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2023: A year that ran fast………

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized on December 24, 2023| 26 Comments »

I was puzzled myself on how fast this year just passed by. My last entry was in August 2022 when I wrote about my journey back to Malaysia after almost 2 years +. Since then a lot of changes has happened to the world, myself and Malaysia. Just before the year ends, I thought of writing another piece.

The year started with a new government in Malaysia. After the election in November 2022, where i voted as a postal voter, sent by runners from Perth, Malaysia once again went into political instability. Even before the election, almost everyone knew that no single party will win the election and it would definitely be a coalition government. But the type of coalition government that came from the 15th GE was rather unique with UMNO/BN and DAP joining hands. The arch enemies have to sleep together to form the new government. Well, i feel it is better than the other bloc which consist of nationalist and fundamentalist. But, having Anwar as the PM, something that he has been fighting for since 1998 and being imprisoned twice sounded like a fairy tale come true. While he is definitely a better option, I don’t trust him 100%. He is, after all , a fundamentalist himself. Who can forget the major changes in education system (KBSR/KBSM which resulted in the current mess), bahasa baku etc when he was the education minister in 1980s.

Well, it has been a year since he became our PM. I have not seen him tabling any reforms in the Parliament as what PH has been promising over the past few elections. Not a single concrete reform has been tabled in Parliament. All talk with no actions. Yes, the economy needs a lot of work to be done but trust of the people is also important. If you do not even do your own promised reforms that you have been screaming and shouting about since 1999, you have just lost all the trust that people have put on you. A politician will never change his colours. Rhetorics are easy to scream about but real action is what matters. He once spoke about merit but now says that quotas are still important. Was there any reforms to address poor non-Bumi students not being given public university places? Any policies put in place other than asking people to appeal? The latest data shows that only 18% of students in public universities are non-bumis, a shocking figure that explains a lot. Furthermore, just look at the top courses being offered for these students ( I can assure you it is not pilihan!):

It is a well known fact that majority of students who do STPM(science) are non-bumis as it is the only way for them to enter the public universities. The rest who can afford or made to afford, will go to private universities via their own pre university courses. So, you can clearly see the huge difference between STPM and Matriculation in the type of courses they are entering into. For those who are still not aware, only certain universities provide 10% of places to non-Bumis for matriculatiom. Not all matriculation programs are open to non-Bumis, albeit only 10%. The moral of the story is, even if you want a slightest chance of entering into a science field in public universities, it is better to fight for the 10% quota in certain Matriculation. If you ask me, looking at all the discussions on social media etc, I have no hope that any concrete merit based policy will ever come about in Malaysia. You tak suka, you boleh keluar.

While I was slowly winding down my interest in Malaysian politics, a sad news appeared in May 2023. My dad aged 82, who was once an active politician in Negeri Sembilan MIC (Vice President) before resigning in 1990s passed away peacefully on 5th of May 2023. He was the only member of my family who I always talked about Malaysian politics. A teacher who was involved as a part time politicians during the era of Tun Sambanthan and Dato Samy Vellu. Till the day he died, he was still active in NS pensioners society and was still serving all pensioners irrespective of race or religion. A wonderful and hard working man who never rested. He has helped countless number of people over the years. I still remember those days when he use to come back from his school at 2.30pm and immediately after lunch, goes to settle other people’s problem in government departments. Most of those he helps are poor Indians who are not very good in Malay or English but need something to be done in government departments. My dad is fluent in Malay, English and Tamil. He use to translate NS MIC Chairman’s speech from Tamil/English to Malay! I had to cancel my conference trip to Tasmania to fly down urgently to Seremban to attend his funeral and do my final rights for him. Appa, may you rest in peace!

Well, life has to move on. While I know my dad’s health has been declining over the past 2 years, I just hoped he could have waited to see my kids during my already planned family trip to Malaysia in June 2023. He had not seen them since January 2020. Unfortunately, he could not wait!

The doctors situation in Malaysia also looks like it has not changed much. While new permanent positions were created, as I had always said, the numbers will never be enough to absorb everyone. Furthermore, you need to go where the post is. If you reject , no further appeal is entertained. This once again has opened up the flood gates. I received so many emails and questions in this blog asking about migration. The good news is, post Covid, many countries are facing shortage of doctors. This is due to resignation and also some countries have tighten their registration rules. For example, it seems that UK GMC has now said that they will remove from registration anyone who does not work in UK for more than 2 years. This has prevented many doctors from UK coming to Australia. It also resulted many already in Australia, going back to UK as they have no intention to migrate permanently to Australia. I was told that previously whatever training they had in Australia will be recognised but this is not the case anymore which is another reason why many left back to UK. The phenomenon has created a vacuum in many major hospitals but in turn opened up opportunities for doctors from Malaysia etc to apply. The Australian government has also improved their visa application process and the time taken to receive one is way faster, less than 6 weeks compared to minimum 3 months before. However, all AHPRA rules for registration still applies. If you are coming under standard pathway with just AMC Part 1, please make sure you are prepared for Part 2. The waiting period for WBA is getting very long, sometimes up to 2 years.

The brain drain from Malaysia is getting worst, from what I can see. How will the country survive with best brains leaving the country, economy in shambles, declining ringgit, racial and religious politics on the rise and general population suffering in silence. The entire system need restructuring but how do you do it while still maintaining special rights for certain groups? You need a strong and capable leader to do this, who is willing to bite the bullet. Unfortunately, I don’t think Anwar is the person. Political ambition is likely the priority, unless he does it after consolidating his power. Time will tell.

Finally, i just came back from my family holiday. The last overseas family holidays I had was in 2016 and again in 2017 when we came to Perth for a holiday, just before migrating officially. Covid pandemic has taken almost 4 years of our family fun. While we did travel locally within Australia, nothing excites us more than travelling overseas together. Thus, we travelled to Dubai for almost 12 days, something we had to cancel in 2020. My eldest just graduated as an Electrical engineer and would be starting his first job next month! As everyone knows, once your child starts to work, they start their own life!

Well, it has been 6 years since my family moved to Australia. No regrets and never been happier while being sad watching Malaysia from far away. May 2024 be a better year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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2022: Trip to Malaysia, contract issues and migration ………

Posted in Education, Politics, Uncategorized on August 11, 2022| 65 Comments »

It has been 8 months since I wrote my last article, the conclusion of my post-Wawasan 2020 series. The year 2022 started with relaxation of border rules in many countries. Being in Western Australia (WA), which had one of the toughest border rules in the world, we were happy that the border was going to open on 5th of February 2022. Unfortunately, 2 weeks before the date, the WA government decided to postpone the date indefinitely due to rise of Omicron cases all over the world and a new target was set for booster doses before the border opens. I had to postpone my flight that I had already booked for end of February 2022.

By mid-February 2022, the WA government announced that the border will open on 5th of March 2022. However, Malaysia still had a 5-day quarantine rule for those vaccinated. We decided to delay our first trip back to Malaysia in over 2 years, to May 2022, just in time to celebrate Raya in Malaysia. Thank fully, by then, not only the quarantine rule was removed for those vaccinated but also the pre departure PCR test. Thus, on 4th of May 2022, me and my wife stepped our feet onto Singapore Airlines Boeing 787 for the first time in more than 2 years!

