THE government’s generation-end-game (GEG) ban against smoking and tobacco usage is a form of discrimination, said Nazri Abdul Aziz. 

“What we are doing is not just banning children from smoking but stopping future 18-year-olds from smoking as well. But this is a form of discrimination,” said the Padang Rengas MP in Dewan Rakyat during the debate on Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022.

“When they have reached 18 years old, we tell them they can vote but they cannot smoke while others can,” said Nazri.

This, said the lawyer, is a form of discrimination.

“The government should ban tobacco so that everybody cannot smoke and not just a certain group,” said the former minister.

If not, some 18-year-olds will take this issue to court one day, he added.

Earlier today, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had tabled the Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022 for second reading in Dewan Rakyat.

The bill, the first of its kind, provides for a ban on individuals born in 2007 and onwards from smoking, buying or possessing tobacco products or smoking devices, for the first reading in the Dewan Rakyat. 

According to Section 17 of the proposed Act, no person born on January 1, 2007 and onwards shall smoke any tobacco product or substitute tobacco product, use any smoking device, or possess any tobacco product, smoking substance, substitute tobacco product or smoking device.

Any person who contravenes Subsection (1) commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding RM5,000.

Apart from that, individuals born on January 1, 2007 and onwards, who purchase tobacco products, smoking substance and substitute tobacco products or smoking devices, may face a fine not exceeding RM5,000, upon conviction. – August 1, 2022.