LETTER | Besides wishing to see Malaysia governed by a new political coalition days before the GE14, I now wish that the new government led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad could visibly reduce the increasing numbers of smokers, especially heavy ones, by orchestrating a "governmental initiative" that could make a packet of cigarettes insanely exorbitant.

I don't really think that educating smokers' minds could be realistically done by just putting images of diseases linked to smoking. Even if photos of graveyards are put on a cigarette box, they, the smokers won't wholeheartedly repent.

I used to know someone who is related to my wife who was hospitalised due to breathing-related problems that were caused by his bad smoking habit. He, before the hospitalisation took place, was a heavy smoker of the town. Everyone thought that he would repent after the "dark moment" but unfortunately, he resumed smoking.

One question that has always been played on my mind is will the government of New Malaysia have the guts to increase the price of cigarettes while strictly regulating smokers especially those who drive?

To be frank, I hate seeing people smoke while driving their cars. It irritates my eyes. Plus, smoking at public places like playgrounds must also be disallowed with strict regulations that can psychologically 'motivate' smokers to be real "humans" and not let innocent lives be affected by their “dirty habit”.

I propose the Pakatan Harapan government:

1) Set exorbitant prices for every brand of cigarettes.

Smokers are incorrigible. In life, money does always matter to people, especially when they have to buy things they "love" with insanely high prices. Hence, increasing cigarettes' price from the current price to RM25 could be made a "valuable economic lesson" for every smoker in the beginning stage of the implementation.

Speaking of a scenario of charging RM25 for a packet of cigarettes, if a heavy smoker earns RM2,500 a month, and consumes five packets of cigarettes in a week, he will spend RM125 per week from his earnings. In a month, he will spend RM500 for tobacco he smokes that is exhaled from his dark lungs.

With that RM500, he can pay for his kids' school expenditure if he's married and buy stocks of groceries that last for a month. And, in fact, he can also pay for other important expenditure like utilities and his housing loan.

To me, spending RM500 for cigarettes is cruel especially for men who have families to financially support.

2) Fine those who smoke while on wheels.

Imposing a RM800 to RM1,000 monetary fine on drivers and passengers who smoke, especially on highways and town roads, should be made a law in this era of a New Malaysia.

Concerned netizens who are passengers can help authorities to capture photos of other vehicles whose drivers and passengers smoke while they are in cars and also at traffic lights. The captured photos can be sent to the authorities' social media accounts or special "spaces" on their websites. Details like cars' plate numbers and models should also be inserted.

Smoking while driving, to me, is a dangerous driving behaviour that may unexpectedly cause road accidents. The problem must not be put in "KIV box" by the government. The Ministry of Transport led by Anthony Loke should take this idea of prohibiting on-wheels smokers seriously to make the roads free from the bad driving behaviour.

We must realise that the "Say No To Smoking" campaign is fictional if there's no political will from the government to strictly execute efforts that discourage local smokers from their habit. I wish, really wish that our country could be one of the countries that could have the lowest number of smokers globally by 2020.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.