It was a smooth flight to KL via transit in Changi airport. Changi airport will always be the best airport I have ever been. This is also the first time since 2014 that I am landing in KLIA. Since I lived in JB, I had always used Changi airport for my international flights. The “Malaysia Boleh” phenomenon hit my face the moment I landed in KLIA! Welcome to Malaysia! We walked towards the Aerotrain upon landing only to see the entire area was cordoned off without any signage to guide us where to go. There was a lady sitting inside the cordoned area but too busy looking at her handphone. All of us were wondering where to go till one of them “woke up” the phone lady and asked her! She pointed the direction to the bus terminal. It was a long walk from there with stairs going down, right at the end, after which you will see the bus waiting. Took the bus to the main terminal where our bags were waiting. The immigration clearance was the fastest as we used auto gate. Then came the custom screening.

1 scanning machine for the entire crowd! Everyone had to que up to scan our luggage, one by one. No green lane. As we finally exited out to the arrival hall, we were looking for the car rental booths. None to be seen! We had already booked the car online, but we could not see any booths or even any signage to direct us to the car rental area. My wife frantically went around asking people who were working at the arrival hall (money changers etc), none seem to be aware! Finally, I found a small signage on the right side of the arrival hall, you can only see it if you pay close attention on small wordings. It took us almost 10-15min of walk out of the terminal, sweating till my entire shirt was drenched like I just got wet in the rain! The efficiency of the car rental company was at another level. It took them almost 30-40min to give us the car. Of all the airports I have ever been (mostly developed countries), I have never seen the car rental booth being situated 10-15 mins walk from the arrival hall into another building. Most will be situated in the arrival hall, and you can collect the keys within 15 min.

Finally, we made it to the highway, heading north to my wife’s place. Cars speeding, motorbikes all over the place brought back my memories. No one follows the rule. Back to my Malaysia. Somehow, I felt the lawlessness has gotten worst. Grabfood and Foodpanda riders don’t seem to care about road rules. Even traffic lights can’t stop them. My 30 years’ experience driving in Malaysia was reactivated. As suggested by my friends, we bought a dashcam before coming to Malaysia. Getting a Touch N Go card was another nightmare. None seem to be in stock and thus we had to use our good old IC as our touch N Go card while we searched around. Finally, we got one from Watson in my wife’s hometown. Along the road, one thing was obvious to us. The maintenance culture has gotten worst. Maintenance of roads, buildings, public infrastructure etc was down the drain. I had always wondered how a tourist would feel when they arrive in Malaysia.

Overall, we had a wonderful time with our family and friends, whoever we had time to visit. From Perak to KL to Seremban to Melaka and finally to JB. Malaysia is always the best place for food! Something we always crave for when we return to Malaysia. Shopping and buying cloths that we are familiar with, is another heaven. Unfortunately, the politics in Malaysia never changes and has turned to the worst. I can clearly see that election is coming very soon. Whenever racial and religious rhetoric goes overdrive, we know election is coming. I can see more people have become poorer. Currency value is dropping day by day. The last I heard 1SGD is now RM 3.20. 1USD is about RM 4.50. The lower the currency falls, the poorer the people will become. After being in Australia for 3 years, I can see how the value of our currency is very important. The stronger the value of the dollar, the lower the cost of living. We left Malaysia after spending 24 days, on 27/05/2022.

I received many emails from young doctors asking for advice to migrate, especially after reading my last article. Unfortunately, as I had always said, medicine is the worst profession to be when it comes to migration/moving around. Unless your degree is recognised in the country you are intending to migrate, you need to sit and pass the entrance exam with no guarantee that you will get a job. It is an investment with a possibility of not getting any return. The border closure in Australia resulted in work force shortage in many fields. Covid pandemic also resulted in many states increasing their pool of doctors by creating more post. Unfortunately, they could not fill up this post as borders were closed. Not all local graduates like to work in hospital setting. Many IMG (International Medical Graduates) who were already in Australia manage to get these jobs if they had AMC Part 1. Most of them have been in Australia for years, some even citizens and PRs. Once the border opened, many IMGs with AMC Part 1 were also recruited from overseas. These are all mainly for MO and service registrar position.

My regional hospital advertised for 3 new senior registrar post. There were 15 applications, none from locals/Australia! All were from overseas and almost all of them only had AMC Part 1. They were senior doctors from their country of origin with at least more than 10-20 years of experience. Most of the applications were from India, Sri Lanka, Iran, Turkey and Egypt. It is a risk that you will need to take as the Limited registration will only be given for a maximum of 5 years. By then you must either pass the AMC Part 2 or complete the WBA (12 months ward-based assessment) program in an accredited hospital. Because of this, the hospital can only provide you with a yearly contract. Those who are recruited as GP with just AMC Part 1 have another option of completing your RACGP program to be awarded FRACGP within the 5 years period.

It is a tough life for many of them who come for greener pastures. Some of them were paediatricians, anaesthetist, psychiatrist, surgeons, neonatologist, gastroenterologist back in their home country but willing to sacrifice everything to start from scratch.  Even then, there is no guarantee that their contract will be renewed year after year. The more regional you are, the better the chance of getting a renewed contract.

Thus, this is what I advised those who intend to migrate with a medical degree which is not recognised in Australia. Be prepared to start from scratch with no certainty. You must take a gamble. Some may succeed and some don’t. That’s why you will hear some coming back home, not necessarily due to family reason, but they fail to get a job or training post to become a specialist. Be prepared to go to rural and remote areas to get a job.

With the increasing number of queries that I am receiving about migration, I can feel the pain the people on the ground are going through. The contract issue, while has been extended to about 10 years to complete your specialisation, it is very clear that the government will never be able to absorb everyone into permanent civil service. I had written about these many times before. Thus, it is not unusual for MMC to reduce the compulsory service to 1 year. So, now you can leave the service after a total of 3 years (2 years HO and 1 year MO). In fact, even before the announcement by the DG, for the past 3 years MMC has been approving exemption, usually if you have completed 18 months post housemanship. Even JPA has made an announcement that JPA scholars who are under contract since 2016 can break the bond and leave civil service. It is a way of saying “get lost”! But who created this mass in the first place! As for me, this is an inadequate training for any doctor to be able to practise medicine independently after 3 years. With no proper training system in place for GPs etc, we probably giving them a “license to kill”…………………

Oh Gosh, didn’t I predict all these were coming ………………………….

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Post Wawasan 2020: Where to, Malaysia? Part 4

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized on June 23, 2021| 40 Comments »

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 …………

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Post Wawasan 2020: Where to, Malaysia? Part 3

Posted in Education, Politics on February 12, 2021| 76 Comments »

Continued ……….

Education should never be politicised. Unfortunately, in Malaysia everything is politics unless stated otherwise. When I started my Standard 1 in 1979, the education system had already been converted from English to Bahasa Malaysia. If I am not mistaken, I was the 2nd batch of Standard 1 which was conducted in BM. English was thought as a second language. However, we were still a lucky batch of students as the books were still Cambridge books translated into Malay. Our teachers, almost all of them had excellent English language proficiency as they were educated in English medium. My school was a missionary school which is technically a semi-aided school. I did not see any racial or religious issues within my school. The Malays, Indians and Chinese were all playing, studying and eating together. Our canteen was run by a Chinese family till I completed my Form 6 in 1991. There was no such rule as only Muslims owners can run public canteens. They don’t sell pork or beef to respect everyone’s religious requirements. The vernacular schools on the other end were dying a slow death. Many non-Malays wanted to enrol themselves into national schools as they expected to be treated equally. My father, who was once a Tamil school Headmaster before becoming a national schoolteacher (after doing a degree), decided to send all of us to a national school albeit a missionary school (the top schools at that time). He still says that the reason he did so is to make us Malaysians. Many small Chinese and Tamil schools were on the verge of closing down by late 1980s due to lack of enrolment.

