Cabinet minister Syed Hamid Albar who chairs the Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs (MAYC) recently acknowledged the adverse effects of smoking, such as cancer, respiratory illnesses, higher health costs, etcetera - all the standard reasons why the government should crack down harder on the tobacco industry.

One would not have guessed that Syed Hamid made this speech to draw attention to the fact that his youth organisation just recently signed a deal with two big tobacco firms to endorse their television advertisement, purportedly aimed at preventing Malaysian youth from smoking.

It would be very apparent to anyone watching primetime telly these past few days that the minister and MAYC must have overlooked the most glaring message of that commercial.

The ad spends a convincing bulk of its time selling the idea that cigarettes is every studious young man's solution to a stressful night of cramming for the exams.

At the end, it makes a convincing argument that the only thing stopping these young boys from grabbing a pack of 'ciggie-de-stress' at the local store, is the big guy manning the check-out counter. And big guy's decision not to sell, hinges on the fact that the law says so. (Picture)

It has got to be, undoubtably, the worse anti-tobacco commercial I have ever seen. Or, depending how you look at it, it is the best attempt at diverting from the tobacco issue.

The last thing preventing the young from smoking these days, is some unenforceable law telling them that they cannot buy cigarettesfor no apparent reason it would seem, if one were to take the cue from the tobacco industry-concocted, MAYC-backed, advertisement.

Where is the message?

There are no health or political messages here about smoking, folks.

Nothing on how your teeth turns yellow - the central message in the government's recent RM10 million anti-smoking poster campaign. Or that tobacco users are at much higher risk of falling ill and dying prematurely of cancers, heart attacks, respiratory diseases or other tobacco-related diseases.

Nothing on that message the World Health Organisation is trying hard to drum into policy makers around the world: that tobacco is the single costliest consumer product, both in terms of social costs - at 4.9 million deaths a year and rising - and in terms of economics - what it costs taxpayers annually to treat patients suffering from smoking-related diseases.

WHO estimates that worldwide, tobacco attributable deaths will rise from 4.9 million today, to 8.4 million in 2020. By 2030, this would reach to10 million annual deaths.

Which is why MAYC's endorsement has left public health interest groups rather upset. By backing tobacco companies, is the youth group essentially sanctioning the continued sale of the epidemic to those above-18?

The Federation of Consumers Association of Malaysia claim that MAYC's moves are regressive, given that Malaysia has in principle agreed to a United Nations-sponsored move to limit tobacco promotion and sale globally.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang thinks so too.

At a time when the government has just launched its Tak Nak campaign - essentially calling on the whole country to stop smoking - MAYC's tie-up with tobacco companies is "positively scandalous and outrageous," said Lim.

The organisation is as good as saying that adults can smoke, the veteran quipped.

According to the Health Ministry, which Syed Hamid himself quoted last week, about 25 percent of health-related deaths in this country are linked to tobacco. The numbers are expected to rise.

Interest groups should be lobbying the government to undo these figures, not endorsing the tobacco industry and praising these companies for being 'socially responsible', the Consumers Association of Penang and Teras Pengupayaan Melayu had argued.

It is a strategy of tobacco companies to work with reputable organisations in order to give themselves a cloak of respectability, they say.

Waiting for legal changes

As a cabinet member, it is apparent that Syed Hamid could have advocated less controversial approaches.

A good start would be reviving that comprehensive Anti-Tobacco Bill that the cabinet has been sitting on since 2001. Promised for enactment by Jan 1, 2003, the public has yet to hear of anything.

Interestingly enough, the big tobacco companies are also complaining of the same thing.

But while we wait, the public was some time ago also promised amendments to the existing Food Act 1983 and the advertising code, which would in the meantime allow government regulators some measure of control over indirect tobacco promotion.

This hasn't materialised either.

Are tobacco laws being intentionally delayed because the cabinet hasn't quite figured out its position on tobacco? Problem is, it doesn't have much time to ham and haw over the issue.

Once the Asean Free Trade Agreement applies itself by 2010, cigarette taxes are expected to drop to between zero and 5 percent - resulting in cheap cigarettes flooding the market.

The government has not addressed this concern.

Tobacco farm subsidies

On the contrary, in December last year, it promised to ensure that the tobacco growing industry remains to be "efficient and competitive" come Afta.

The (then) Primary Industries Ministry also announced that a RM60 million special loan fund will be set aside to encourage tobacco curers and growers, while tobacco companies will bear the costs of fertilisers and subsidies of RM2 per kilogramme.

It is unfortunate that, rather than seeing Afta as an opportunity to ensure the viability of other types of crops to replace tobacco, the government is inventing creative ways to maintain its subsidies on tobacco.

Cabbage, sweet potato, chilies and roselle have been found by Mardi to flourish well in tobacco soil, but little has been done to encourage farmers to shift to growing these new crops. Obviously, the new tobacco loans and subsidies will not help.

But the health implications of Afta must also be taken very seriously, a health official said recently.

There will be long-term health costs once cheap ciggies start flooding the market, and proper health education is needed - to take a cue from what is gradually being implemented in developed countries.

But the tide is working against us.

Malaise of the poor

As developed country governments take comprehensive steps to reduce smoking by levying heavy taxes and imposing tough laws to reduce environmental smoke - tobacco companies are increasingly focussing their attention on lucrative, growing markets like Malaysia.

The figures speak for themselves. From 1970 to 1985, adult cigarette consumption in Malaysia grew by 57 percent. This figure accelerated to 69 percent from 1985 to 2000.

Smoking, according to the WHO, has become an affliction of the developing world. The global shift also means that the world's poorest governments will be saddled with the largest amount of health and other economic costs, says the global health authority.

And, although the tobacco industry provides jobs for thousands of people, the vast majority employed in the tobacco sector earn very little, while the big tobacco companies reap enormous profits, it argues.

If WHO is right, tobacco and poverty, it would seem, are two parts of a vicious cycle.

Delaying legal mechanisms to control tobacco and investing in new measures to keep the industry alive is only going to cost the country a whole lot more down the road.

The case against tobacco

YOON SZU-MAE is a member of the malaysiakini team.