MALAYSIA hopes to be the first country in the world to enact a tobacco generational endgame when a proposed landmark legislation is brought to Parliament next month, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said. 

He said if passed and enforced effectively it can result in significantly better health outcomes for many years to come.

“If this law is passed, Malaysians born after 2005 will never ever be able to buy or use any smoking products anymore. The end.

“The end for smoking and tobacco. There are those who believe that banning is never the solution; I am determined to make this work,” he said in his keynote address titled Future-proofing Public Healthcare delivered at the Public Health Thought Leadership Dialogue, which was held at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS) on June 2, when he was in the republic as a Lee Kuan Yew exchange fellow.

The text of his speech was made available to Bernama today after NUS uploaded a video of the dialogue on its YouTube channel. – Bernama, June 11, 2022.