Unfortunately, after 1981 everything changed. The quota system of universities was in full force. MARA colleges and boarding schools were raised everywhere since 1970s to cater for a single race. Scholarships were limited to non-Bumiputras. Civil servants were reserved for a single race. As more and more non-Malay teachers began to retire, the pool of teachers were predominantly Malays by early 2000. Worst still, unemployed graduates were recruited as teachers under KPLI (Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah) program. When my daughter went to Convent JB in 2011, there was only 1 non-Malay teacher in the entire afternoon session!

As I said earlier, the government must lead by example. On one end, you claim vernacular schools are causing disunity but on the other end, you do the same. I remember very clearly how most of my Malay friends disappeared after Standard 5 (before UPSR, lower school exams were held when you were in Standard 5) to MARA colleges, Agama schools, boarding schools and royal military college. Another batch of my remaining Malay friends disappeared after Form 3 SRP exams (PTK equivalent), also to MARA colleges, Agama schools and boarding schools. By the time I reach Form 4, the entire science stream only had 1 Malay student. By Form 6, all my classes were filled with only non-Malays. The remaining Malays who use to come from other schools to my school for Form 6 Science classes disappeared within 2 months, as they enrolled into university run matriculation system. Mind you, my school (St Paul’s Institution) was one of the premier top schools in Negeri Sembilan. By removing the Malay students to agama schools, boarding schools, MARA colleges and Matriculation, the government was basically doing the same. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore took 20 years to abolish the vernacular schools in Singapore. Did he do it overnight by just banning the schools? Nope. He created a merit-based system, a common language of English with mother tongue language as mandatory 2nd language, offered scholarship to Chinese school top scorers to move to national schools which is valid till they reach university, no religious elements in school curriculum etc. The vernacular schools died a natural death. You can read this in his book “My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore’s Bilingual Journey”.

By mid 1990s, many non-Malay parents were moving their children back to vernacular schools. A new national education system was introduced in 1983 known as KBSR and KBSM. Religious education was made a mandatory subject for Muslims and as part of the national curriculum. Prior to this, it was not part of the national education curriculum. We had a period, if I can remember, once or twice a week known as POL (People’s own language) classes. The Muslims will go to Pengajian Agama Islam class whereas the Indians will go to Tamil classes and Chinese to Chinese classes. I grew up in this system and KBSR and KBSM did not affect me as it only affected those who started their Standard 1 in 1983 onwards. When KBSR and KBSM was introduced, these POL classes were abolished and replaced with Pendidikan Moral for the non-Muslims. The mother tongue language classes were abolished for good under the new national education policy known as KBSR and KBSM. Some schools still continued with these as an optional out of ordinary classes. These were done after school hours. Language is an asset to a country but we decided to do the opposite.

With the formal introduction of religious education into our education system from 1983 onwards, the national schools slowly but surely were moving towards a monoethnic and mono religious centric schools. The Ustaz and Ustazah became very influential. MOE barred any other religious events or celebration in schools by 1990s. Openly telling the Muslims students that non-Muslims are kafirs who only deserve to go to hell were a norm. Islamic religious activities were held openly including saying daily prayers during assembly. The non-Muslims became very anxious, uneasy and started to move their kids out of the national schools. Religion should never be part of any official education system. It only serves to divide people. By 2000s, these phenomena had become toxic enough that many decided not to even send their children to national schools.

What options does these parents had? The cheapest option is to send to vernacular schools. Vernacular schools were becoming very popular and some schools did not even have enough classes to accommodate everyone. Schools that were on the verge of shutting down by early 1990s got a new lifeline. Many non-Chinese, including the Malays began to send their children to Chinese medium schools. If I am not mistaken, the current statistics shows that close to 20% of students in Chinese schools are non-Chinese.

By 2004 under the leadership of our new PM Abdullah Badawi, another new “education policy” started to take place. International schools which were once only available for expats or to students who had at least 1 parent being a foreigner, were allowed to take Malaysian citizens. It started with 30% quota but by 2008, almost 100% of the students can be Malaysians. These created another mess in our education system. Mushrooming of private and international schools started. It’s all about making money, I guess. Now, we not only have racially and religiously divided nation by education but also a class divide. The “Bangsa Malaysia” of Wawasan 2020 were just going down the drain. So, whoever who claim that the vernacular schools are the cause of disunity, think again. Digest what had happened and look at yourself. Assimilation will NEVER occur if everyone is not treated equally. That’s the reality.

To be continued……………….

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Post Wawasan 2020: Where to, Malaysia? Part 2

Posted in Politics on February 4, 2021| 4 Comments »

continued.……….

While many countries in the world were attracting the best brains, we were happily removing them. The biggest beneficiary of our best brains was Singapore. Singapore, a country without any natural resources has to depend on its best brains to become a regional business, financial and research centre. They knew the only way to survive and develop is via knowledge-based economy or k-economy. They started their Asean scholarship program in the 80s to attract the best brains of the region to come and study in their university and be bonded to work in Singapore for at least 7-10 years (no one leaves after that). Those who enrol into their university by merit were also given scholarship with a bond. These not only attracted the best brains to study, work and remain in Singapore but also made their universities, one of the best in the world. Across the causeway, we were doing the opposite. We chased away the best brains using race factor. We sent our best students of certain race to overseas countries to study via MARA and JPA scholarship, instead of retaining them in the country. Many never returned back to serve the country. MARA loans/scholarship never had any bond with the government. I have seen many Malays who were under MARA and JPA scholarship happily working in Australia, UK, Ireland and New Zealand till today. As far as I know, neither MARA nor JPA had ever released the figures of how many remained overseas upon completing their education. It was only in 2016 when JPA decided to stop sending students overseas (except for those courses that are not available locally and the top 50 students) but indeed sponsored them locally in private universities. MARA was still sending students overseas but gradually reduced those who were sent to western developed countries due to cost.

Australia removed their all-white policy in 1973 and started their planned migration policy. The motto was “either you populate or perish”. They started one of the best migration policies in the world, attracting skilled workers into the country. Skilled workers, especially of young age were automatically given residency status even before they sat foot into the country. They were given the same benefit as the citizens, minus eligibility to vote. Racial Discrimination Act was passed in 1976. In 2001, they allowed dual citizenship. For those who are working in Australia under other visas, they were given residency status (PR) in 2 years. Due to some abuse of the system, it has now been extended to 3 years since 2018. And after 4 years of residency in total (including the 3 years of stay for PR), you are eligible to apply for citizenship. In Malaysia, we were too proud of our nationalism. I had foreign friends who were married to Malaysians who received their PR status after more than 10 years, going up and down the immigration office multiple times and being insulted several times. Till then they had to renew their social visa yearly which do not allow them to work unless you are granted a work permit.  These were skilled professionals. We were going into negative balance. The best leaving the country, none coming into the country. I have seen some comments saying, who said people are not rushing to Malaysia to work, look at the number of foreign workers in Malaysia! They forgot one thing for sure, these are unskilled labour force! They don’t contribute anything to the country except building structures. Do they pay tax? Do they provide any intellectual ideas? Nope. They are lowly paid untrained labourers, and they send their money back to their homeland, outflow of money.

