Continued………..
In 1989, I sat for my SPM examination. As I mentioned earlier, there were 3 science stream classes in my school, out of which there was only 1 Malay student. The rest have all disappeared to MARA colleges, Boarding schools, military college, agama schools etc. I took the maximum of 9 subjects and received 7A1,1A2 and 1C3(in BM). I applied for JPA scholarship but decided not to attend the interview as I was told beforehand that medicine is only for Bumiputera. Some of my friends who attended the interview were told point blank that medicine is only for Bumiputera but they can request for other fields. For those who are from the 21st century, scoring 8As in those days were less than 10 students per state, unlike now where we have 10K students scoring straight As in the country!
Thus, I had to bite the bullet and go on to do STPM which is a 2-year program run by national schools (not all but selected national schools). It is considered as the toughest pre university exam in the world. Two years of knowledge tested by 1 exam at the end of the 2 years. We are allowed to choose 5 subjects. It was the only way for us to attempt to enter the public universities. There were only 3 universities offering medical program. Matriculation/Asasi science were reserved for Bumiputeras till 2003 when 10% of seats, in some programs were given to non-Bumiputeras. Most Asasi programs in major universities are still reserved for Bumiputeras, till today. By God’s grace, I scored 5As in my STPM science examination, the only Indian student to do so in Malaysia. There were 72 students who scored 5As in the country, in 1991 STPM.
As I had mentioned in my earlier articles, our universities work on a quota system. While the Bumiputeras enter via an exclusive matriculation pathway, all non-Bumiputeras must use the STPM pathway. Two different system with 2 different standards. Further to this, we had the quota system. There were hardly any private colleges except for some which were running twinning law programs. Otherwise, you need to go overseas under your own parent’s sponsorship. As far as the medical faculty is concerned, 60% is given to the Bumiputeras, 30% to the Chinese and 10% to the Indians. The total intake for the 1992 UM medical faculty was 180 students. The ratio is the same for all other faculties. It supposed to follow the population ratio of the country. The number of intakes were fewer in UKM (150) and USM (110). Chinese students will need at least 5As or 4As in their STPM while the Indians can get away with 3As, to enter the medical faculty. Well, we had to accept the fact that we are treated differently. It became part and parcel of our life. It made us a better person and a fighter as we need to fight for entry into local public universities for 40% of the seats that are allocated to the non-Bumiputeras. BUT we were all Malaysians and I only had Malaysia as my country.
It was in the university that we yet again see all the 3 major races coming together. It is also here that I realised what “educational segregation” at primary and secondary school levels has done to our social integration. Many of the Malays were totally isolated for at least 7 years before they start to see non-Malays again. Many of them were from boarding schools, MARA colleges and agama schools, before entering matriculation. All these schools were reserved for the Malays. For some, even their primary schools were predominantly Malays as they were from rural schools where there were hardly any non-Malays. Some did do up to SPM in a national schools before entering matriculation/Asasi. As a non-Malay, I could clearly see the difference among these people. The ones that mingle around without any issues are those who were in the national schools up to SPM or from a major city where they are used to non-Malays. Many seem to have a culture shock looking at the non-Malays, not to mention the inferiority complex, being brought up in a non-competitive environment. They don’t mix around much and tend to keep to themselves. They did improve along the way especially when we started our clinical years. But I must say that there were some excellent Malay students as well, who had now achieved successful career in their respective field. It is sad that the society may still look down upon them just because of the different entry pathway and the quota system. Society’s perception cannot be changed unless everyone is at a level playing field.
Similar issue could also be said about some of the Chinese students. Many were from Chinese vernacular schools up to Form 5 or even STPM. I could clearly see how they prefer to be among themselves and speak their own dialect even when they are among the non-Chinese, because they are so used to do so. They don’t realise how rude it is, to the others. While the national school educated Chinese were able to mingle around more freely and more proficient in English, the vernacular school educated prefer to stick to themselves. As they enter the clinical years, some of them do improve and mingle around more with the other races.
