Materia Medica Malaysiana

Anti-Smoking Campaign A Hard Sell In Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, February 17 (IslamOnline.net) - hoping to convince smokers to drop this habit by highlighting the dangerous consequences of smoking, Malaysia has launched an anti-smoking campaign.

Though the campaign - launched Februay 2004 - has rallied anti-smokers with a “Tak Nak” (Say No) slogan, there are fears that all the efforts may fall into deaf ears.

“The campaign is aimed at a large spectrum of the population, including teenagers who are attracted to smoking at an early age, however, there are no certainty of the results of this campaign,” a member of the campaign told Islamonline.net Tuesday, February 17.

“We do not want this campaign to fizzle out and the government has stepped in to ensure that it gains enough publicity. Smoking can be stopped if people are pressed to do so,” said Azizuddin while distributing anti-smoking literature at a shopping complex in Kuala Lumpur.

However, it was obvious that those supporting the campaign were mainly people who do not smoke and to reach them is the easiest thing, according to a shop owner who sells cigarettes.

He told IOL that his main business was cigarettes which were selling well despite the price hike registered during last year’s budget presented by Malaysian Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The five year national anti-smoking campaign was launched by the Prime Minister a week ago with a big bang, yet the impact is still hard to be gauged.

The government launched the program in a bid to bring the public to understand the dangers of smoking while cigarettes are now considered by the authorities as the ‘gateway’ to Malaysia’s drug abuse problem.

“The country has a huge drug abuse problem and cigarettes are bound to be classified as part of the problem if not the vehicle that makes the problem a persistent one,” said Azzizudin, who told IOL that he successfully helped his own father and brother to give up smoking.

Despite the huge banners and the screaming television debut of the anti-smoking campaign, youth smoking in hiding after school and women seen smoking in public have yet to diminish in Kuala Lumpur.

Evidence of more smoking hazards in Kuala Lumpur frequently comes into the picture when a taxi driver pulls over at a shopping complex, puffing a cigarette and asking a potential passenger where he was heading to.

In busses along the Jalan Ampang, people are still seen smoking quietly in the back seats while others would protest silently.

Before the “Tak Nak” campaign, the authorities took several steps to make smoking in public places, taxis, trains and lifts as well as shopping complexes and restaurants illegal.

A minor campaign to prevent shops from selling cigarettes to teenagers kicked off with mild success and it did not prevent young students from primary or secondary schools to puff their cigarettes behind shop houses in Ampang or in Kuala Lumpur, said Azizzuddin to IOL.

“Virtually all drug addicts are cigarette smokers, and this is a bad situation. I am afraid smoking can lead to other habits, such as (additicting) drugs,” said Zeti, another member of the campaign.

She added that it was high time the country cleaned its act on smoking and the impact it was having on the younger generations.

“Cigarette advertisement too has an impact on children. Though we are lucky that we have regulations against aggressive ads in this industry, we still have a problem on our hands,” she added.

“Wherever we turn our attention to, there is evidence that anti-smoking campaigns are not easy to sell in Malaysia because cigarettes are available everywhere in this country, even in the remotest village,” said young Zeti, a female graduate from a local university.

The tobacco industry in Malaysia earns huge rewards with its sales of cigarettes and despite the high price and the usual warnings by the ministry of health that smoking is hazardous the health, cigarette smoking remains a national sport.

“I will never stop smoking, it’s so fun and I find it crazy that the authorities are going against it,” said a university student who was smoking at a bus stand.

Another pro-smoking citizen told IOL that it was important to crack a pot while busy at work or after having had a bit of a quarrel with his wife.

“It’s a need, an important thing. I wonder why some people says its “haram” - illegal in Islamic terms,” said the businessman who is married to three wives.

Most of the smokers in the country believed that cigarette smoking will not be reduced and that’s it’s a phenomenon that will stay, how much the authorities campaigns against it.

“Whether the “Tak Nak” campaign will be a success or not, we will never know. One thing is certain, the number of smokers are never going to be lesser since each year there are thousands who take up smoking,” said another shopkeeper in Ampang.