By mid 1990s, Malaysia was a rich country. We had all the natural resources that was giving us all the money we wanted. We had industries coming and investing in Malaysia. Our surrounding neighbours except Singapore and Thailand were in turmoil. Indonesia was facing dictatorship of Suharto (till 1998), Philippines was being swindled by Marcos and family till late 1980s (still suffering from its aftermath for past 30 years), Vietnam recovering from war, Cambodia was recovering from civil war, Burma was under military rule and China was just starting its open market policy in early 1980s. We were plain lucky to be able to attract investment with a good english speaking professionals, good infrastructure etc. Unfortunately, we did not have skilled workers or even the labour force as the time went by (people refuse to work in these sectors due to low pay). The investors had no choice but to import foreign workers which resulted in more money than expected being spent. Corruption in the civil service increased the cost further. We did not have minimum wage policy till 2018. We were in the middle-income trap. Instead of investing in k-economy, we were more interested in keeping cost low so that investors will come into the country. We were more interested in having grandiose and delusional ideas of building the tallest, biggest, longest this and that when other countries have moved way beyond that philosophy. Buildings do not make you a developed country, knowledge does. Cronyism became rampant and millions were lost. Unfinished projects were a norm, but the money was gone. All in the name of supporting Bumiputera entrepreneurs. That’s why it is known as “piratisation”! By 1999, when the Asian Financial crisis happened, we were doomed. We never actually recovered since.

Within the country, we were more interested in privatisation, or shall I say “piratisation”. Education and Health should be government’s responsibility. Instead of building more hospitals and recruiting more brains, we were more interested in allowing private hospitals to mushroom. Almost all private hospitals in Malaysia are GLC owned aka government owned, basically government’s left pocket! The public health system was stretched to the maximum with minimum number of staffs to run it, the effect of which can be seen now during the COVID outbreak. “You tak suka, you boleh keluar” motto prevails. Many of the best brains again left to the private sector and overseas. Doctors demanding higher pay? we shall flood the market with doctors! Then came the mushrooming of private medical colleges, which can even run in a shop lot complexes (the first in the world). We currently have the highest number of medical schools’ per capita population in the world. I had written enough about this for the past 10 years. Whatever I predicted since 2006 has come true. I shall not repeat those over here. We are in total mess. The dire need of our healthcare system was exposed by a virus. We are like an emperor with no cloths!

To Be Continued……………

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Post Wawasan 2020: Where to, Malaysia ? Part 1

Posted in Politics on February 3, 2021| 20 Comments »

** a word of caution : this blog post is a general statement /opinion of mine based on facts, looking at what is happening in Malaysia, the country where I grew up. There are sensitive issues discussed, which people may or may not agree. Just keep an open mind and think deeply. It will be in several parts, ending with my story………….***

I was 19 years old when I was sitting in the Parliament on 17/06/1991 listening to our then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad launching the Dasar Pembangunan Nasional (DPN). It was the replacement for Dasar Ekonomi Baru(DEB) which was a 20-year plan introduced in 1971. I was in Upper Six at St Paul’s Institution, Seremban and this was our educational tour as part of our “Pengajian Am” subject. DPN supposed to be part of Wawasan 2020 (1991-2020) to elevate us from a developing country to a developed country. Wawasan 2020 was just introduced 5 months prior on 28/02/1991.

At that young age, listening to the word “Bangsa Malaysia” and becoming a high-income nation was mesmerising. As a student, I wasn’t very much interested in politics then, except to accept the fact that we have something known as Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera terminology. I know that we need to fight to enter local public universities just among the non-Bumiputeras, due to quota system. Among the 3 of my school’s Form 6 Science classes there was only 1 Malay student. Every Malay science student was accepted into matriculation after completing SPM. We accepted the fact that we have to fight for whatever we need as we will never be treated the same. But Wawasan 2020 gave us some hope.

Along the way, the country took the wrong direction. Instead of uniting the people as a single race, we decided to divide it further. Instead of building more public universities to cater for all citizens, we decided to keep the quota system and different entry system into the public universities. We decided to privatise education in 1997 to make more money and to make every single citizen of the country to become a debtor, by making someone else rich. PTPTN was established for both private and public university students. Generally public university fees are heavily subsidised and most do not need to take any loans. Civil service, which forms the backbone of a nation was pre-determined to be run by a single race. From a 40% non-Bumiputera containing civil service in 1970s, we became almost 95% (some say 98%) consisting of a single race. To provide more jobs to people, we became one of the largest civil service in the world, based on population ratio. The financial burden to the country was and is exorbitant.

Malaysia was considered as one of the most successful post-independence countries in the world. Within 30 years after our independence in 1957, we were the most progressive and industrialised country in SEA. We discovered oil in 1970s and formed Petronas in 1974. By the 1980s, we were an oil producing nation. This, together with rubber and oil palm were already making Malaysia a rich country. With industrialisation and investment from Japan etc, we were going in the right direction. We were known as the Tiger of Asia! BUT we have forgotten an important part of our history! Migrants!

One of the reasons I always ask my kids to read about history (not for exams but for knowledge) is because through history you will learn how not to repeat a history. History teaches us a lesson so that we do not do the same thing again. Unfortunately, history nowadays is thought in school as just a “point form” text to pass exams. During my time in 1980s, history books are like story books, not in “point forms”. If anyone bother to read history, you will know that the most successful countries in this world are countries who embraced migrants. They made migrants as part of their country and equal citizens. Every country that chased away migrants after independence has collapsed. Look at the African countries which did this after their independence from colonial power. Every one of them went downhill. Zimbabwe chased away all the whites who were doing farming. It was the biggest agricultural producing nation in Africa at that time. See where they are now. All these farming lands were taken over by cronies of Robert Mugabe and successfully destroyed it for money. Sounds familiar?

Malaysia was gifted with almost 40-45% migrant population at independence. These were migrants who were brought by the British to work at mining sites, roads, railways, plantation etc. They worked hard for pea nut money, many died of infectious diseases but without these migrants, Malaysia would not have been where it was 30 years ago. My grandparents worked in rubber plantations, roads and railways. When they were given citizenship, they were happy and continued to dedicate their life serving the country in whatever capacity they could. The Chinese even helped the military and police to defeat the communist. Who worked as spies for the Malaysian police and military? Without the Chinese help in Malaysia, it would have been impossible to defeat the communist. Malaysia was one of the most successful country in the world to defeat communism. Who thought the children in schools? It was the missionaries and Indians. Most of our teachers in 1970s and 1980s were non-Malays. My Headmaster was an Irish missionary guy, Bro James Macken. Did they not teach our children without any prejudice etc? Racial and religious matters were never an issue. What happened?

In 1981, someone took over the reign of our country. He was a smart doctor and a cunning politician. His motto is very simple. Malaysia belongs to the Malays. Thus, everything that represent Malaysia should be by the Malays (please read his autobiography). These includes the civil service, military, police and sports. Have you ever wondered why we were once a football powerhouse of Asia in 1970s up to mid 1980s, after which we just went downhill? Politics! Many politicians were appointed to sporting agencies. Their duty is to make sure that majority of those who represent Malaysia in sports must come from a single race. Token of appreciation can be given to a few non-Malays. The non-Malays can do whatever they want in the private sector and the government will collect their taxes. Malaysia is the only country in the world that I know which has a different tax structure for civil servants and the rest of the population. Civil servants do not pay any tax for their allowances, which most of the time can be higher than their basic pay (which is the taxable income). But this blame does not go to Dr M. It was by his successor Abdullah Badawi. The government should always set an example as being fair to everyone. Unfortunately, in Malaysia that is not the case.

