Op/Ed: Price of Malaysian Cigarettes.

30th October 2009

I noticed a news article entitled "CAP wants higher price for ciggies, RM30 for pack of 20" at the Star Online website today. The Consumer Association of Penang headed by the delightful S.M. Mohamed Idris suggested that the minimum price for cigarettes be set at RM30 a pack. His justification is that our neighbours down south, Singapore, charges smokers between RM27 - RM80 for a pack of 20s. The current minimum price in Malaysia is too low to have any deterrent effect on smokers.

Hmm...
First things first. Singapore sells cigarettes between RM27 - RM80 per pack of cigarettes. That is S$11-S$32.80 per pack as stated in the article. This type of argument annoys the hell out of me. People tend to use the converted rate of foreign currency to support their argument. The BN government loves doing that and it seems the CAP loves doing it as well. Dude, lets take apart your point here. Lets just say we take a bank manager as an example. A bank manager might be earning RM5500 a month here while his brethren across the Tebrau Straits earns S$5500 a month there. You notice the flaw in your argument now?

Ok, you might be a bit slooooow. Lets do some math. A pack of cigarettes in Singapore will cost 0.2% of the fella's salary. By imposing a minimum price of RM30, that will cost the Malaysian bank manager 0.54% of his salary. So how can you justify a direct currency conversion? Let's take petrol as another example. A liter of RON95 is retailing for RM1.80 here. In Singapore its S$1.767. Now is where our beloved BN government will say,"See, see. 1 liter of RON95 cost S$1.767 in Singapore. That is RM4.24 a liter. You are lucky here in Malaysia. The BN government is giving you cheap petrol." Again, we take the manager example from above. He is earning S$5500 a month. That is RM13,200 a month! He can afford RM4.24 a liter. So for people who like to use direct conversion arguments, bend over, insert argument up your ass.

Secondly, all Malaysians who smoke are patriots. "WTF??" you must be thinking. Smokers, gamblers and drinkers are all patriots. My justification? This is it. Sin taxes contribute substantially to our nations coffers. Without sin taxes, there will be a lot of dead uneducated kids by the side of the road. So why are we always facing persecution? We should be getting god-damn medals for crying out loud. We, the self sacrificing masses should be cherished instead of being ridiculed. So, CAP, please bend over, insert cigarettes up your ass.

My First Posting on Blogger.

30th October 2009

Is This The News?? is actually hosted at another blog site. The reason I created this blog here in Blogger is to make things easier for myself and prevent clutter from happening at the original site. Henceforth, the original Is This The News?? will consist of satirical Newsflashes and the Op/Ed section will be posted here instead.

Thank you for your kind indulgence.