The Big Medical Lie

4 days ago I posted Only some may be doctors in which I took issues with Liow Tiong LIE on his repudiation of complaints against the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC).


The MMC was accused of practising double standards in requiring students going to universities in Balkan countries (you know who) to do a foundation course while exempting those going to Egypt and Jordan (you also know who).


In that post I recall the case some years ago of the Crimea State Medical University (CSMU), whose medical degrees were initially recognized by MMC (because you know why).


Then, when Indian Malaysians, the majority of whom preferred* a medical career, followed the government sponsored students to CSMU (principally because of its recognized medical degrees by MMC), it led to a minister visiting there to state that there were 'too many blacks', meaning Malaysian Indians, attending the same medical degree course.


* 6 years ago I posted Malay Engineers, Chinese Accountants, Indian Doctors where I asserted that Indians preferred doctoring


As I alluded in the title of that post, it would not do (for our remarkable government) to have Indian doctors outnumbering the scholarship students. The MMC withdrew recognition of CSMU medical degrees, but blatantly only after, we suspected, the privileged batch(es) could graduate, thus 'amputating' the poor Tambees at their career knees and leaving those unfortunate Malaysians in the lurch.


My uncle has just chipped in to relate a story in much early days, confirming our suspicion that Only some may be doctors. Then (at time of Unc's story), despite the reality that most Chinese and Indian students (other than a few for window dressing) were already marginalized out of local universities, an UMNO MP was still not satisfied with the very much imbalanced ratio of undergraduates in our higher institutions of learning.

He demanded, apparently in Parliament, a two-pronged strategy of 'promote' and 'prevent' - that was, promote the Malays (which in truth no one was against, subject to minimum standards) and also prevent non-Malays from seeking tertiary education outside Malaysia.


He urged that non-Malay students be prohibited from going abroad to study at foreign universities to ensure the goals of our most remarkable social engineering could be achieved. It was fortunate that his proposal was seen as far too openly racist for the mores of that time, and so was ignored.


But to say something in his favour, though no doubt he was an extremist he was at least open about his extremist views. For the last several years, we have instead sinister sneaky sly Machiavellian machinations achieving the very same two-pronged strategy, promote & prevent, to ensure the medical profession remains dominated by The Chosen Ones. I mentioned some of those mafulat Machivellian move to 'close the gates' to 'others' in Only some may be doctors.

This morning when I read Free Malaysia Today's (FMT) Liow knows about MMC’s racism, says doc I wasn't at all surprised by Dr A Subendran's accusation of Liow Tiong LIE lying when he (Liow) denied knowledge of the government practising racial discrimination regarding students studying medicine abroad, by either raising the bar or placing obstacles for those of the 'wrong colour'.


Dr Subendran, himself a graduate of CMSU, was particularly furious because he had personally talked at length with Liow 3 years ago on this particular topic of racial discrimination against 'nons' studying medicine abroad.


FMT reported Dr Subendran writing about the double standard in an email to Liow’s personal account on Aug 14, 2010, with copies to the Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Sidek Hassan and deputy ministers SK Devamany and A Kohilan Pillay. None of them responded. And why should we be surprised?


Dr Subendran informed FMT that a 2007 news report reported an education consultant explaining that the Sijil Peperiksaan Malaysia was adequate as an entry requirement into Egyptian medical programmes. Hmmm, shades of Chubby Checker and his 'How low can you go' Limbo rock.

The infuriated doctor said: “So, it is crystal clear that MMC implements different sets of rules for Malays and non-Malays.”


“But, the question now is, why is Liow pretending to be in the dark when he has solid evidence about the double standard? It seems to me that he is forced to lie to the media to save BN’s reputation as it heads for the general election.”


All I want to say in conclusion is that I have to acknowledge  Liow's parents were fantastically prescient in naming him as he is named, except they spelled his personal name LAI incorrectly.