Nothing was based on merit. Quota system was introduced in the universities in late 1970s (guess who was the education minister?). Matriculation was introduced as a short cut pathway into university for certain race (he himself had admitted this in 2018!). We even have a race-based University, funded by the government via tax payers money! Talent and merits were thrown into the drain, not only in civil service, sports, university intellectuals, graduates but in almost everything that made Malaysia great once. All in the pretext that Malays can do it if given the opportunity (from his autobiography) aka short-cuts. He undermined the very capability of the Malays to succeed on merit. Crony businessmen cropped up overnight with directly negotiated contracts. Open tender became a dirty word. Many instant millionaires of a particular race were created, all in the name of creating Malay entrepreneurs to compete with the Chinese. Did these people help the rest? History would have given you the answer by now. He was a man in a hurry.

In the process, he wasn’t interested on what the non-Bumiputeras wanted. You want to go to university; I give you private university. Sorry, overseas scholarship is not for you except for a few tokens of appreciation. Overseas JPA scholarship to do Medicine and Dentistry was only reserved for Bumiputera till late 1990s. Lower merit individual from certain race were given priority. Obviously, migrants will always find a way around. They will work hard and sell whatever they have to educate their children. They will send their children overseas and ask them not to come back etc. The exodus started in 1980s and still ongoing. Many best brains left the country gradually, not that they want to, but forced to. Our failure is another country’s gain. I wonder why our newspapers keep reporting of “Malaysian born” so and so is a Hollywood director, international star etc. They have left Malaysia and are not even a Malaysian citizen anymore. If at all, we should be ashamed that they did not achieve this for Malaysia. Why did we chase them to be somewhere else achieving their glory?

TO BE CONTINUED………………………………

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For Future Doctors: 2020, the year of the Wawasan……………

Posted in Education, Politics on May 14, 2020| 84 Comments »

I have finally reached another milestone ……… as of 13/01/2020, my blog is 10 years old! Over the past 10 years, I have written hundreds of articles and even published 2 books from these articles! I probably achieved my wawasan by educating the public on what medical field is all about and how the world is changing.

My last article was written on 24/12/2019, just before the new year started. It has been almost 5 months now and the world has changed. In just a short period of time, our lives have gone upside down and we are still looking at months down the line before everything comes back to normal. 2020 suppose to be the year where Wawasan 2020 should have been achieved, transforming Malaysia into a developed nation, but unfortunately we are in a mess with recession coming soon, if not already. We have had 5 months of political drama and a brainless RNA virus terrorising the world. Let’s start with where I left you on 24/12/2019……

Critical Allowance

Based on JPA circular dated 20/12/2019, critical allowance for all new appointments into MOH will be removed. As I mentioned in my article, it is rather unfair when those who are already in the system will continue to receive the allowance but the new ones will be without the allowance. I said unfair because everyone is doing the same job and same amount of work. It does not make any logical sense, while I did predict and expected the allowance to go one day when we have more body than post. Following this announcement, there were huge outcries from various organisation and members of the public. Thus, on 9th January 2020, this proposal was postponed for further review, scheduled to be updated by end of this year. REMEMBER, it is only postponed and not cancelled!

U41 Contract Renewal

As I have written in several articles towards the end of last year, the number of permanent appointments given out following completion of housemanship has been dwindling down from about 500 for the first batch(December 2018 cohort) to almost 0 in subsequent batch(May 2019). This is again not unexpected. KKM simply do not have enough post to offer everyone. The slides below is self explanatory…..

It is very clear that KKM do not have any post to even offer permanent positions. Thus, almost everyone will be given an extended contract which will be the final contract before you say sayonara to KKM. The issue of being offered U41 post instead of U44 has not been resolved either, despite promising to do so in November 2019 by the cabinet, KKM and JPA. The new contracts are still renewed at U41 as of April 2020. On 29th October 2019, I wrote this :

“The best is yet to come: those who receive extension of contract can remain at the same place where they were transferred as a floating officer! In another word (the way I interpret this), your life in civil service ends there within another year aka completing 4 years of compulsory service. It’s just a diplomatic way of putting it !”

Interestingly, this is now proven true when the newer contract renewals categorically says that ” this will be the last contract!” ………

So, basically whoever received the U41 contract extension of 2 years, after their 3 year initial housemen contract, have to start planning their future. I believe this clause was added after the Sarawak doctors debacle that was publicised widely in newspapers in January 2020. These were doctors who returned from overseas in 2017 and was given a 2 year contract to complete their compulsory service. Unfortunately , they were told that their contract would not be renewed. To be frank, no contract is permanent. A contract is a contract and the employer can decide not to renew your contract once it expires. It is the same in any profession including the medical profession. Even in private hospitals, the hospital can decide not to renew your contract if they feel they do not need your service anymore or simply, if they don’t like your face!. It has happened before and there is nothing you can do about it. There is a clear difference between ” termination” and “non-renewal of contract”. While the Sarawak doctor’s contract were finally renewed, to avoid any such scenarios happening again, JPA has now clearly stated the above clause in the newer contracts. So, now no one can claim ignorance.

What about those who received a permanent post? Again, they were given a U41 post! However, they were told that this is due to technical reasons. The U41 permanent post will be backdated to the day they started housemanship and soon, they will receive their promotion to U44 backdated to the day they completed housemanship. Whether this has happened with all the chaos that is going on now, I do not know! We shall wait and see.

In a sudden turn of events in April 2020, about 102 permanent post were created in Sarawak. This could be part of about 1000 post that suppose to be created over the next few years as I wrote in December 2019. So, about 102 of them were sent an urgent email early April 2020 offering them this permanent post in Sarawak and NO appeal will be entertained……..

Whether there is a political reason for this, I got no idea. Based on the report by Codeblue, about 28 of them declined the offer and decided to stay on their final contract appointments. We just have to face the fact that the government will never be able to absorb all graduates. With the current economic situation, the scenario will only get worst. No job is guaranteed in this world. What is happening in Malaysia, is also happening in many developed countries but at-least, these countries have a better control over the number of graduates being produced, unlike Bolehland.

COVID-19

The world is yet again faced with another Pandemic. I would say that this is the 4th viral outbreak I am facing in my 23 years working as a doctor. It started with SARS in 2003 followed by H1N1, MesCOV and now COVID 19. Facing these viruses or any infectious diseases are part of our occupational hazard. I know many doctors who have contracted infectious diseases and some even succumbed to the illness. So, those who think that doctor’s job is sitting in a cozy room and earning big bucks, please think again. We are not only at risk of being infected with a disease but also high litigation rate and verbal insults.

