If UiTM won’t budge, look to Sarawak, other unis or IJN

 

Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) has decided that it won’t open up its campus to admit non-Bumiputeras to study and qualify as cardiothoracic specialists.

No surprise there. UiTM dismissively mentioned the matter wasn’t even brought up for discussion at any of its governance forums. Even their student association’s 214 members have voted 100% in agreement with that.

So, everyone over there considers this a win.

Shades of Kim Jong Un aside, their message is clear – we shall not waver in protecting our special status as a Bumiputera-only institution, and by extension, our protection of the 3Rs of race, religion and royalty.

I’m not royalty, but I do tick the race and religion boxes. I’ve commented on this matter previously and somehow feel I and my three readers deserve some replies from UiTM.

Here’s what I’d like to know. I’m fully aware this is an emotional matter so I’m not expecting much reason or logic to come my way. But any answer at all would be nice.

Why wasn’t the matter brought up for discussion at all by UiTM? The country is begging for a solution that can literally save the lives of some of our fellow citizens, and UiTM didn’t even bother to spend a few hours of their bigwigs’ time to discuss it?

Don’t they pay allowances for such meetings?

Of course, the decision wouldn’t have been different had they had those meetings. The people whom UiTM cares for are not you and me, but rather those who want to hear their privileges will not be affected.

That explains the lack of discussion, even if it doesn’t excuse the harsh and dismissive content and tone of UiTM’s responses.

But at least had they met and discussed it, we would get to hear their reasoning. The rakyat have the right to hear from UiTM, being a public institution funded by taxpayers.

Instead, we got some generic statements quoting various laws, as if those laws prevent UiTM from making an exception.

Had I wanted to hear the invoking of this-and-that law, I could’ve gone to the counter clerks at the local district council instead.

Apparently the cardiothoracic master’s degree programme is offered jointly with the publicly-funded Institut Jantung Negara (IJN), or the National Heart Institute. UiTM’s decision is also then IJN’s, should they choose (of course they will, whether willingly or otherwise) to go with it.

Now here’s where it gets interesting – IJN wasn’t set up to serve only the Bumiputeras (unless they’ve changed their charter in secret, which is of course possible), but rather all Malaysians!

So where is IJN on this matter then?

That’s for IJN to answer. Regardless, this decision will hamper our efforts to improve our health services by having more qualified medical specialists in this field (and by extension, any other fields too).

What does the future hold now? Increased pain and suffering and deaths among many Malaysians, Bumiputeras and otherwise. Am I exaggerating?

Of course not – if this matter isn’t about health and life and death, why are we even wasting our breath on it?

So, to the people who decided this matter – remember that the extra, unnecessary pain and suffering (and deaths) caused by your decision are on you.

Then there’s that minor inconvenience of the oath people take when they become a physician. They may want to read that up again, or perhaps tear it up as obviously it means nothing to some people.

This will certainly exacerbate our long-standing brain-drain problem. The brains we’d lose, however, would either be non-Bumiputeras, or Bumiputeras who don’t hew to the nationalistic bent of the powers-that-be.

Which means the powers-that-be wouldn’t care about these losses.

I’m sure there are many reasonable people “up there” who know what’s the right thing to do, but who also know they’d never carry the day against the more extremist elements of the Malay power hierarchies.

But they also need to know their silence is complicit, and people die because of it.

So anyway, what’s next? The longer we wait to sort things out, the more suffering and pain and deaths will happen. But setting up alternatives isn’t easy.

It’s not like offering a master’s in business or management, where all you need are some PowerPoint slides and retired corporate hacks (like me) willing to work for free coffee and nasi lemak.

First and foremost, the people who’re involved in this recognition problem, such as the various ministries and governing bodies and associations, need to sort things out pronto.

Somebody powerful enough from “up there” needs to knock some heads and kick some butts to speed things along.

Next, get a few other universities to work on offering programmes on this speciality. Given the dearth of experts locally (especially since IJN have already aligned themselves with UiTM), we’d need to bring in experts from abroad.

I’m sure our big public universities with established medical schools would love to get into the act. Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia etc are well positioned, if investments are made, to offer such programmes.

Capital would be needed, apart from experts, equipment and technologies costing millions that must be procured; the qualifications offered must be accredited and constantly monitored.

Heck, even IJN itself can be tasked to offer the programmes directly.

They already have the expertise and the technologies and I’m sure many of their specialists would love to teach, too. Give them a university licence – at least they know what they’re doing, compared to the many other idiots out there who have also been given university licences nowadays.

Alternatively, Sarawak could take this on. Lately they seem to be the ones with the ambition and vision and will to make things happen. They can easily partner with reputable foreign universities.

There’s no shame in that – even Singapore does that with the likes of Duke and Johns Hopkins universities in the US.

(Sabah can, too, but they have been suffering from a serious case of peninsulaitis for quite a while, a debilitating disease that paralyses them and deprives them of common sense)

I’m probably being seen right now as being clueless or unrealistic in my expectations of how things work within the medical professions, whether government or private.

I wouldn’t disagree with that. But I’ve worked in the private sector where things can happen if there’s enough will behind it, even if the will is often driven by profit.

Here, the will is driven by the desire to serve the people, alleviate suffering and save lives! How cool is that!

Anyway, enough of this dog barking at hills, as the Malays say, because of course the hills won’t budge. I congratulate UiTM and its various backers and boosters for a massive victory against the people of Malaysia, and I will move on to different things. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.