Mark Twain said: 'To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to know because I've done it a thousand times'.

The Asian Tobacco Congress and Trade Fair happening in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Nov 14 to 17, however, is not a funny matter. It surely won't facilitate the cutback on smoking amongst the population.

According to the organisers, the objective of this fair is to help 'all players in the tobacco industry - from inside or outside of Asia - to strengthen their position in the Asian region'. Asia is an important market for the tobacco, and fairs like this exploit the vulnerability of the region further.

The statutory warning: 'Cigarette smoking is injurious to health' is habitually mentioned and read by all tobacco companies and smokers respectively. Have these words (written in fine print) ever made a difference to a prospective smoker? But the companies feel they have done their job by saying the needful.

Tobacco companies, like other companies, try to portray themselves in positive light. Part of the image-building process is feigning to be altruistic. The tobacco companies contribute RM1.3 billion to the Malaysian economy. However about RM20 billion is spent to deal with tobacco health-related problems in Malaysia alone.

According to the WHO report 'one cigarette reduces life span by 14.4 minutes'. Currently 4.9 million people die every year globally from tobacco use. Out of this number, 1.1 million people die in Southeast Asian region. In the Asia-Pacific region, about 6,000 people die every day.

If current smoking patterns continue, they will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. Half of the people who smoke today - that is about 650 million people - will eventually be killed by tobacco and most of them will be in the developing countries. Across Asia, 50,000 teenagers take up smoking every day.

Malaysia is a signatory to the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The FCTC requires its member states to stop tobacco advertising and sponsorship. It demands that tobacco companies cover 30 percent of their cigarette packs with health warning. It also prohibits companies from using euphemistic words like 'mild' or 'light' which undermine the contents of cigarettes.

Allowing the Asian Tobacco Congress and Trade Fair to be held in Kuala Lumpur is not in keeping with the spirit of this treaty and can be seen as hypocritical on the part of the Malaysian government. The government needs to put its foot down and convey the right message to tobacco companies the world over that Malaysia will not advocate death or disease.

The writer is the president of the Consumers Association of Penang.