, in its letter to the PM, whether the smoking ban in eateries implemented by the then-Pakatan Harapan administration at the start of 2019 had actually led to a decline in coffee shops’ revenue.
The Control of Smoking Product for Public Health Bill 2023 – which seeks to regulate both tobacco and vape products – was not listed for tabling for first reading tomorrow, according to the Dewan Rakyat’s Order Paper.
World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing last Friday that e-cigarettes and vape are a “trap” to recruit children from an early age for a lifetime of addiction, not harm reduction as claimed by the tobacco industry.
The WHO chief also stated that vaping is harmful in itself, as he urged Malaysia and other countries to “protect your citizens, especially your children” by regulating these nicotine products.
Health Policy Watch, a health news organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, described Tedros’ remarks – which were made in response to CodeBlue’s question on the impact of Malaysia’s decision to legalise e-cigarettes and vape without restrictions – as “one of the sharpest rebukes of the industry yet”.
There is increased urgency now on the government and parliamentarians to table and pass the tobacco bill – due to the government’s own actions, specifically Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa, in removing liquid nicotine from control under the Poisons Act 1952, the one legal barrier protecting minors aged under 18 from nicotine vape products.
However, CodeBlue understands that some MPs on both sides of the divide still have reservations towards the bill for various reasons, including fear of losing support from rural voters or smokers, potential corruption among enforcers, or a “slippery slope” towards other bans. Some of these concerns were publicly raised previously.
An anti-GEG petition launched in July 2022 – under then-Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration when then-Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin first proposed the GEG – has received more than one million signatures at the time of writing.