We may be considered as a hero at the moment for tirelessly facing this pandemic. But trust me, once all this is over, we will be back to square one. No one will even remember what you did. That is the reality out there. But COVID 19 also thought us a lot of other lessons. The Earth is breathing better and animals seem to be enjoying their life. We must understand that the entire ecological system on Earth lives in a balance. It evolved over millions of years keeping everything in an absolute balance. The very fact that we produce CO2 and plants converts it back to O2 proves this balance. BUT humans are always greedy. We feel we can do anything to mother earth and get away with it. I had always said this to my children ” Never play with nature, take care of it. If not, nature will always get back to you!” COVID 19 just proves how nature can get back to you. A simple brainless RNA virus can shut down everything on EARTH! Viruses have been around before humans came about. So, never play with nature. Stop destroying nature and learn to live in harmony. As Sir David Attenborough said in one of his famous documentary “ If you kill a whale in the ocean, the entire ocean ecology changes!” If there are no animals which eat insects, the world will be overrun by insects, which by the way have the highest population number in the world.

What else has this pandemic thought us? Good hygiene and social distancing keep doctors away! Many would have realised that there has been 70-80% drop in the number of cases attending private hospitals and GP clinics. Some GP clinics have even decided to close their clinic as their income has dropped drastically. It is better to close than to continue to maintain the running of the clinic. Private consultant’s income has definitely taken a beating. With lock-down, there were hardly any accidents. People were afraid to go to hospitals as they were worried of getting infected in the hospital. Social distancing, stay at home and good hygiene has drastically dropped the rate of infectious diseases like URTI, respiratory infections and gastroenteritis which generally forms the bulk of private hospitals admissions. Elective cases has also been postponed. It just shows that any job can be affected if something like this happens. It happens in all outbreaks but COVID 19 has been the worst. The only job which will continue to be not affected are civil service jobs! The government has no choice but to keep civil service running and paid. While you may end up taking a pay cut eventually, you will still get paid. In fact you will even get Raya goodies!

BTW, KKM has also offered 6 months contract jobs for those who are interested to be the frontliners. Specialist will be paid RM 12K/month and MOs will be paid RM 6K/month. I understand the offer is not available anymore. I heard some GPs did take up the offer.

Democracy

On 9th May 2018, everyone thought that Malaysia has woken up. In my article titled ” Towards Malaysia Baru?” on 4th June 2018, I wrote this

“With all the euphoria that we are having now, it is just too early to say how this new government will perform. Statistic shows that Pakatan only received 48% of the votes with BN & PAS taking 52% of the votes. Pakatan won in many areas due to split votes. PAS benefited from split votes in Kelantan and Terengganu. Personally, I feel that the Pakatan government is not really in a very stable situation. Tides can change by next election if they do not outperform the previous government by leaps and bounds.”

Again my words have come through! One of my friends told me to stop predicting anything as everything I predict seem to be happening again and again. The Sheraton move on 27/02/2020 and subsequent fall of PH is something I expected to happen sooner or later. The politics in Malaysia is as such. Everything is tied to race and religion. Whoever plays the right card, will win. Who cares about corruption and good governance? Whatever said and whatever mockery that has happened to Malaysian democracy, the country seem to be going downhill. Years of brain drain and racial politics will only take this country to the dungeon. With COVID 19, fall in oil price and dry coffers, we are surely heading into a recession and disaster. Never in world history I have heard of a 1 day Parliament sitting with nothing more than the royal address! It is the joke of the century.

After 10 years of writing this blog, I hope readers would have learnt something. My predictions are all based on facts and statistics. It is not rocket science!

Have a blessed Ramadan and SELAMAT HARI RAYA………………………. a different Raya I must say………….

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For Future Doctors: RISE OF PALPATINE……………Welcome to 2020

Posted in Politics on December 24, 2019| 166 Comments »

It has been more than a month since I last wrote an article which caused a storm among the medical fraternity. My article prompted Codeblue to publish what I had written, in their portal, which was subsequently brought to the attention of the Minister. During the initial press conference , MOH officials claimed that the salary difference between U41 and U44/43 contract officers are merely RM100-200 which is definitely not correct. The total difference when allowances are included will be in the range of RM 1000. Subsequently MMA made several press statements and had several meetings with MOH and MOF. After much discussion, MOH/Cabinet sort of agreed that they will “discuss” with JPA to renew the contract under U43/44 for those who have completed housemanship and did not receive permanent position. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, till today no such change has been made. Probably they are still discussing.

Subsequently, the cabinet has agreed for approval of new posts for MOH which has been frozen since 2014. The new posts will be for the newer facilities that are in the pipeline for MOH. On 2/12/2019, JPA issued a circular that about 10 675 new posts will be created for MOH within the next couple of years. Before everyone get excited, please be informed that these posts include all category of staffs. I was informed that only about 1000 post are for doctors. With 5-6000 doctors graduating annually, it is once again very obvious that most of the graduates will not be receiving a permanent post in KKM. The Minister once again has reiterated this in the Parliament few weeks ago that MOH will not be able to provide jobs to all graduates. It is a fact and it is also the fact in many other countries.

Then, out of no where, the cabinet suddenly decided that doctor’s consultation fees (not procedure fee) will be deregulated. This caught everyone by surprise as the GPs have been fighting to increase their regulated fee for years. I have written  about this few months ago. Just before the decision, MMA was informed that the government did not agree to increase the fee. However, I feel this is just the tip of the iceberg that we are seeing. I feel something big is coming along the way. With doctors flooding the market by 2020, the government got nothing to loose. Doctors will be undercutting and fighting among themselves to survive. If doctors are not united (which has never been) the biggest beneficiary would be TPAs/Insurance companies. Now, these fellows will go around doctor shopping for the best rate in town. It is called market force. Let the market force decide! With the deregulation, all clinics must display their consultation charges clearly in their clinic for patients to decide whether they want to see the doctor or not. It will become an offence if you don’t do so. I smell something is coming………… the Sith lords are never without a bigger plan………

Over the last 10-15 years, many of my predictions have come true. Mushrooming of medical schools producing thousands of medical graduates with questionable quality flooding the market and eventual unemployment in civil sector was predicted by me almost 15 years ago. It is all based on simple mathematical calculation. I am not Nostradamus! Limited postgraduate pathways due to this has been mentioned many times by me. I also spoke about the increasing waiting time for internship and internship under contract in 2014 when the actual implementation came about in 2016. Almost everything eventually happened, just the timing varied. In my MMA article 2011 & 2012 and my blog posts as well as in my books (2016), I had said that there will come a time when the Critical allowance for doctors will be removed! Critical allowance is given when you have more post than body. It is reviewed every 5 years. It use to be 5% of your basic salary till 2001 when it was increased to RM 500 by the Finance Minister who was also the PM at that time , who is also our current PM! He is also responsible in introducing this allowance when SSB was announced in 1992. Subsequently, these amount was increased to RM 750 in 2007 when the last review was undertaken.

On 20/12/2019, once again my prediction has come true. JPA issued a circular dated 20/12/2019 stating that the Critical allowance will be removed for all new appointments effective 1/01/2020. WAWASAN 2020 has been achieved! We have enough doctors to serve, we have enough civil servants, no category is considered critical anymore as we have more bodies than post. Unfortunately, we are not a developed nation yet! Interestingly, the PM who initiated Wawasan 2020 lived long enough to see himself becoming the PM again in 2020, not achieving what he envisioned. What is rather amusing is the fact that those who are already in service will continue to receive the RM750 critical allowance till they retire or resign. So, the newcomers will be doing the same amount of work but receiving a lower pay. But then, “you tak suka, you boleh keluar bukak klinik lor…………” it is called market force……….. supply and demand, more supply than demand, employer calls the shot! You have to thank your lucky stars to be even given a job!

