Anak Negeri supports smoking ban, but opposes hefty fines

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Kerjasama Anak Negeri (Anak Negeri) fully supports the proposed smoking ban to be implemented throughout the country, but the party opposes the unreasonably hefty fine of RM10,000 imposed on offenders.

Its deputy president, Milkusin Abdillah Sulai, wants to know the rational for imposing a fine of RM10,000 on those caught smoking in the wrong places.

“Even drug addict is fined only RM2,000 for drug offences,” he opined, adding that there were even cases where individuals convicted of corruption were fined less than RM2,000.

“So why single out and punish smokers with such a huge sum?” asked Milkusin who expressed concern that the low income groups or unsuspecting youths from rural areas who might be oblivious to the smoking ban could unwittingly be caught smoking in the wrong place.

He said many Sabah rural youths might have picked the smoking habit out of necessity to keep away mosquitoes when they go out working on their farm, tapping rubber or even catching fish in the swamps or hunting wild animals for food.

“If the Health Ministry or local authority were to enforce the RM10,000 fine, these offenders would not be able to pay the hefty fine and they are likely to end up in jail as they do not carry around RM10,000 in their pockets.

“Neither would their family, relatives or friends be able to give or lend them the huge sum,” he said in a statement yesterday.

“But why burden the poor families to pay for the offences of other family members caught smoking?” he added.

He said the Health Ministry’s intention to discourage smoking is understandable but to impose a hefty fine on the offenders is simply illogical.

He said the huge fine would not stop smoking habit but would instead criminalize young offenders who would be put in jail to make them real criminals.

“So why criminalized smokers who may otherwise be law abiding citizens except for their smoking habit? Further, the huge fines would encourage corruption as it would be cheaper to bribe enforcement officials with RM100 each time they are caught rather than pay the hefty fine of RM10,000,” he claimed.

Anak Negeri, therefore, urged the Sabah State Government to implement the smoking ban but reject the RM10,000 in fines proposed by the Health Ministry.

He said without the cooperation of local authorities which issued licences to business premises, it would be tough for the Health Ministry to enforce the smoking ban.

Milkusin urged the Sabah Government to scrap the ridiculously huge fine for smoking offenders in favour of a lesser fine of RM100 which is good enough to deter smokers.

Alternatively, he said Sabah policy makers should instead formulate innovative ways of punishing smoking offenders who could not pay their fines.

He said offenders could be punished by carrying out community work, say collecting rubbish in public places or washing public toilets or collecting garbage from housing estates.