“Why the need for a survey at the eleventh hour when the government had months to do one?” Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Azizan Abdul Aziz said in a statement.

She was responding to the announcement by health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa on Wednesday that her ministry had launched a survey to gather public feedback on the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023, better known as the Generational End Game (GEG) bill, via the MySejahtera app.

Azizan said that many Malaysians no longer use the MySejahtera app, with many having deleted it from their phones.

MySejahtera was developed to manage the Covid-19 pandemic with people having to scan a QR code whenever entering any premise for the purpose of contact tracing.

Azizan stressed the need to stop stalling on the tabling of the GEG bill for a second reading.

The GEG bill seeks to ban the use, purchase and sale of cigarettes and vape products to anyone born after 2007.

Doubts on the tabling of the bill for a second reading surfaced after the ministry postponed a briefing for MPs.

The ministry had also postponed a media briefing on the bill that was scheduled for yesterday afternoon. No reasons were given for the postponement.

While a source told FMT the tabling of the bill had been postponed, the ministry has yet to confirm it.