LOS TEROPONG: Tak Nak? or Nak!!

I used to be a smoker, more by chance than anything else. I was even puffing two packs a day. Dumb ***. Needless to say, I quit a long, long time ago (more than 20 years). That was more of an 'adventure' in the days of young.

In Malaysia we had this 'Tak Nak' campaign - 'Tak Nak' means 'Don't Want' - presumably saying 'I don't want' to smoking cigarette. Appparently this campaign which costs millions did not seem to work. It seemed that,

Fear no longer works when it comes to smoking

People have become immune to gory pictures of cancer-affected lungs displayed in anti-smoking campaigns

Global Youth Survey shows that prevalence for those aged between 12 1nd 18 shot up from 16.7% to 18% in the year 2000 and is now 23%.

Help University College psychologist said that the government should adopt approaches that had been proven effective in other countries - thanks a lot for the advice - you only forgot to tell what are the approaches!!

In any case, the price of cigarettes in Malaysia is TOO cheap. So we adopt two approaches and see if it works, namely,

Increase the price of a packet of cigarette to super luxury status. Now a pack of 20s is hovering around RM6.40-6.80. Make it RM20.00 per pack.
Stop selling single cigarettes. It is only available in a pack.

Let us see if it can work.

Further to that, for MUSLIMS, and there are still many of them puffing away, including religious teachers, the National Fatwa Council on 23 March 1995 (10 years ago), has deemed cigarette smoking HARAM. Unless they think it is a joke ....

Empat (4) tahun telah berlalu sejak pengumuman pengharaman tembakau yang dikeluarkan oleh Muzakarah Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan Hal-Ehwal Islam Malaysia Ke-37 (MFK 37) pada 23 Mac 1995. Fatwa yang memutuskan bahawa tabiat merokok itu adalah haram berdasarkan kepada berbagai fakta yang pada umumnya mengambilkira kesan-kesan negatif yang diperolehi daripada tabiat menghisap rokok, baik daripada segi perubatan, sosial mahupun ekonomi. [Reference]

Aiyaa, tak tau lah ...

[Excerpts from The Star, 26 August 2005 (Friday), page 14]

LOS TEROPONG

Los Teropong (Teropong means binoculars) comments on current issues in Malaysia, and sometimes the world, and put forth another opinion and perspective. BY THE WAY - THEY HUNG THE WRONG GUY ...