“Hit me with all your anger, use your lightsaber and I shall become stronger and the most powerful resurrected Sith of all time………”

Welcome to the Rise of Palpatine …………………. where the dark lord rules………………once and for all…………..

 

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year 2020…………………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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For Future Doctors: Either we change or we die a slow death…………

Posted in Education, Politics on June 18, 2019| 37 Comments »

11th of June 2019 was supposedly a uniting day for all our GP friends in Malaysia. It was the day when our new Minister had a town hall meeting with almost 1000 GPs from all over Malaysia. It all started when the Minister made a statement about a month ago that the Cabinet has approved drug price control and currently under review for implementation. This triggered an uproar among the GPs whose consultation fee is already regulated and capped under Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act (PHFSA) 1998. Schedule 7 which controls consultation fee for GPs has capped the maximum price at Rm 35! This has been as such since 1998 but the act came into force in 2006. The hospital doctors on the other hand had a review in 2013 and Schedule 13th was amended with roughly 15% increment, starting 2014.

What are my views and take on these issues? Well, my comments, even in the past, had created a lot of negative feedbacks from fellow doctors. But as I had always said, I call a spade , a spade! Just look at the public feedback in Facebook etc when the above town hall meeting was reported. Videos of our GP colleagues venting their frustration was shown live and recorded by various media. Did you really expect the public to show sympathy? The answer is a BIG NO! For the public, doctors are sitting in a cozy air-conditioned room and earning tonnes of money! Only when their own kid ventures into becoming a doctor, hoping to live a glamorous life, they realise the actual life as a doctor! The hours of work, training, exams, risk taken, litigation etc before you can even think of earning a decent living.

Having said that, generally a doctor can still earn a living as long as they can get an internship post and complete their training. However, the era of earning tonnes of money and being “rich” is gone and going…….Our income will be similar to any other profession, allowing us to live a life. If you are still thinking that spending RM 500 000 to RM 1 million to be a doctor is going to give you a luxury life, think again! Jobless scenario is already happening in many countries.

Now, coming back to GPs. The day you open a private clinic, it is a business, period!Same goes to private specialist. In any business, there are gains and there are loss. Some businesses closes down and some businesses thrive and even become global players. Business is a business, nothing differentiates you than anyone else. Unfortunately , health is an essential service. Health and Education are 2 components in any country which should be the government’s responsibility. I have said and maintained this statement since I started this blog. Many may not know that the PHFSA 1998 was actually tabled and passed in the Parliament in anticipation of corporatisation of health care in this country. The corporatisation of healthcare aka National Health Financing Scheme was suppose to be implemented in 1999 as the last corporatisation exercise of Dr M! Everything was ready on paper.Unfortunately, the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim and subsequent reformasi etc totally shut down the plan till today.

Frankly I don’t agree with controlling of consultation fee. Let the market force decide. BUT healthcare is an essential service and thus the government need to be responsible. Thus, in Malaysia, they control it via the Malaysia Boleh way! Same goes in any other country as well. You may think that in other countries, the government do not control the consultation fee. On paper , yes but they do control it in another voluntary way. Their National Health Financing Scheme(NHFS) that pays for all the consultation/procedure fee do have a limit and standardised payment system. Anything more than that, the patient has to pay out of their own pocket. Public being public, obviously they will choose a doctor that only bills what the NHFS pays. NO one will ever want to pay out of their own pocket! In some countries, the doctors can only accept what the NHFS pays which is basically a fee control mechanism where everyone technically is a civil servant. Even in Australia, many patients prefer to visit the “bulk-billing” doctors (accepting Medicare fee) rather than cash billing doctors.

The GPs were arguing that they are only allowed to charge a maximum of RM35 for the last 21 years. Now, just look at the comments from the public in FB etc. You, me and all members of the public knows that a simple consultation and medication by a GP will cost RM 50-70 and in some cities, can even reach RM 100! Patients are smarter nowadays. Even my patients will go to a pharmacy and ask for the cost of the medications. Similarly, many cash paying patients would do that and will know the actual cost of the meds given by the GP. So, do you think they believe that you are charging only maximum of RM 35? You may argue all you want about the cost of running the clinic etc, but a business is a business! NO one cares whether you are running at a lost or not. No one believes the notion that you are providing a service to public. Didn’t you become a doctor to help man-kind and provide service (aka free service)?

I found that one of the main issue that was discussed the other day was about TPA (Third Party Administrators). Many were arguing that TPAs are only paying RM 10-15 per consultation and wants the government to make sure that they pay RM35 per consultation. Now, let’s go back to my statement above. It is a business! TPA goes around to negotiate the best deal in town. So, the person who is WILLING to take the offer will sign an agreement with the TPA. A business deal! So why are we complaining? You signed it and agreed to it but complain later? We all know that many GPs are dependent on TPAs. Almost 60-70% of a GP’s income comes from TPAs. Without TPA, many more GPs will close shop. This is similar to private hospitals. 95% of hospital admissions are medical card holders. If insurance companies go bankrupt, all private specialist will be out of jobs! That is the fact. So, TPAs can “tarik-harga” . Unless the GPs can unite and state their demands, no TPA is going to entertain your request. By 2021, the market is going to be flooded by GPs when 50-60% of doctors(roughly about 2000-3000 per year) completing their compulsory service not going to be absorbed into civil service. You think the TPA is going to symphatise you? They will be having a jolly good time of GP shopping! And don’t forget the “uberisation” of healthcare where even those who are waiting for housemanship seem to be giving “online” or phone advise!

Even if the government removes the fee schedule, how much do you think you can charge a patient? How much a patient is willing to pay out of his/her pocket? Under-cutting and bad-mouthing is going to be rampant and again TPAs will have the same modus operandi. They will continue to negotiate a deal for the cheapest possible GP. That is business and everyone wants to make the maximum profit.So, if you agreed and signed for it, you have no basis to complain. The government is not going to interfere with that.

I really felt that most of the arguments that were forwarded during the town hall meeting were emotional in nature. I was watching it live on FB and was putting myself as a member of the public. What I saw was just doctors arguing to make more money! And that was exactly how the public felt as seen in many comments on FB etc. Bringing politics into the picture made it even worst! Whatever political ideology we have, we should keep it among ourselves and should not display it publicly, as we are dealing with members of the public who may have different political ideology. Even more shocking and surprising for me was when one of the speakers rejected Universal Health Care! Lucky the MMA president came with a statement 2 days ago that MMA and all medical associations had signed Declaration Titiwangsa in support of Universal Health Care.

When 1Care was mooted in 2012, the GPs went against it as well, mainly because of dispensing separation. It was scheduled to be implemented in 2014 but the 2013 election results made it to be shelved indefinitely. We have to admit that it is the dispensing rights that the GPs have which is giving them the survival. With limited consultation fee, they make profit from dispensing medications. IF this is removed, more GPs will close shop and become unemployed. This was the reason why GPs were shocked and reacted when the Minister announced last month that drug price control mechanism will be implemented. To me, I support the drug price control mechanism. We have to look at the public and see what benefits them. Working in a private hospital, I very well know how the hospital mark-up the medication prices. Some are up to 100% mark-up, especially for inpatients. That’s the reason I don’t like to give generic medications to patients as the organisation that makes the most profit will be the hospital. The cheaper the drug, the higher the mark-up. I rather ask the patient to buy from a pharmacy via a prescription slip from me. As for a GP, having a price written at the box may reduce their overall charge.