As for the Indians, all of us are from national schools. If I can remember, there was only 1 among us who was from a Tamil primary school. As there are no secondary Tamil language vernacular school, even if they do go to Tamil primary schools, they will end up in a secondary national school. We were among the students who can get along with anyone in the university. Almost always we speak in English as even many among us are not Tamilians. We were a rojak group.
Did religion affect us in any way? Yes, it did. When I was in the 1st year, the Malays will form their own study group and the Chinese will form the own study group. The Indians usually play around. We don’t form any study group. We only play football together. So does the national school educated Chinese. We are happy go lucky kind of people. There were also some Malay boys who are in the same category. In my batch there were 2 Indian Muslims who entered the medical school under the Indian quota, via STPM. They used to mingle around more with the Indian students at first. Both were approached by the so called “dakwah people” who are usually students from the religious faculties. They were told openly that they should not be with the non-Muslims. They should only help the Muslims. They were told that they should avoid being close friends with the non-Muslims but spend more time with the Muslim students. One of these Indian Muslim student heeded their advice and moved away from the other Indian students. He eventually came closer to us when we started our clinical years. The other student remained close to the Indian students and became one of my best friends. We were roommates from Year 2 to Year 4. He now heads one of the top cardiothoracic unit in KKM.
Every residential college in UM use to organise respective religious festival celebrations. We had Malam Raya, Chinese New Year celebration, Deepavali Night and even Chrismast night. Everyone in the college will participate as it is considered as a cultural event. I was the Director of Deepavali night in 1996 for my 6th residential college. I even worn the best director award for the college. Deepavali night is considered the biggest event of the college every year. Unfortunately, I was informed that 2 years after I graduated, UM banned any other religious celebration in individual residential college. I am not sure what is the current status.
It is also in the university days I realise that many of these Malay students do not know what is happening out there. The more you talk to them, the more you understand that they are totally unaware of the racial policies in education and scholarships. While they understand that the Malays are given privileges in boarding schools, MARA colleges and Matriculation, they felt that the “others” are also given equal opportunities. They felt that the special opportunities given to them were because they are from rural /poor areas. Some are not even aware of the quota system and lack of scholarship for poor non-Bumiputeras. Many do empathise with us as they learn about the situation.
Five years of my medical school came to an end in May 1997. What appeared to be a long journey at the beginning, appeared rather short when I completed the course. It was a fun filled journey. I made new friends and learned a lot. Our lecturers were excellent. It was the days when Professors teach undergraduate students. I could still remember those great names like the late Prof John Bosco, Prof CT Chua, Prof Siva, Prof Raman, Prof Deva, Prof Fatimah, Prof Annuar Zaini, Prof Alan Teh and many more great teachers who thought us at the time. Many of them had retired but many did resign when I was about to graduate. As the private hospitals began to mushroom from late 1990s, many of our great lecturers left for greener pastures. It was a great loss to the faculty.
It was when I was about to start my Final year that I met my wife, who apparently is in the same batch! Since we had 180 students, sometimes we only knew those who are in our group or partner group. It was very difficult to get to know everyone in our batch by name. Sometimes we can recognise that they are part of our batch but do not know the name. How ironic! My wife was in my partner group starting Year 4. We first got to know that we exist somewhere towards the end of Year 4 and became friends when we started Year 5. By the time we sat for our final exams, we had confessions to be made! The rest is history…..
To Be Continued …………
From your experience how long does it take for an average doctor to pass MRCP Pt 1 exam. Is it done at a single attempt? This seems an alternative pathway for some doctors but not all are gifted.
Most will pass within 3 attempts. The passing rate worldwide is about 45%.
45% for part 1?
Yes
How do you think the recent statement given by KKM will go along with the young drs?
No government in the world guarantees anyone a job.
Going for a strike, is it the remedy of the current situation?
Of course not. What if the government takes a drastic action to fire all those going on strike ? Anyway, now there is an oversupply of medical doctors.
