Azhar Othman's Smoky issues at the Palace Of Justice should be a great cause of concern for every Malaysian, smokers and non-smokers alike. The government and enforcement agencies must view with the greatest of concern - panic even - the arrogant attitude of law-breaking smokers.

Smokers may not sympathise much with such issues because they might feel that the increasing numbers of 'No smoking' areas restrict their choice. But the issue here is not about where one can or cannot smoke. Apart from the right of non-smokers to clean air, the serious issue here is about ignoring laws and regulations.

Any smoker with a sense of decency and gentlemanliness would understand that to smoke in non-smoking areas - apart from infringing on the rights of non-smokers - shows disrespect for the law. The sad part is, I do not entirely blame these smokers for their attitude towards laws, rules and regulations.

The biggest part of the blame goes to the government of the day for being unable to strictly enforce laws be they smoking laws, traffic laws, copyright laws or whatever. So who else can the people turn to? What else can the law-abiding rakyat do?

Hundreds of millions have been spent on anti-smoking campaigns. But what about on the enforcement of anti-smoking laws? We cannot depend on the police.

A few days before Christmas last year, I was at the police station in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur and a few policemen were smoking in the air-conditioned police station. And one of them was actually attending to someone making a police report at the counter.