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According to Wikipedia, smoking has been around since ancient times. Its history dates back to as early as 5000 BC and was used in shamanistic rituals. Over the years, smoking, most commonly cigarette smoking, has somehow being gradually accepted by the society and is now becoming a common sight in the public as cigarettes are widely produced in large amounts. Originally, it is presumed that people who smoke are often men, but in recent years women have also picked up this unhealthy habit.
Today, almost everybody of any age, on every level of the community, including the youths is practising the bad habit of smoking in Malaysia. Because of this, our former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has launched an anti-smoking campaign called the “Tak Nak” campaign a few years back, with the purpose of raising awareness among the public concerning the effects of smoking. However, this campaign seems to be lacking of support from the society as well as the government itself. There is even criticism from some people that the government’s effort of setting aside RM100 million for the campaign is a waste of time, and that the money should be used for something more beneficial. Therefore, in order to understand the root of this problem, this matter must be analysed deeper so that the “Tak Nak” campaign will be a success.
One of the main reasons why people smoke is because of curiosity. Most people, especially teenagers, try smoking in the first place out of curiosity after seeing television commercials or their friends smoking. They want to know how it feels and tastes like to smoke a cigarette. In fact, according to a research conducted by the government, it is found that about 50 Malaysian teenagers light up for the first time every day. In most cases, these fresh smokers will steadily progress from this to regular use, and finally getting addicted to smoking within a few years. Besides that, another factor that contributes to this problem is the influence of peer pressure. This means that an individual is forced to take up smoking so that he or she will be accepted by his or her friends, and this problem is very common among teenagers nowadays. If they do not smoke, they are considered not good enough to mix around with the group. Not only that, teenagers sometimes smoke just to impress their friends as they thought that smoking is very cool; a common perception of teens towards the idea of smoking. This is extremely alarming, considering that teenagers are the backbone of our country and the ones who will realize Malaysia’s dreams in the future.
