This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 27, 2023 - March 5, 2023

When I look back on the Hari Raya holidays of my childhood, what stands out among the many things is the fireworks. Raya was the only time we children were permitted to play with fireworks — usually when we were all gathered at our grandparents’ house for the holiday.

But our family was always very strict: No playing without adult supervision; rockets had to be planted into the ground, no holding them whatsoever; always play in an open space; and only shoot upwards.

One year, a fireworks “war” erupted between us and the children across the road. My cousin, having lit the fuse, accidentally kicked the rocket in his haste to step away, shifting the trajectory such that it pointed to the garden across the road. The neighbour’s grandkids took it as a declaration of war and replied in kind. In our innocent outrage, all the safety ground rules were forgotten. And as luck would have it, the uncle on duty that night had gone into the house to eat without bothering to hand over supervision to anyone.

The war ended as soon as a stray shot zoomed through our open front door and exploded in a living room full of elders. All the fireworks were confiscated, and that was the end of the fireworks fun for us that Raya.

A few nights later, dinnertime was interrupted by the sound of the fire brigade’s klaxon. The paddy field that bordered one end of the kampung was on fire. As we watched the firefighters battling the blaze, someone in the crowd muttered angrily about stray fireworks. We felt mightily relieved to be able to have a clear conscience on this!

Not too many years after that, it became illegal to play with fireworks. Overnight, it seemed, the most popular stall at the Bazaar Ramadan disappeared. Although, apparently if you had the “right intel”, you’d know which seemingly innocent stall had a tray of fireworks under the counter. And so, every festive season of whichever ethnicity, I would hear fireworks and could even see them from a distance.

And so every season, inevitably, there would be news reports of some children accidentally losing a few fingers, and maybe an eye too, to a prematurely exploding firecracker. And firefighters still had firework-induced blazes to put out. Yet reports of actual arrests or fines were so few, how many children of this current generation even know that it is illegal to play with fireworks? Indeed, educated as I am, I only found out last week that fireworks have actually been banned in Malaysia since 1955!

So it almost didn’t surprise me when the government recently announced that, to battle smuggling, it was going to legalise fireworks. The industry would be regulated and taxed, and the government was optimistic that come the Raya celebrations in April, everyone would be able to play with fireworks, legally.

To legalise something because it is too hard to enforce the law sounds counter-intuitive. But sometimes, the best way to gain the upper hand over a problem is to recognise it, and then regulate it.

For instance, in countries where prostitution is legalised, it becomes possible for health authorities to mandate for sex workers to be regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Sex workers are also less vulnerable to human trafficking and abuse from their pimps or customers because they can go to the police without fear of being arrested for being involved in an illegal activity.

In the same way, some countries legalise the dadah industry, and in regulating it, bring down drug-related crimes as well as prevent overdose problems because drug manufacturing is regulated too. Our health ministry is planning to make medical cannabis legally accessible to those with chronic health problems (but only through medical practitioners), so that they do not have to commit a crime while seeking treatment. This is no different to medically administering morphine to a patient who is in great pain.

In all these instances, what is important is that when an activity or industry is decriminalised, it must be firmly regulated.

Consumer fireworks are banned in many countries. And even in those that allow them, strict laws list out not only who can sell them, but also who can buy and operate them (usually only an adult), when they may be sold and used, what type of venue they can be played in, and which government authority will test and approve each type of firework or firecracker before it is allowed to enter the market.

Socially speaking, especially in a conservative country like Malaysia, legalising prostitution or dadah would be considered scandalous. But when we consider what problems are solved by regulating these industries, this practical permissiveness could be considered a lesser evil. The same could be said for legalising fireworks; but only if the solution is strictly applied.

The more laws there are, the more opportunities that arise for breaking them — or for not wanting to be caught breaking them — thus more opportunities for corruption.

So, while I have faith that on paper Malaysia has great laws, there is a disquiet in my heart as to how well all this will be translated in real life. I’m fairly certain that emergency department personnel and firefighters feel it too.

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