Thank you for NOT smokingRecently Bruneians have had a significant policy issue to deal with in their daily lives. First and foremost, the Tobacco Order has unleashed a flurry of exchanges between citizens and government, through media portals such as brudirect.com, and Borneo Bulletin. The issue isn't just confined to us only too. In today's article in Borneo Bulletin titled Yudhoyono sued over tobacco treaty, the article reported that 4 NGOs are suing the Indonesian president for failing to protect the welfare of Indonesians - amidst the increasing cost of food and fuel, cigarettes remain the cheapest around the region and its net effect is increasing tobacco related health issues, further pushing millions of Indonesians into poverty.
While Bruneians aren't exactly in the same situation, we nonetheless should take heed from this scenario - Bruneians will continue to spend on relatively cheap cigarettes while destroying their health, amidst potentially increasing prices in food, and other material goods - in fact today's Borneo Bulletin already highlighted the increased in CPI in the past 3 months. The Brunei authorities have done everything they can to make the Tobacco Order work, setting up task forces and putting up signs. But 2 very critical component of any effort to reduce tobacco consumption alludes the authorities political will to enforce: 1) pricing, and 2) placing disturbing pictures of the effects of smoking on packaging of cigarettes to discourage smokers. As most develop nations progress in their anti-tobacco drive, these measures have been taken up.
So why did the authorities not introduce higher pricing for tobacco as part of the Tobacco Order? Given that we can safely assume that increasing the price of cigarettes will, with almost 100% certainty, affect the sale and consumption of cigarettes, we can only guess as to why pricing hasn't been adjusted upwards. Perhaps it is to placate the smokers in our society, or perhaps adjusting the pricing of cigarettes is more politically sensitive and therefore requires a more measured approach and intervention. Note: yes we do hear the counter argument that increasing the price may just encourage smuggling and the black market for cigarettes, but regardless of this occurring, increasing price will have the net effect of reducing ease of consumption of tobacco for younger Bruneians as they are less likely to take up smoking if they cost alot and approaching the black market for a pack of cigarette may just be too inconvenient for any youth to contemplate.
The second step in which Bruneian authorities can introduce into the Tobacco Order is to require importers to include 'gory' pictures of health effects of smoking (we need to confirm whether this is already in the Order). Most countries have these graphic warning labels, and personally we can attest to its successful effect of stopping you right in your tracks when you reach to buy a box of cigars, you also get a picture of someone's cancerous lungs on display, or a picture of an aborted foetus - not a pretty sight, yes we know, but neither is dying from lung cancer due to smoking. WARNING: click here, here and here to see sample of these pictures but you have been warned, they are EXTREMELY disturbing.
So will the authorities make the tough call and take the more paternalistic and more committed approach and introduce more effective policies to control the spread of smoking? And if so, when? What we don't want is to see all the song and dance of anti-smoking by various government ministries, but at the end of the day in practical terms, smoking remains unabated and allowed to continue to grab a hold of Brunei's next generation.
While Bruneians aren't exactly in the same situation, we nonetheless should take heed from this scenario - Bruneians will continue to spend on relatively cheap cigarettes while destroying their health, amidst potentially increasing prices in food, and other material goods - in fact today's Borneo Bulletin already highlighted the increased in CPI in the past 3 months. The Brunei authorities have done everything they can to make the Tobacco Order work, setting up task forces and putting up signs. But 2 very critical component of any effort to reduce tobacco consumption alludes the authorities political will to enforce: 1) pricing, and 2) placing disturbing pictures of the effects of smoking on packaging of cigarettes to discourage smokers. As most develop nations progress in their anti-tobacco drive, these measures have been taken up.
So why did the authorities not introduce higher pricing for tobacco as part of the Tobacco Order? Given that we can safely assume that increasing the price of cigarettes will, with almost 100% certainty, affect the sale and consumption of cigarettes, we can only guess as to why pricing hasn't been adjusted upwards. Perhaps it is to placate the smokers in our society, or perhaps adjusting the pricing of cigarettes is more politically sensitive and therefore requires a more measured approach and intervention. Note: yes we do hear the counter argument that increasing the price may just encourage smuggling and the black market for cigarettes, but regardless of this occurring, increasing price will have the net effect of reducing ease of consumption of tobacco for younger Bruneians as they are less likely to take up smoking if they cost alot and approaching the black market for a pack of cigarette may just be too inconvenient for any youth to contemplate.
The second step in which Bruneian authorities can introduce into the Tobacco Order is to require importers to include 'gory' pictures of health effects of smoking (we need to confirm whether this is already in the Order). Most countries have these graphic warning labels, and personally we can attest to its successful effect of stopping you right in your tracks when you reach to buy a box of cigars, you also get a picture of someone's cancerous lungs on display, or a picture of an aborted foetus - not a pretty sight, yes we know, but neither is dying from lung cancer due to smoking. WARNING: click here, here and here to see sample of these pictures but you have been warned, they are EXTREMELY disturbing.
So will the authorities make the tough call and take the more paternalistic and more committed approach and introduce more effective policies to control the spread of smoking? And if so, when? What we don't want is to see all the song and dance of anti-smoking by various government ministries, but at the end of the day in practical terms, smoking remains unabated and allowed to continue to grab a hold of Brunei's next generation.
1 comment:
You gotta love this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YjrkBYDDQM We should have something like this on our TV instead of the "softy" approach we have on RTB. The Singaporean have a similar campaign too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHA0HRjDgc8
FYI, Borneo Bulletin did report on the plan by the govt to include pictures on the cigarette packs. Somehow ppl have forgotten about it. It's a series of six graphic pictures.
I couldn't agree more on increasing prices of a pack of cigarette. No one can argue with the basic law of economics. There's one way to deal with the smuggling activities though, tough penalties!
Anyway, it seems cruel bashing the smokers like this, with the current trend of 'smoker bashing' nowadays (worldwide), I won't be surprised when they are stigmatised in the near future.
Maybe the govt should have the shops sell nicotine patch alongside the cigarette... subsidise them if possible.
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