Anti-Smoking: Be More Proactive, NGOs Told

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (Bernama) -- Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) should not blame the Health Ministry but be more proactive in ensuring the success of the anti-smoking campaign, said Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek Monday.
"The NGOs should not target the Ministry of Health as if we are their enemy...they should persuade the tobacco planting farmers in Kelantan and Terengganu to convert their crops so that their livelihood won't be affected once the cigarette sales go down.
"The government is not compromising on its anti-smoking campaign, which is an ongoing process," he told reporters after witnessing the signing of an agreement between the National Heart Institute (IJN) and appointed contractor UEM Builders Berhad for the expansion project of the institute.
The RM209 million project would begin next month and is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, with capacity of the institute expected to be expanded by 20 percent upon completion.
Dr Chua said Malaysia, being one of the few countries which had not only signed and ratified the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, would be present as a full member at the WHO (World Health Organisation) meeting in Geneva in February next year.
"Under this Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, there is this question of how to reduce smoking. We increased taxes for smoking, what we called the sin tax and it was very obvious in the last budget, the increase for tobacco products was one of the most steep," he said.
Dr Chua reiterated that there was a disagreement between the sale of tobacco by tobacco companies and their buying of tobacco products planted by farmers in Kelantan and Terengganu.
"There is this cross-subsidy element, if the sale goes down, they will buy less from our local people. The cabinet felt that not all farmers had been successful in converting their crops, which takes time to get used to.
"I welcome all NGOs who have a lot of suggestions, please face the 13,000 farmers and tell them what other crops to plant other than tobacco. Taking the family members into account, we are talking about 65,000 people. The government in power has to balance everything," he said.
The government had recently put on hold its decision to withdraw the 14 pack cigarettes from the market until 2010 to protect and enable the some 13,000 farmers who depended heavily on tobacco to switch to other crops.