Remembering LKY – No smoking

One of his legacies must be the No Smoking campaign and the banning of smoking in cinemas, restaurants and public spaces. And of course there was no smoking in the airlines too. In those days one would smell so foul after watching a movie or having a meal in restaurant that scrubbing for an hour in the bathroom would not help much. And there would be the unsightly and smelly ashtrays on the dining tables with all the cigarette butts to share with the diners. Arrrghhh!
 
I was in a trip home in SQ. The whole cabin was filled with smelly cigarette smokes like someone had thrown in a smoke grenade. The two assholes sitting beside me were puffing non stop like they were just released from hell. I had to vacate my seat and, as there were no other seats available, I had to seek refuge standing at the back of the aircraft next to the toilet. It did not help much as the whole aircraft was in smoke except that is was less awful than sitting beside two smelly chimneys trying to outdo each other with how much smoke each could produced. Remember those hazy days?
 
No one would have the guts to ban smoking in public places when many smokers were in positions of power. My last battle was against the Kent Ridge NUSS Guild House several decades back. The committee members were, as usual, mostly smokers and drinkers. And you know what, the main reception hall, a public area when all visitors and children were usually found, aircon and yes, a smoking area. When I protested, I was told to sit outside in the open air, for non smokers. Can you beat that!
I wrote to the ministry to complain. Only then, subsequently, that the committee reversed the decision and the main reception hall was snuffed out. Smokers go outside please. That was 25 years ago.
 
Only LKY could be tough enough to do away with this dirty and smelly habit and to offend all the die hard smokers. Even Rajaratnam, a chain smoker, had no choice, cannot smoke in Parliament, not when LKY is around. Today, all aircon rooms and offices, public areas, shopping centres, restaurants and cinemas, are no smoking areas. Open air food courts and hawker stalls too are non smoking areas except some designated zones.
 
You have only one man to thank for, to make it all possible, for a healthy and clean environment. One no longer smells after seeing a show or after having a meal. Today we take this for granted, unthinkable. It is unbelieveable that non smokers had to tolerate the abuses of the smokers, forced to inhale and to smell. Airlines no longer need to provide ashtrays, buses no longer have ashtrays, public toilets no longer littered with cigarettes except some dirty joints. You don’t have to watch a football match clouded by cigarette smokes.
 
Sorry smokers. Only non smokers could appreciate what No Smoking means to their lives. To the smokers, cigarette smell and smoke are ecstasies and they will pay an arm or a leg for them. Smokers would not understand the agonizing moments that the non smokers would have to bear with. I hope it stays this way until a chain smoking dictator comes along to change everything back to the 60s and 70s, and to make everyone smell like him and share his nicotine and second hand tobacco smokes.
 
Try imagining smokers smoking in the trains, buses and taxis today! It was the old normal.
 
PS. The banning of smoking is well received by the people. And there was no complaint. Nice.