[lg policy] Malaysia: When a particular mentality affects public policy

Sun Jul 9 20:48:48 UTC 2017

 When a particular mentality affects public policy

Sunday July 9, 2017

Tool
[image: Zurairi AR] <http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/>
Zurairi AR is a humanist and sceptic who believes in doing good for
goodness' sake. He tweets for believers and non-believers alike at
@zurairi.

JULY 9 — If you wish to understand how much power the status quo wields
over the country’s policies, look no further than how easily the healthcare
system
<http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/article/when-a-particular-mentality-affects-public-policy#>
was swayed over the mere issue of language.

According to the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), Putrajaya’s
insistence that contract house officers have SPM-level Bahasa Malaysia (BM)
qualification could force some affected graduates to wait two years before
they may be employed.

As it is, president Dr Ravindran Naidu said medical graduates with no such
qualification have already been waiting for placement since last year.

Potentially, this could further affect medical graduates from continuing
their career for years to come, compounding
<http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/article/when-a-particular-mentality-affects-public-policy#>
the problem of distribution of doctors across the country, and an overhang
of supply of graduates.

And it all started, as always, as a knee jerk reaction.

The complaint had predictably come from the ethno-religionists; from
pro-Malay groups like Umno Youth, its Umno Overseas Club alumni, Perkasa,
to Islamists like PAS, ABIM and Pembina.

Among the complaints given were that the BM requirement waiver will result
in doctors who are unable to communicate with patients.

Of course, this is a strawman argument. Not having SPM-level qualification
does not in any way imply that someone cannot already speak Malay, just as
having the cert does not mean you will be competent in speaking and
comprehending the language — especially when it comes to serving patients.

Yes, BM is important when dealing with Malay patients, but does an SPM
certification acquired back in school — for housemen, it would be at least
six years back — help with that?

Nor does it mean that doctors are “too stupid” or “too arrogant” to pass the
exam
<http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/article/when-a-particular-mentality-affects-public-policy#>
.

It just means that someone does not follow the national education system,
no less, no more.

In this case, the policy was waived as a response to over 20 graduates
waiting for their placement because they did not attend school in Malaysia,
some of them children of diplomats.

[image: Putrajaya Hospital... the country needs qualified doctors to serve
in its hospitals, but the latest kerfuffle over an SPM BM requirement is
throwing a spanner into the works. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng]Putrajaya
Hospital... the country needs qualified doctors to serve in its hospitals,
but the latest kerfuffle over an SPM BM requirement is throwing a spanner
into the works. — Picture by Saw Siow FengDespite some irresponsible
reporting, it should be noted that the waiver was not made because they are
children of diplomats, it just so happens that children of diplomats do not
go to school here. And why would they when they cannot live here?

And as several doctors have told *Malay Mail Online*, speaking Malay is
nowhere near half of the job of doctors. In real life, patients come in all
languages and dialects — those posted to rural areas would inevitably have
to learn to master a rudimentary understanding of whatever language, and
failing that, rely on other doctors or staff to translate.

It may be hard for the Malay supremacists to understand, but Malay doctors
who do well do sometimes have to learn Chinese dialects as well as part of
their job.

And that still does not count the many other languages you have to deal
with when it comes to foreign workers and tourists.

Compare this with how it was reported in 2015 that over 1,000 medical
graduates had quit their ambitions to become doctors due to poor English.
Truth is, when it comes to a science field, the language of reference is
still English.

The confusion among the detractors of the Health Ministry’s decision to
waive the SPM-level BM requirement stems from the failure to understand the
contract system offered by the Health Ministry starting late last year.

Now, medical graduates would be given a contract of two years to complete
their housemanship, and if chosen, can continue their contract for a
further two years of compulsory service under the Health Ministry.

It is only then they would be absorbed into a permanent position within the
ministry, if they are capable. Without the two years of housemanship, and
the two years of compulsory service, graduates cannot even practise
medicine.

Many will not even continue serving the government. They would go on to
private practice, or may not even serve as doctors at all.

These are the people affected by the waiver. Those who enter permanent
service would still be required to have the SPM-level BM qualification.

Hence there is no issue of BM being sidelined in civil service at all,
despite claims by detractors.

But without the waiver, the graduates are essentially stuck, unable to
continue practising even when they do not aim to serve in public service at
all.

The waiver is not even a new thing, as it has been applied to foreign
medical officers or physicians
<http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/article/when-a-particular-mentality-affects-public-policy#>,
and contract medical officers all this while.

There is no question about it: BM is the national language. And by right,
all Malaysians should be able to speak and write it due to its inclusion in
the national education system. Just like how Malaysians have learned
English in school, there is no excuse to not being able to use both
languages.

But when it comes to respecting BM, how that is actually being carried out
is ultimately shallow.

There is little recognition and support for authors and writers who write
in BM, what more if you are not a Malay. Even the evolution of the
language, by preferring certain English loan words over reusing archaic
words or inventing portmanteau has resulted in a slightly ugly modernist BM.

The call for the use of BM as a way of uniting the nation rings hollow when
there is so much divide-and-conquer happening in the public sphere.

When it comes to a national identity, we did not follow Indonesia by only
having one new identity, one people that speaks Bahasa Indonesia — no
matter what their ethnicities
<http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/article/when-a-particular-mentality-affects-public-policy#>
or culture.

We also did not follow Singapore by having a melting pot with all four BM,
Mandarin, Tamil, and English recognised as national languages and
represented in public.

The pro-Bumiputera lobby would call for a single-stream school in Malay by
abolishing vernacular schools, but they would not surrender
Bumiputera-exclusive institutions, nor would they agree to the abolition of
taxpayer-funded Islamic schools and the *pondok* stream.

There may be a reason for that. At the core of the matter, the
ethno-religionists do not wish for a shared identity that all Malaysians
can adopt, or the equality of all ethnic identities. What the status quo
wishes is for the supremacy of one language, culture, and religion to
dominate over others and in time displace them.

As long as supremacists are given leeway, and in turn decide public policy,
we should never expect racial unity in this country.

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/zurairi-ar/article/when-a-particular-mentality-affects-public-policy

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