Wednesday, November 2, 2011

How Singaporeans Pick Doctors in Malaysia?

A friend sent me a link to a blog of a Singaporean writer. Basically the blog responds to the following I've pasted below. However, I felt that although his respond was not enough a disagreement and I am compelled to write my own respond. Here was the issue raised:

In Malaysia, pick an Indian/Chinese doctor, not a Malay doctor
Given the bumiputra policy, there is a loss of selective pressure which leads to the decrease in mean ability of Malays as a whole. Contrast that with the Indians and Chinese who have to fight tooth and nail, who have to drag themselves to the front of the pack in order to get into the limited spaces in medical school (the rest of the quota being taken up by bumiputras). It’s a no-brainer. The Indians and Chinese who graduate from medical school must be really good. The Malays… not so sure.
This is my response:

Everybody has a right for their own opinion, and as the writer has an opinion about picking doctors in Malaysia, my opinion is that the writer is shamefully racist for even coming out with the idea of choosing doctors based on the color of their skin. I don't know if Singaporeans have this sort of mentality, but it is clearly an evidence of low level of thinking when someone picks a doctor to save their life based on their race. A sound minded person would choose his or her doctor based on the doctor's record of experience and achievements. By the number of successful surgery he has done or the number of precise diagnoses and treatment he has come out with. Each individual vary, and every race has their own high and low achievers. The color of skin has never been a good measure of credibility.


I believe the bumiputra policy has nothing to do with the quality of Malaysian doctors today because in medical faculties, it has been a long-time gone issue. Right now where I study, and most of the public universities, the ratio between bumi and non bumi are 1:1. There is competition, but we compete between individuals, never between races, why should we? As Malaysians, we are smart enough to realize that medicine relies heavily on teamwork among individuals regardless of race, religion or belief. A doctor would refer a complicated case to the best doctor available specializing in that case, not the doctor who has the most similar skin color. There was never an 'Anugerah Kaum Terbaik', and even if there is (maybe they have one in Singapore), what good does it meant to win awards when you can't even think in terms of simple logic such as choosing a doctor based on his or her records of reliability and not the color of the skin?


4 comments:

gadees spek mata said...

semua doktor tu hebat...sbb sblm dpt masuk fakulti perubatan msti dpt result hebat...utk maintain dlm fakulti perubatan pun kna maintain result hbat...so pttnya x da isu mcm ne..yg pnting mcm mne doktor tu ikhlas nk rawat smua kaum tnpa racism nd nk tolong pesakit tu sembuh spenuhnya...(^_^)

Azreenchan said...

There goes racism.

Sometimes it doesn't matter if you try to defend it or not. I got tired of defending other race when I got bashed at the same time by other issues.

Being prejudice is human nature, the difference is just how obvious it is for each person. We can't really control other people's way of thinking I guess.

Annisa said...

amalkan yang ni

CIMB : Cina, India, Melayu & Bumiputera :D

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