PAS is really going for the jugular here. Denying promotion on basis of smoking habit? While I’m all for anti-smoking campaign, I think this may infringe of personal rights and can be considered discrimination. A better option (or workaround) would be to ask those civil servants to undergo regular health checks and make the results as part of the promotion requirements. Maybe add in compulsory insurance coverage will also serve as a reminder (since smokers pay more premium). Instead of all the “nice” campaigns, the authorities should go in hard – put up giant sized posters of damaged organs instead of pictures of leaders. Play anti-smoking video clips at in every cinema, between TV shows, take up full page ads in newspaper, buy adspace in Facebook, Utusan, The Star, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.

Oh ya, instead of hiring snoop squads to follow couples around, why not station them at public spaces to immediately fine those who smoke in the public? Hire some ladies too – can improve employment rates and at the same time increase revenue for the state coffers.

PAS is studying the possibility of penalising the state’s government servants by not giving them any promotion if they are smokers, in an all-out effort to discourage the habit.

State Women’s Development, Family and Health committee chairman Wan Ubaidah Omar said the government was serious in getting people to kick the smoking habit.

“The Federal and state governments have done everything possible to discourage people from smoking, and perhaps punitive measures could be considered to get some results,” she said during the question-and-answer time at the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly meeting at Kota Darul Naim on Wednesday.

Wan Ubaidah (PAS-Kijang) said this in response to a supplementary question by Abdul Fattah Harun (PAS-Bukit Tuku), who suggested penalising government servants in line with the proposal by Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat that PAS leaders who smoked would not be given a chance to contest in any general election.

“I notice that anti-smoking campaigns are not getting anywhere and I would like to suggest that state leaders set conditions that any state assemblymen or civil servant who smokes will not be considered for promotion,” he said.

Earlier, Wan Ubaidah replied to an original question by Dr Nik Mazian Nik Mohamad (PAS-Gaal) on efforts by the government to educate the public on the dangers of smoking and on follow-up measures taken to get smokers to kick the habit.

She said that the Kelantan government recently organised a state-level workshop for 90 imams (prayer leaders) to disseminate information on the dangers of smoking in their respective areas.

“We want the masses to know of the government’s aspiration to bring down the number of smokers in the state and hope that it would have the necessary impact in the long-run,” she said.

“I am very disappointed that anti-smoking campaigns have not worked — based on studies, almost half of the male population in Kelantan are smokers and this is a worrying trend which could get worse,” she added.

She said that the state government had even issued a fatwa (official ruling on a point of Islamic law) at hospitals, clinics, business premises and public areas that it is forbidden to smoke cigarettes because they were harmful not only to smokers but also passive smokers.