MMC spurns Najib’s ‘directive’

The only reason the Malaysian Medical Council de-registered the Crimea State Medical University in 2005 was because majority of its Malaysian students were Indians.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), it appears, has chosen to ignore Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s directive to reinstate Crimea State Medical University (CSMU) which is situated in Ukraine.

According to a set of documents forwarded to FMT by an insider from MMC, Najib had ‘penned’ his support for the reinstatement CSMU in 2010. The university was de-recognised by MMC in 2005.

Najib’s intervention followed Koperasi Pekida Malaysia Bhd (Perkida) letter to the premier on Dec 9, 2010 requesting that CSMU be re-instated.

Pekida raised its concern to support more than 300 Malay students studying at the university at that time and that the cost of acquiring a medical degree from CSMU was much cheaper compared to other countries and would benefit poor students dreaming to become doctors.

Following Perkida’s letter, PM’s private secretary Mohd Po’ad Jelani had on Dec 10, 2010 sent an official letter to MMC informing them of PM’s decision to reinstate CSMU.

Other Indian-based organisations too have asked the government to reinstate CSMU as most of the Malaysian students at the university are from the Indian community.

MMC however had ignored Najib’s ‘directive’ and has until now not taken any steps to reinstate CSMU.

“It is a crystal clear that MMC is practising a racist policy despite, Najib having taken a strong step to help the poor students, especially the Indians, have access to affordable quality educational opportunities abroad,” the insider said.

According to the insider, former Health Ministry director-general Dr Mohd Ismail Merican and MMC secretary Dr Wan Mazlan Mohd Woojdy had allegedly acted on their whims and fancies, at times even defying the prime minister’s directive.

Incriminating ‘racists’ evidence

When the university was de-recognised by MMC in 2005, the then MIC secretary-general S Sothinathan had raised the issue in parliament, calling the government’s decision as unfair to the Indian students.

As a result, the deputy health minister was suspended for three months from his government post for criticising the government’s the decision.

The then MIC president, S Samy Vellu also had slammed MMC and described it as a move to prevent more Indians from becoming doctors.

But MMC argued that the decision was made as some CSMU graduates in the government service had poor grasp of English.

Since then the public and ministers in both MIC and MCA have pleaded to the government to recognise the university.

“The people are in the dark over why MMC is adamant about not recognising the university,” the insider said.

The insider also pointed out that that Wan Mazlan had written to the CSMU administration asking for a detailed breakdown of the ethnicity of the Malaysian students.

“The letter is a solid proof that MMC is discriminating against the Indians. At the time of Wan Mazlan writing the letter, 1,000 of the 1,600 Malaysian students who had graduated from CSMU were Indian. And this is since 2001 when the university opened its door to Malaysians,” said the insider.

Why the insistence?

The insider also pointed out that Najib had sent MMC another letter in April this year asking for an update on developments with CSMU.

“As far as I know, until today there is no proper answer from MMC,” said the insider .

The insider said that there is no reason for MMC not to to reinstate CSMU.

“They (MMC) approved Lincoln University College (LUC) to run offshore programmes in three Ukrainian medical universities.

“What is the rational behind MMC’s stand on CSMU, when they can make u-turns on other universities? asked the insider.

Previously, in 2005 Dr Ismail Merican also announced that the government would not recognise medical programmes offered by 10 other universities in Ukraine.

FMT reported that MMC gave LUC the green light to run offshore medical programmes in three Ukrainian medical universities.

The catch was that the students have to pay an extra RM70,000 each to be exempted from sitting for Medical Qualification Exam (MQE) as all the three universities are not recognised by Public Service Department (PSD).

[Photo 2 from CSMU website]