Injustice - A Smoker's View

I heard from a very good source of mine (if I told you who I will have to kill you!) that the price of cigarettes will go up soon, AGAIN!

“What the hell??! Are you kidding me?!” was my reaction when I was told about it. Where is the justice in that? Think about it for a second. This is ridiculous!

We smokers are the most unfortunate group of people in the country. Our basic human rights are constantly being violated and yet no one is willing to stand up for us, no politician willing to protect us. It's unbelievable!

We can’t smoke in public places, we have posters everywhere plainly ridiculing us, the media only have bad things to say about us and cigarette companies are not even allowed to have any marketing campaign for their product. Remember about Dunhill being forced to drop their sponsorship for our football league? What was that all about? Now they can’t even sell small pack cigarettes anymore. Not all smokers can afford to buy large pack of cigarettes every time you know.

When the price of flour went up by 20 cents the uproars were unbelievable. NGO groups made loud noise about it. Every activist spoke up against it. All of them seemed willing to die fighting against the 20 cents hike. 20 CENTS! Come on, the level of cigarettes price hike is a lot worse, it’s on par with the petrol price hike. Why are we not doing anything about it? Are we all blind?

When the cigarette price went up by 80 cents last year, not only no one was against it, they were all applauding the hike! Where were the big shot politicians who claimed they care for the community? It is funny when they say “we are just public servants, we are working for the good of our community” because they clearly neglected the needs of smokers, the largest group in our community. Now I don’t have the statistics but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the fact that we smokers are the majority. No wonder BN lose its 2/3 majority during the last election. It’s simple math really, you neglect the majority and you will lose.

One MP (can’t remember the name) tried to stand up for us, by pleading to the parliament to stop this suppression against smokers. He said the price hike of cigarettes should be stopped. “It’s not fair” he said. Now that guy, he deserved a medal. That’s the kind of guy I would vote for. He should be the prime minister. He cares.

We always talk about discrimination against race, the poor, the weak, the ugly; when are we going to start talking about discrimination against smokers? We are not bad people. It is our individual right in choosing to smoke. We are not giving others a hard time by smoking so why should we be discriminate? Ok I admit, smoking is not the best thing for ones health but it’s the same with fast food, mamak food, junk food etc. Those things kill as many people. Why not put pressure on them? Why picked on us?

So please open up your eyes and your heart. We are not asking for much. We are only asking to be respected and treated equally. Stop the discrimination. We are humans, the same as everyone else. Have a heart, show compassion. Let’s make this country a better place for everyone, including the smokers. Thank you….