Now, let’s come to the solution! WE have to change and move forward. We can’t be harping on the same model that we have been doing since the 1960s! The world is changing and many countries have moved on to new models. Whether these new models are better or worst is something to be decided later. We have to move to a win-win situation, for the GPs, doctors in general, government and the public. Our healthcare system is not sustainable. I have said this many times before. Two parallel system running concurrently, competing against each other for an essential service is doomed to fail. We have a public system totally funded by tax payers and a private system almost 80% funded by insurance (aka out of pocket). The insurance companies are also bleeding in billions and the only reason they are still providing medical cards is because it is mandatory under Bank Negara rules. If not, which company wants to continue a loss making business?

The way forward for a GP to have a lifeline is to have a National Health Financing Scheme which will integrate  public and private healthcare system. This is the only way you are going to survive and have a decent living. You may not make tonnes of money but at least you can earn a living. With the NHFS, GPs will be paid by the scheme with an agreed fee. GPs can charge extra with removal of fee capping but how many patients will be willing to pay out of pocket is something we need wait and see. Eventually, most GPs will do bulk billing! It will come with a price. Dispensing separation will become inevitable with NHFS, where subsidised or fully funded medications by the NHFS will have to go through a dedicated pharmacy. But the overall cost of running a clinic will drop as you do not need to employ staffs to dispense or to run an in-house pharmacy. GPs have to form group practices like in many other countries. The NHFS may have to pay higher fees for a specialist GP which will make more GPs to upgrade themselves. Sometimes I feel very sad when I attend CME talks to see the same GP’s faces all the time! And guess what, most of them are senior GPs! The younger ones are hardly seen as they are busy trying to run their clinic.

With the NHFS paying the consultation, procedure fee and medications, there are bound to be audits. Again, this is nothing new as most countries with NHFS do such audits. You will have feedback audits, prescription practise audits and even average consultation fee audits. The number of patients you can see a day may be limited in the context of quality care. Prescription of certain drugs like opiates, steroids , antibiotics etc will be monitored. At the moment, these are never audited and the GPs can do whatever they want. Do we even have the data of total usage of antibiotics by GPs in Malaysia? We do have data from KKM and private hospitals but not from GPs as there are no laws to mandate GPs to be audited for such usage. IN any system there should be check and balance and doctors are not or should not be exempted. Unethical practices will rise if these issues are not kept in check, as what is happening increasingly in private hospitals.

There is no point arguing with the government when it comes to essential services. A government’s duty is to provide such service to public. Just see what happened when education was privatised! We made someone rich by making the public to go into debts!While the NHFS will have to get the money from the public in the form of premiums plus funding from the government, at least it will distribute the health service to a united system. Patients can go anywhere without paying anything and the GPs will be able to get the load with lower overhead cost, enough to have a job to survive.

Either we change to live a reasonable decent life or we die a slow death……. it’s our choice.

 

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Towards Malaysian Baru ?

Posted in Politics on June 4, 2018| 8 Comments »

It has been almost 3 months since I last updated my blog. I had to travel a lot during these 3 months and a lot of personal issues to settle. But one thing I never forget or miss, is to vote! I have voted in every election since 1995 except in 1999 where I could not go back as I was on-call(at that time my voting station was in Seremban before I changed to Johor for 2008 election). This year’s election was the mother of all elections and the verdict was something I had never expected. I never expected BN to fall in my life time! The most I expected was to give BN a close simple majority to win. I also never expected Johor to fall and close to winning 2/3 majority by Pakatan. While I stood awake till 4am in the morning of 10/05/2018, i could not resist the tears that flowed through my eyes when I saw the people of Malaysia waking up and voting out a government that has been in power for 61 years.

I had always supported a 2 party system. It is a system that is in place in most western countries or matured democracies. The people have the power to decide which coalition party will rule the country. In any such countries, you will see that the people will change the government every 5-10 years. This will keep the ruling party on their toes and never to underestimate the power of the people. Once they fall, their dirt will be washed in public as what you can see happening right now in Malaysia. So, in the future no party can hide anything for long. It will benefit the people in long run.

So, what are we to expect from this new government. To be frank, I don’t expect much in 5 years. There are a lot of things that need to be corrected over a short period of time. First and foremost, I feel the new government should put a system in place that will prevent any form of power abuse. AG, MACC, EC chairman etc should be elected by Parliament and made answerable to the Parliament. MACC should be given power to prosecute. These people should face the Parliament to answer questions from both side. Prime Minister’s term should be limited and Finance Minister should never be the Prime Minister.

WE should not forget that the mess that this country is in now, and abused to the maximum by the previous PM was created by our current 7th Prime MInister! I had written enough about this in my earlier articles way back in 2010. I had mentioned how DR M’s social engineering and Malay nationalist ideas destroyed the future of this country. However, he did develop this country into an economic power house which benefited many people. Unfortunately, as smart as he is, he never expected or foresee that his very own people will misuse the system that he created. I just hope that in his last few years of life, he had realised his mistakes and do what is necessary. I had always said to many people that GOD will make sure that DR M will live long enough to see the damage that he has done to this country. GOD is great!

Many people asked me whether anything will change to the medical field. Firstly, I don’t think the long waiting period of medical graduates for employment will change anytime soon. With the current financial situation of the country, it is unlikely that the new government can create more post or even build more hospitals. With increasing number of graduates from this year( where all medical schools will be producing graduates), the waiting period will only get longer. However, one thing that the new Education Minister can do is to tighten the entry qualification into the medical program. By doing this and making the accreditation process tougher, many medical schools (especially the smaller “shop-lot” ones) will undergo slow death due to lack of enrolment. Over the last 2 -3 years, many medical schools already struggling to meet the required number of students.Imagine increasing the entry criteria to 5A’s in SPM with higher CGPA in Pre-U courses. Hopefully, this measure will slowly reverse the current situation over the next 5-10 years. Remember, the mess that we are in now was created almost 14 years ago!

If even the Ministers’ have to take pay-cuts, I don’t expect any pay rise to civil servants in near future. Probably once the country’s economic status is better, we can expect some pay rise. What I would like to see is a complete restructuring of the Malaysian Healthcare System. The current system of having public and private healthcare system running parallel to each other is not sustainable in long run. The government would not be able to sustain the increasing healthcare cost and maintaining an almost free healthcare system. On the other hand, the private health insurance companies would not be able to sustain the private health sector. Our private health sector is almost 90% funded by the private health insurance. I use to tell my friends that if the private health insurance collapses, I will become jobless!

I would really like to see a proper integration of public and private healthcare sector via a National Health Financing Scheme. This should include the GPs, private hospitals, KKs and public hospitals. WE have enough doctors but maldistribution is the issue. BY having such a system, maldistribution between private and public sector can be reduced. Eventually, this will also reduce the maldistribution between urban and rural areas.

With all the euphoria that we are having now, it is just too early to say how this new government will perform. Statistic shows that Pakatan only received 48% of the votes with BN & PAS taking 52% of the votes. Pakatan won in many areas due to split votes. PAS benefited from split votes in Kelantan and Terengganu. Personally, I feel that the Pakatan government is not really in a very stable situation. Tides can change by next election if they do not outperform the previous government by leaps and bounds.

Whatever said, politics in Malaysia will NEVER be the same anymore………

 

SELAMAT HARI RAYA 2018 TO EVERYONE………

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