KUALA LUMPUR – Tourism, Arts, and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing urged former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin not to distort his words for self-gain, saying he had never denied the harmful effects of smoking.
On his Facebook page today, Tiong asked Khairy to stop “acting like a hero” with the latter’s proposed Generational Endgame (GEG) bill.
“Of course, we can’t rule out that smoking can cause cancer. I was only asking him (Khairy) if we have done any research to find out the cause of various types of cancer,” Tiong clarified in response to Khairy’s statement yesterday, where he slammed Tiong for not knowing the link between smoking and cancer.
Tiong gave an example of a young housewife from a non-smoking family who had breast cancer, which would not have been linked with smoking.
He claimed that Khairy seemed to selectively extract content from foreign sources without careful verification of established data – just to fit in his narrative of “all cancers are caused by smoking”, simply to rationalise his advocacy for GEG as his “political magnum opus”.
“Such reckless acts of ego are not only extremely risky, but it also gambles with the health of the entire nation’s citizens,” Tiong stressed.
The GEG bill introduced by Khairy aims to ban smoking for citizens born after 2007 and restrict the sale of tobacco products to that age group.
Tiong explained that he had advocated reducing the number of smokers via an educational approach, particularly for schoolchildren.
“Why can’t we do this (educational approach)? Why must we impose a law and then let enforcement personnel carry canes with them to chase people around?
“I think this is uncivilised. A civilised action would be to go in the direction of encouragement through education,” he said.
Tiong however said he was not surprised by Khairy’s statement, as he knew that the former Umno man has been reckless and stubborn, proven by his previous action of over-purchasing the Pfizer vaccine during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“(At the time) Khairy insisted that people take the Pfizer vaccine, saying that Sinovac was not good. Now that a lot of the vaccines have expired, has he taken responsibility for his mistake as the then health minister?” Tiong questioned.
Tiong said he hoped that Khairy would refrain from “spewing nonsense”, and that Khairy could only convince the public if he could provide detailed and accurate data.
“If Khairy truly wants to achieve his great GEG goal, he should stick to the existing procedures, including utilising the substantial funds allocated to the Health Ministry annually for research in this area.
“This would enable him to present solid evidence to convince various stakeholders of his proposals, rather than hastily seek glory while inviting unnecessary controversies and disagreements,” Tiong added. – November 18, 2023