Exam In Malaysia For All Overseas Medical Graduates. A Devious Ploy?

A Bernama report today states that all medical graduates who studied overseas may have to sit for a local examination before they are allowed to practise in Malaysia.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said the ministry planned to introduce the examination and was discussing the matter with the Malaysian Medical Council.

"Presently, we recognise 344 universities in the medical field. We cannot continue to recognise many more because we have to assess them from time to time and in terms of our capacity, we are unable to go beyond 344 universities," he told reporters here today.

Earlier, he opened the Federation of Alumni Associations of Taiwan Universities' general meeting.

Dr Chua said that although the country was facing a shortage of doctors, the government still had to emphasise and defend the quality of doctors so that the people have confidence in them. "If one day, even Malaysians are not confident with their own doctors, it will disappoint us. So, we should not focus on quantity... standard is more important," he said.

He said that off late, the decline in the quality of medical practitioners among the young was visibly clear. Among the causes were the attitude and commitment of medical students who took up the course not because of interest or have deep knowledge on the field but because they believed had to become a doctor after obtaining excellent results in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia or Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia examination, he said.

"We have implemented a programme where we expose them to a hospital for only five days and we saw that after five days, 10 per cent gave up the course," he said.

Dr Chua also said that so far, the government had recognised eight Taiwan universities and 250 of the graduates had registered to become doctors.

***** The country has been extremely well served by overseas medical graduates all these years. Many of those who hold foreign qualifications are the ones who have mostly been by-passed due to a very unfair quota system which gives preference to race rather than merit. They had no choice but to leave home at a young age and study in unfamiliar surroundings to realize their ambition. They more than others know the meaning of adversity and the need to work extra hard in order to succeed and survive in a patently unjust climate prevailing here at 'home'. Now after all that effort and sacrifice on the part of the new graduate and his family, the government elects to impose yet another hurdle, one which is suspicious and of doubtful motive.

If the CLP exams introduced to sift overseas trained lawyers is anything to go by, then we can expect these medical graduates to fall like ninepins. Medicine is such a vast field that any nasty examiner or one with an agenda can ask questions which even the best can't answer. It would not be entirely wrong to say that even medical students can formulate questions which could stump their very examiners! Moreover there will definitely be serious reservations about who sets the questions and who conducts the clinical examinations. In a country like ours where race and racism are of paramount significance, it would be naive to expect total fairness from the authorities. One Chinese swallow (of a Health Minister) does not make a summer (of fair and just exams.) His writ runs only at the top levels of the ministry and not at the implementation level of examinations.

It is ironical that Chua Soi Lek should say that "we should not focus on quantity, standard is more important!" It's not a national secret that our local standards have plunged disastrously over the past several decades and one main reason apart from the lax entry standards for Bumis is the fixation with numbers. More Malay doctors equals progress and something for the government to crow about at Umno general assemblies. If anyone has thrown quality out through the window and fiercely embraced quantity, it is the local medical education establishment. Even some foreign experts who have been commissioned to assess our faculties and have given unfavourable reports and adverse findings have been muzzled and sent packing on the first flight out of the country.

It is best to consider this issue very carefully before embarking on a trail of vengeance and slaughter. As long as there is uncertainty and distrust of the government in the actions, decisions and rationale for such an exam, no real good can come from it. If there is doubt on their quality, you can be sure that there is much more misgivings about many local graduates too. How often do you find an overseas graduate refusing to touch patients, use pens in lieu of their hands and not conversant in English? In the eyes of the public this will be seen as yet another racist attempt by the authorities to prevent non-Malays from overcoming their handicap locally. The perception will be that not only are they prevented by unjust rules and regulations from attaining academic qualifications of their liking here, but even on graduating from elsewhere, the government will still go the extra mile to somehow disqualify them from practicing, thereby creating a monopoly for the people of their choice.

Are these young people destined to be bus and lorry drivers despite their qualifications? The government must think so.
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