The tobacco industry had used the same medium to promote its product, which the government claimed was ineffective in spreading its anti-smoking campaign.

Puzzled by this, Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) president Prof Dr Syed Mohamed Al-Junid today wanted to know how the government failed.

He was commenting on Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek's statement Tuesday that the government's much hyped RM100 million 'Tak Nak' anti-smoking campaign had bombed .

According to the minister, female smokers had doubled since the launch of the five-year campaign last February.

Promising to review the campaign, Chua said it failed because the hefty sums spent on billboards and media messages did not reach the targeted groups.

"If it is not effective, how did the tobacco industry succeed?" asked Syed Mohamed when contacted.

Campaign must go on

He also asked what yardstick the government had used to determine the campaign's success or failure rate since no study findings have been made public.

"Maybe the campaign, with all the billboards, is effective in raising the awareness of the smokers that smoking is harmful but the prevalence of smoking is not decreasing because the campaign does not create an avenue for people to quit smoking.

"We must understand that most of the time you would have to increase the knowledge of an individual first and they will change their behaviour later," he said.

Chua had also cited feedbacks from cigarettes companies to rebut the statistics from a survey conducted by a local university which showed that the number of smokers had decreased.

On this, Syed Mohamed urged the government to engage independent consultants to conduct an evaluation on the campaign and incorporate the feedbacks into the future plan.

"The government must be careful on the source of their information. Cigarettes companies have a long history of lying to the country and it appears to be a conflict of interest in this case.

"Never trust the (tobacco) industry," he stressed, adding that the campaign should continue.

The MCTC president asked the government to increase the price of cigarettes and immediately enforce a ban on 'kiddy-packs' - 14-stick cigarette packs.

He said studies in countries including Thailand and Malaysia have showed that by raising 10 percent of cigarette prices helped reduce the smokers percentage between eight to 10 percent.

He also criticised the government for deferring the ban on 'kiddy packs' until 2010 on the ground of waiting for tobacco farmers in Kelantan and Terengganu to switch to other crops.

"There must be other comprehensive measures to save the farmers, not killing our children to save the farmers. This must be the worst policy that I ever heard from policy makers," he said.

Anti-smoking groups have blasted the delay, saying it was contrary to the government's campaign to curb smoking.

The government recently decided to ratify the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.