Can MCA rescue coffee shop owners whose biz are at risk of extinction?

STUCK between a rock and a hard place to oppose the Tobacco and Smoking Products Control Bill 2022 which culminates in the Generational End Game (GEG) policy, the MCA is seemingly the last resort for the Malaysia Singapore Coffee Shop Proprietors’ General Association (MSCSPGA) to turn to.

Established in 1947, MSCSPGA currently has over 45 affiliates and 20,000 members throughout Malaysia and Singapore. Its primary role is to protect the rights and businesses of its members.

Often regarded as one of the last bastions of hope for the Malaysian Chinese community to turn to when all else has failed, the party which is now part of the ruling coalition is deemed to be in the best position to convey the grouses Malaysian coffee shop owners to the power that be.

At least the association’s concern that the tobacco bill, which was tabled by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin for first reading in Parliament recently, can potentially “annihilate the entire coffee shop sector in the country” will not fall on deaf ears.

With only three days left (till Aug 4) before the current Parliament session comes to a close, MSCSPGA has no better option but to swiftly reach out to the relevant MCA representative – at best party president Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong – to find a middle ground to its predicament.

This is before the bill gets passed by the Dewan Rakyat (even with a slim majority) and eventually be gazetted as a law (Dewan Negara is very unlikely to oppose the bill once it has been passed by the lower house).

Wong Teu Hoon

Let MCA uses its wit to outsmart the claim of Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin that the tobacco bill will not affect Malaysia’s economy.

Make it clear to the authorities that service industry like coffee shops rely on young workers for business continuity as they are agile and hardworking. But alas, the bill will prevent the industry from recruiting young workers while it is struggling to retain existing ones when they pass the age of retirement.

“In addition, operators will be fined up to RM30,000 or imprisonment up to three years or both for selling cigarettes to those born after 2007,” lamented MSCSPGA’s president Wong Teu Hoon in a media statement.

“We will need additional workforce to enforce it but the same bill prevents us from hiring the future generation. This makes life even harder for coffee shop operators as they encounter staff shortages and a competitive illegal cigarette market.”

Wong further urged the Government to remain cautious as the illegal cigarette market will continue to rise once this policy comes into effect. Instead, he proposed that a nationwide education campaign on cigarettes should continue in a bid to create awareness among the younger generation.

“As it is now, the interest of good taxpayers like us was not considered while smugglers get to profit from all these,” he pointed out.

“MSCGPA pleads with the Health Minister to properly reconsider the bill as it criminalises consumers in terms of legal age, killing the entire coffee shop sector and forcing consumers to smoke illegal cigarettes.” – Aug 1, 2022

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