HAVE you ever thought of drawing up a list of the top 10 concerns for all Malaysians that our politicians and political parties should focus attention on in the Dewan Rakyat, state assemblies and election ceramah?
If one in 100 voters each comes up with one concern, there should be more than 10 major national issues that our politicians and political parties should focus their attention on rather than play the race and religion card.
Let us ask two questions: Does playing the race and religion card help resolve any of these major concerns? Can any one race (so-called) or religion solve any of your major concerns on its own? If it can, that problem would have been eliminated by now.
When politicians and political parties keep harping on race and religion, are they serving the people or are they stirring up strong emotions to win votes? Last February His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim said when opening the first meeting of the third session of the 15th parliament: “I call on all levels of society to strengthen national unity and not incite emotions by harping on the 3R (race, religion and royalty) issues.”
Today, we shall discuss one major concern: The deteriorating health condition of Malaysians. Let us focus on the consumption of high-alcohol liquor and the smoking of high-nicotine tobacco. Both send you to hospital and an early death.
In both matters, politicians are placing party interests above public health. The latest liquor controversy was sparked off by criticisms from PAS over the stage appearance of a Muslim deputy minister for the presentation of a RM3 million mock cheque bearing the logo of a beer company at a fundraising event for Chinese-medium schools.
For religious reasons, PAS opposes any form of public exposure of alcohol. However, all non-Malay political parties also play the religion card by maintaining that it is the “right of non-Muslims” to sell and consume alcohol.
No politician is interested in waving the health and safety flag that can bring the opposition and government together on common ground. The fundraising event was, in fact, a missed opportunity to promote a switch from high-alcohol liquor to low-alcohol varieties.
Long before Islam, the Buddha announced 2,500 years ago: “There are six dangers through being addicted to intoxicating liquors: Actual loss of wealth, increase of quarrels, susceptibility to disease, loss of good character, indecent exposure, impaired intelligence” (Sigalovada Suttanta).
Recognising these dangers of intoxication, science has developed formulas to reduce alcohol content across all types of liquors. Technology has made it possible to filter out most alcohol and some of Australia’s best-known winemakers produce a wide range of de-alcoholised Shiraz, Chardonnay, Sauvignon and Pinot Noir containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.
Traditional wines contain 15.5% to 25%. Low-alcohol beer, whiskey, brandy and spirits are also available with almost the same aroma and taste as the traditional brands.
The Economist magazine reported in 2021 that “even before the pandemic shut the world’s bars, beer-drinking was on the slide, in part owing to health-conscious millennials bingeing less often. Governments and socially minded investors like to see beermakers offer alternatives to alcohol.”
Back in 2018, the Economist reported: “Alcohol consumption, per person, has flattened or fallen across most large Western economies.”
Bloomberg, a financial information service, reported in 2021 that Japanese consumers are also drinking less traditional liquors to stay healthy. “Consumption of low and non-alcoholic drinks is projected to climb 31% across 10 major markets through 2024, including the United States, Australia and France,” Bloomberg quoted a spokesperson for brewer Asahi as saying.
A March 2024 Reuters news report said: “Health concerns are prompting consumers worldwide to drink less alcohol.”
Sales of low-alcohol and alcohol-free liquor are on a steadily rising wave, and consumers are willing to pay the same price as the traditional labels with high alcohol volumes.
World Spirits Report 2023 last December revealed that the value of the no/low-alcohol category in 2022 surpassed US$11 billion (RM48.2 billion) in 10 key markets. By 2026, the value of this category across these markets is expected to grow by more than a third. Low-alcohol spirits are growing rapidly and are projected to exceed US$624 billion by 2031.
However, in Malaysia, the liquor industry is steadfastly rigid, and you will not find a bottle of low-alcohol liquor anywhere on sale although one beer company did introduce a 0.0 beer in 2021. It was soon removed from the shelves.