No law has ever stated the government must give permanent jobs to medical graduates.
A final solution after all avenues are exhausted. The issue is, the government never promised a permanent job for everyone. No government does.
Race is another factor in the ongoing debate .
What’s new?
do you think the strike will produce outcomes that are in line with the demands that contract doctors are proposing?
and also, housemen are threatening to go overseas, with most universities not being recognised and entrance exams getting tougher, it really wont be as easy, why do you think people still have the perception that they can go anywhere?
As you said, perception! Rather misperception
They will come with standard answer.
If their demand for permanent positions are met, the next ones to go on strike are contract nurses, contract pharmacists or contract dentists ?
The government needs to be very wise to handle the situation.
Talking about overseas entrance exams such as PLAB, are there medical graduates venturing into this path? Is it really feasible?
Yes there are graduates who are doing it. It is a big investment and only the rich will be willing to take the risk.
Please check my blog on the same topic.
https://www.riflerangeboy.com/2011/07/rrf-to-ppsp-ep-2.html
Hi Dr Pagalavan,
This is Mubarak here if you still remember me. After following u for almost 10 years, I know your stand and views regarding our education system and how medical fraternity is being run. Previously i can sense a lot of dissatisfaction and despair in your articles.
Article above is different, it sounds more like we have accepted how things are. As you said, this system makes us a better fighter. I agree with you that education should never be politicised. Youre old enough to see how our education system has turned for the worse since the 80s.
Its heartwarming to read your experience in government medical school, definitely many of Malays themselves dont realise our race based education.
I too was once told that “kursus yang adik pilih ni semua kita reserve utk bumiputra” when i went to do rayuan UPU. How i wish we have a country where its education is not politicised and not biased. I can only dream.
Actually I have written the same before but just putting it in a more subtle way now.
Perhaps, Malaysia should follow the other countries on medical doctors recruitment. All housemen are guaranteed jobs to satisfy full registration. All MOs should be appointed by individual Hospital on a 6 to 12 month contract, up to a max of 2 years, or until they are enrolled in the Masters programme. Once the trainees have completed the Masters programme, all of them should be required to apply for jobs, and to be appointed by individual hospitals. The job of MOH and JPA is to confirm such appointments by the individual hospitals….
Only then, there will be some fairness in the system….?
The truth is, this is a free market. Can you force any bosses to hire you?
In this case, you even want bosses to guarantee a job for all housemen.
By the way, did you read Dr Paga’s blog? He already warned of houseman oversupply more than 10 years ago.
you forgot you are in Malaysia? There will never be transparency!
So much of stress reading all this.Haihhh.
Singapore has picked up the news of the strike as stated here: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/underpaid-and-overworked-malaysias-contract-doctors-revolt-amid-covid-19-surge
Hi Dr. Paga,
Thank you for your decade-worth dedication in writing this blog. I have been following your blog for a while and you POV is on-point and realistic.
I happen to be a doctor myself who underwent both governmental and private post-SPM education and I thought your observation from medical school years was very on-point.
I, unfortunately, was one of the Chinese students who initially was open to mingle around all races, but as time goes on, it felt like “natural selection” and I now only keep in touch with only my Chinese friends from medical school. The interracial bonds usually fizzled out as most of us are guilty of not investing our energy to bridge the cultural/lingual/social differences.
And such a blessing to have met your other half in medical school! =) That is a dream for some as postgraduate dating becomes very challenging for some nowadays, even if we could juggle with our crazy working hours!!
I read this blog and opted for dentistry instead of medicine even though I found medicine more intellectually stimulating.. Just a word of advise for anyone making the same decision…I chose dentistry just because I thought there’s better job security but there’s also an oversupply of dentists and the dental course is way more expensive than medicine.. Dentistry is mostly mundane routine work unlike medicine where you get to see a wide variety of cases and think critically 😦 On top of that I always have to deal with others looking down on dentistry and that I wasted my potential (4A*s in alevels) and I should have done medicine.I really think picking the course where you have passion is really important otherwise you will REGRET your whole life! I have to live with the fact that I have to do dentistry (which I find tedious) and that I disappointed my parents for the rest of my life.Going to work in the U.K. after PLAB is hard yes but it’s way harder to get registered as a dentist as a foreign grad. Life is not always about the money pick a career that you actually find interesting.
