Malaysia’s generational end game provisions will no longer be part of the proposed tobacco bill after being seen as unconstitutional by the country’s attorney general.
Malaysia’s cabinet dropped the generational end game (GEG) provisions that would ban tobacco and vape products for anyone born from 2007 from the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill after attorney general Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh’s (AG) advice that the GEG is unconstitutional.
According to CodeBlue, the AG had “strong views” that GEG is a contravention of Article 8 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the law, seeing that there would be “two sets of laws for two different groups of citizens based on age.”
In April, former chief justice Zaki Azmi expressed similar concerns about the GEG potentially contravening Article 8, adding that “the GEG should not be at the forefront of the tobacco bill at this point of time. It should be decoupled and subjected to a comprehensive review given its socio-economic impact.”
CodeBlue reported that even though prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's administration has the backing of more than two-thirds of MPs on paper, the cabinet is not optimistic that the government can secure a two-thirds majority in the House to amend the Federal Constitution for the purpose of the tobacco bill. The bill is now expected to be tabled in the parliamentary meeting next year.