LETTER | The sultan of Pahang, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, made a very timely statement urging the Madani government to ban e-cigarettes and vaping.

Having said that smoking should also be banned or at least labelled as public enemy number one.

Meanwhile, nicotine should be reclassified as a poison under the Poisons Act 1952. Removing nicotine from the list was clearly an unjust move.

The government should prioritise public health above all. I should instead impose taxes on junk foods and remove all subsidies for sugar and cooking oil.

There is much brouhaha about non-communicable diseases (NCDs), but all actions taken thus far have had a negligible impact on reducing NCDs.

Piecemeal solutions and sporadic activities initiated by the Health Ministry to address the ever-increasing incidents of NCDs have not been able to communicate the gravity of the situation.

Billions of ringgit are lost in terms of productivity due to NCDs, not to mention the cost of treatment due to the various complications brought about by those suffering from NCDs.

The ministry is busy firefighting the problem rather than approaching the entire ecosystem holistically.

The manpower resources in the ministry are just too scarce to educate the population on NCDs and their larger impact on society.

Though there have been numerous awareness programmes and campaigns carried out by the ministry, there is a gross vacuum in turning them into practical, lifestyle-changing, long-term habits.

Mere heightened awareness is insufficient to change people’s unhealthy habits deeply ingrained in their daily lives.

People need to be guided and coached continuously with great persistence by qualified personnel on various fronts to combat NCDs and adopt a healthy lifestyle.

All pockets of society need to be engaged systematically in a methodological manner and not merely being fed statistics and repercussions of becoming a victim of NCD.

The government should not kid itself into formulating all sorts of blueprints and fancy-looking white papers to tackle the growing threat of NCDs while it fails on the practical aspects of bridging the gap between knowledge and practice.

It’s high time the ministry looked into the possibility of appointing independent consultants to not only advocate the message of NCDs but also guide and coach society on adopting a healthy lifestyle.

It is a process and not an activity primarily centred around a health talk or exhibition in a hospital or clinic.

Hopefully, the government and specifically the health ministry will heed the call made by the Pahang royalty.

Let’s not be penny-wise, pound foolish in the war against NCDs.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.