GEORGE TOWN: The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) today stressed that only strong political will to ban smoking altogether can bring a halt to the deadly habit among Malaysians.
Its vice president Datuk K Koris Atan told newsmen that the tobacco industry should not be allowed to influence the Malaysian government to ensure that it can continue selling cigarettes in the country.
"Malaysia should not rely on this industry. We can ban smoking nationwide if politicians have strong political will.
"Look at what Thailand and Singapore did. They managed to ban smoking in their countries. Why not us?" he said after attending the "Handling Emergence of New Tobacco Products: A Multifaceted Perspective" forum at Komtar here today.
Koris also called on food outlets in the country to be gazetted as smoking-free zones.
The forum was part of the SayWhat 2017 event, which is jointly-organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, in collaboration with the Malaysian Green Lung Association.
All national and state parks, playgrounds, camp sites and public parks in Peninsular Malaysia were designated as “no smoking zones” on Feb 1 this year.
