I want to urge SUPP and Michael Tiang not to deflect from the main issue at hand which is the unreasonable delay in the implementation of the smoking ban as well as the attempts by the State Government to mislead in the public in terms of their autonomy in implementing this ban.
The real question is why the need to delay the implementation of the smoking ban all the way to 1st March 2019 when they on the State level have already had a meeting with the different relevant authorities and stakeholders at the beginning of this month on the 9th January 2019 as announced by Dr Sim Kui Hian himself and the State Cabinet then on the 24th January 2019 then made the final decision to implement statewide.
Thus there is no reason that the implementation cannot be done earlier like on the 1st February 2019 since the necessary meetings have already taken place on a State level and Federal level and on top of that, the main enforcement will be carried out by the federal Health Ministry who has been mobilised and ready to implement it as they have since implemented it in Peninsular Malaysia since the 1st of January. Even Sabah who also reportedly had the meeting with stakeholders on the 9th of January 2019 decided to implement it on the 1st February 2019.
The main enforcement including the issuance of summons for those who break the rule is done by the Federal Health Ministry who has the authority under the Control of Tobacco Product (Amendment) Regulations 2018 under the Food Act 1983, which is applicable to all states.
They have been briefed and engaged since last year itself and are ready to enforce on smokers in if they break the rule in the eateries and also those who do not display of signboards in coffee shops. The local council jurisdiction is only on the renewal of licensing of eateries where the council can set requirements for the smoking ban and notice etc.
On top of the, the educational enforcement period can be used to inform and educate more members of the public of the implementation of this policy and the benefits it will be for them. Any adjustments by the different authorities including the local council to improve its effectiveness can be done within this period as only warning letters to educate the public will be issued and not summons which they have to pay.
So SUPP and the State Government is not only trying to mislead the public in terms of our autonomous powers in the matter, but also to create a fake perception of autonomy when there is none by delaying the implementation at the expense of the health and security of the public here in Sarawak.
While we understand the concerns of the smokers, but this ban in long term has shown good benefits to the people to curb the health hazards of smoking in the people even here in Sarawak.. In Sarawak itself, based on the National Health Morbidity Survery, there is an increase of the prevalence of smokers from 22.3% in the year 1996 to 25.4% in 2015. This much higher than the national prevalence at 22.8%.
What is even more worrying is that the problem of smoking among school students in Sarawak is one of the highest in Malaysia at 19.6% compart to the national average of 11.5%. 65% of these students started smoking as early as 14 years old. In Sarawak, lung cancer is the 3rd highest form of cancer and 85% of such cases are due to the smoking.
That shows how serious the issue is and such good policy should not be delayed any further.
So I urge SUPP not to deflect from the main issue at hand when they cannot answer the simple question why the implementation had to be delayed even though it is good for the people.
If we follow their logic that we cannot question the State Government on the implementation because of unfulfilled promises in the manifesto, then SUPP also has lost their rights to criticize since for past 50 over years they have been in government, they and all the other parties in GPS were the ones that have broken many promises to the people and also given away many of our autonomy and rights in the first place. On top of that, we now as the new government have to deal with the huge debts due to the corruption and wastage of the previous BN regime which they themselves were part of. So if we base it on their logic, SUPP and GPS has no right to criticize since they are the reasons we are in the mess we are in today.