You still can study medicine. Now there are graduate medicine courses. Most importantly, you must have money.
Ratios are just ratios..There’s oversupply of dentists in kl Johor and Penang for obvious reasons..Yes there’s still a *slight* under supply in sabah and Sarawak.. but would rural people invest in braces, crowns, root canal treatment or just pay for simple extraction.. I would say the future isn’t fixed…some dentists would be earning whereas others will have to close shop like any other business. There’s also a bit of nepotism going on.. father mother dentist, children also dentist..the market is very competitive. Bottom line: the future in any occupation is not guaranteed it’s best not to invest in an expensive degree.. nowadays people get so caught up with salary and rightfully so, as tertiary education costs and arm and a leg..
Yup, I have been saying this for many years. No job is guaranteed and whether it is worth spending huge amount of money in doing expensive courses.
There is no oversupply of dentistry as far as statistics are concerned. As of 2019, there are only 10 800 dentist in the country with 3700 in private. The dentist: population ratio is only 1:3 017. Of course the government do not have enough post in civil service and I have written about this in 2012 :https://pagalavan.com/2012/04/05/2011-pharmacist-2012-dentist-20-doctors/ when they reduced the compulsory service for dentist. However, there are still plenty of need for dentist in rural or suburban areas. I have always said, do medicine only if you have “real” passion in it and not for other reasons. Medicine has its own issues. To say that medicine see wide variety of cases is only true when you start to work. After some years, it is the same shit another day! Don’t believe me, just ask anyone who has worked for few years. I have also said many times before that if you intend to move around aka migrate, never do medicine, dentistry and law!
So you’re a dental student? Or already working? It can be that bad really
[…] PART 4 […]
Hi Dr,
I’m currently choosing which medical specialty I want to get into, so I want to ask a few questions. These questions are all regarding the medical specialties in Malaysia only.
1) Do you know how many radiologists and dermatologists we currently have? Are those two specialties in high demands of applicants?
2) What are the few less time consuming specialties in the medical field here in Malaysia?
3) What are the most competitive and the least competitive medical specialties here?
4) What are the medical specialties that are the best in regards of work-life balance? As in, it’s less time-consuming, more predictable work hours and such things? I hope you can elaborate for me.
5) Do we have neurologists here in Malaysia? What is the pathway to become one and how does it go? As in, is it competitive and has many applicants? Is the job opportunity higher compared to the other more common fields?
I would be very thankful if you can answer these questions for me since informations from you will help me a lot. Thank you.
1) I don’t have the statistics, you can ask NSR for the statistics. Yes, we still need a lot of radiologist and dermatologist.
2) I don’t understand what do you mean by less time consuming
3) competitive in what sense? making money or training?
4) There is no such thing as predictable working hours in any speciality, if you are in private sector. If you are in public sector, then you may have a more predictable working hours based on your on calls
5) We have all specialities in Malaysia. Please read my blog entry in 2011 on the pathways to become a specialist in Malaysia.
generally, I don’t think you are much aware about the medical field and how it works. Please read my blog from A-Z, especially articles published between 2010-2015.
The contract doctor issue has resurfaced with many claiming that they have been left out,after the initial screening process for permanent doctor selection. . The exact number is not known. The reasons as reported in FMY include CGPA, SPM etc. Is this true.?
MMA is collecting the data on these cases. It is true but not sure what is the reason.
The CGPA was brought up. Does that mean those with Second Lower Honours or equivalent are left out? I understand that PSC sets a minimum CGPA for other professions. Does this also affect doctors?
I am not sure but the government can introduce whatever they want when post are limited.