KUALA LUMPUR – Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has reiterated claims that the government has succumbed to pressure from the tobacco and vape industries, following the Health Ministry’s decision to drop the Generational Endgame (GEG) provisions in its contentious Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023.
In yet another series of posts regarding the matter, Khairy lamented the exclusion of the GEG in the bill, which was tabled by Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa for its first reading in Parliament earlier today.
“Today is a sad day. I crafted the GEG for public health, (and) the bill that I brought to Parliament which contained the GEG and measures to regulate vape sale received support from the public health community.
“Anyway, congratulations to big tobacco and the vape industry. You have won,” the former Umno lawmaker said in a post on his Instagram Stories.
Khairy asserted that while the cabinet was supposedly leaning on the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ (AGC) view that the GEG provision in the proposed legislation is unconstitutional, such an “excuse” is allegedly not the reason behind the GEG’s absence in the bill.
“Don’t even think for a minute that GEG was dropped because of some lame excuse of a legal argument proffered by the attorney-general. Lawyers laugh at that asinine statement.
“No, GEG was dropped because of strong lobbying from big tobacco. This is not over. One day, public health will win,” he added.
Previously, the AGC said that it has consistently been of the legal view that the GEG can be challenged in court as it violates Article 8 of the federal constitution by creating legal discrimination between someone born before January 1, 2007 and those born on or after the date.
The government’s legal adviser said this in responding to Khairy’s previously issued claims that its opposition against the provision now does not align with its views in 2022, during which the bill was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat by the ex-minister under Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration.
The GEG would have seen a lifetime ban on tobacco and vape products for anyone born on or after January 1, 2007.
After the bill with GEG provisions was pulled back for revisions, an edited version was tabled for first reading in June of this year under the present government, but was again submitted for further review by a parliamentary special select committee.
It remains to be seen how the newly tabled bill will affect the currently unregulated nature of nicotine, which was removed from the Poisons Act 1952.
The government removed it from the list of scheduled poisons in order to begin collecting excise duty on nicotine-containing vape liquids at 40 sen/ml, effective April 1 of this year.
Dr Zaliha is expected to hold a media briefing on the bill at Parliament this evening. – November 28, 2023