Non-Muslim and Muslim politicians could have insisted that a new sales condition be imposed on liquor companies, for example, that every three bottles of high-alcohol liquor sold must be replaced by one low-alcohol bottle of liquor.
But all our political parties lack a unifying spirit that can lead to conciliatory breakthroughs. They choose to maintain a Muslim and non-Muslim bifurcation instead of replacing it with a drinker-abstainer separation.
Scientists at Kaiser Permanente Northern California studied data from 430,000 people aged 18 to 65 who were free of heart disease at baseline. After four years, 3,018 participants were diagnosed with coronary heart disease.
Heavy drinkers had a higher risk of heart disease than moderate drinkers, who in turn had a higher risk than drinkers who reported low consumption.
Nicotine: Bigger killer on the loose
Malaysia will find its medical expenditure greatly reduced, especially if alcohol restriction is accompanied by tougher restrictions on tobacco, the even bigger killer.
Alcohol and smoking have been identified by researchers from the universities of Exeter in the UK and Maastricht in the Netherlands as dementia risk factors.
Two months ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) named the alcohol and tobacco industries as two of four major sectors that wield significant political influence to obstruct public interest regulations that can impact their profit margins. Their tactics threaten public health gains, said WHO.
Unfortunately, our leaders have moved down from the peak to the marshes. Despite the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2023 showing that 60% of smokers between the ages of 20 and 34 had their first puff before turning 18, the government withdrew the Generational Endgame (GEG) component from last year’s anti-smoking bill.
The GEG proposal was to ban all persons born after Jan 1, 2007, from smoking. Shockingly, two cabinet ministers opposed the GEG clause. Contrast our muddled approach with that taken by the British parliament which voted 383-67 in April to ban the sale of cigarettes to anyone born on or after Jan 1, 2009. The bill also bans the sale of vaping products to under-18s.
More than 20,000 Malaysians die annually from smoking. Treating smokers who get cancer, heart disease, stroke and lung disease costs the government RM15 billion annually. The amount spent is four times the excise duty on cigarettes, estimated at RM4 billion per year.
It has been estimated that 43% of men and 1.4% of women above the age of 15 smoke in Malaysia, and more than 90% of male lung cancer patients have a significant smoking history. Some 38,000 secondary school and 374 primary school pupils have been found to be smokers.
The National Cancer Society Malaysia disclosed at end-2023 that researchers have also found links between lung cancer and second-hand smoke inhaled by non-smokers.
A quarter of lung cancer patients may have contracted the disease through second-hand smoke. Walk along the corridors of any row of eatery shops and notice cigarette stubs on or near the floor.
Tobacco contains a chemical called nicotine. The Centres for Disease Control in the US has described nicotine as the most dangerous drug and “the leading preventable cause of death”.
Tobacco destroys the body’s vital organs, most commonly the lungs and throat. Smoking cigarettes causes 90% of all lung cancer deaths, claiming the lives of women more than men.
New Scientist and Scientific American magazines have published evidence that smoking can leave its mark on the genes of future generations through epimutations.
By focusing on liquor while ignoring the greater danger of tobacco, PAS missed the opportunity to champion the anti-smoking bill and thus gain the support of medical practitioners, health-oriented NGOs and parents of school-going children.
As with alcohol, science is coming to the rescue in the form of herbal cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs).
The world’s first herbal cigarette appeared in China in 1982. By 2004, more than 20 cigarette brands using herbs such as mullein, tu-chung and mugwort as the raw material instead of tobacco leaf were marketed.
Japan introduced HTPs 10 years ago, and an air quality assessment study found that the levels of nicotine were low and below the established limits for safety. The introduction of HTPs resulted in a 44% decrease in cigarette smoking over a span of five years.
When is Malaysia going to put health concerns above politics?
Over the next four articles that will conclude our 10-part Adam and Eve series, we shall delve into the hottest subject of all time – humanity’s losing battle against global climate change and the accelerating ecological crisis.
The writer champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
