A non-governmental organisation from India, Green Motherland (Pasumai Thaayagam), wants Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to stop the upcoming Emerging Tobacco Markets 2005 congress and trade fair in Kuala Lumpur.

The Tamil Nadu-based organisation plans to convey its request via a letter, which will also include one million protest signatures to be gathered in India.

In a copy of the letter made available to malaysiakini today, Pasumai Thayagam said the Nov 14-16 event should be cancelled to send a strong message to the international tobacco industry that Malaysia will not be exploited by a business associated with promoting diseases and deaths.

The two-day international congress and exhibition - with the theme 'Emerging Tobacco Markets' - is organised by Tabexpo Coalition, comprising Tobacco Reporter and Tobacco Journal International based respectively in the United States and Germany.

Green Motherland said the event would negate the government's move to discourage smoking, especially since Abdullah had launched the large-scale 'Tak Nak' anti-smoking campaign.

Vulnerable area

"Asia is a particularly vulnerable area... it represents an important future tobacco market," said the organisation, adding that the tobacco industry exploits economically disadvantaged Asian countries.

According to the World Health Organisation, 650 million people will eventually be killed by tobacco, and most of them will be from developing countries.

Green Motherland said tobacco companies have a long history of trying to position themselves as 'legitimate' corporations, despite selling a product that is highly addictive and causes death.

Malaysia Airlines is the official airlines for the international event.