Post Wawasan 2020: Where to Malaysia? Part 5Continued………. It’s been 6 months since I last wrote an article in this series. In between, I was interviewed by various organisation in relation to contract doctors etc. This will be my last article in this series. Despite all the hardship that I went through since my childhood of being a “non”, one thing that … …
Continue reading → Continued……….
It’s been 6 months since I last wrote an article in this series. In between, I was interviewed by various organisation in relation to contract doctors etc. This will be my last article in this series.Â
Despite all the hardship that I went through since my childhood of being a “non”, one thing that was guaranteed for me was a civil service job! This is simply because, there were only 3 medical schools producing about 450 graduates annually and some returning from overseas. There were plenty of post available for us to fill. Interviews by SPA and MOH were conducted in the universities even before we sat for our final year exams. The moment our results were out, we would receive our appointment letters within 2 weeks! I had written about this many times before and thus will not go into the details. I was asked to report to Hospital Ipoh within 30 days. While the salary was pathetic to say the least, we were grateful that we had a permanent job. Two months before we due to finish our housemanship, we need to apply for district posting and induction course (Kursus Induksi). At that time, district/rural posting after housemanship is mandatory. We must make our 3 choices. I was asked to go to Pontian Hospital in Johor for my district posting.
While there was subtle racism wherever I worked in MOH, it is hardly noticeable. This is simply because the staffs consist of mixed races. There were nurses, MAs (Medical Assistant), attendants from all different races. This reminded me of the time I was in school back in 1980s. While the schools were becoming monoethnic in composition of teachers by late 1990s, hospitals and klinik kesihatans were still consist of multiple races working together. In fact, most of the HODs were non-Malays in JB hospital. Unfortunately, things have changed since then. We hardly see any Chinese or Indian MAs working in MOH nowadays. Nurses are predominantly consisting of a single race and the composition of doctors are also becoming predominantly of a single race. I am not saying that these people are not doing their work or discriminating against non-Malay patients, but it is an unhealthy development in a multiracial and multireligious country. Many of the non-Malay consultants and HODs moved to private sector, mainly due to financial reasons. They have accepted the fact that their children will not receive any privileges in education or scholarship. Thus, they have no choice but to move to private sector to earn better revenue to support their children in the future. Nowadays we even have shariah compliant hospitals, whatever it means. An Ustaz or Imams are allowed officially into a hospital to say prayers, but similar permission are not given to other religious bodies.
I used to say to my friends that the last government body that use to be multiracial will eventually come to an end, and it happened. Sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut! With the current contract issues and limited permanent position, I doubt the situation will get any better. This coupled with quota system in master’s recruitment and limited post graduate opportunities, will only make the situation worst. What really shocked me the most is when I found out that some of my Malay friends who I worked with as Medical Officers openly expressed their opinion that they would prefer all HODs to be Malays as this is a Malay country! When even highly educated people can think as such, what hope do I have? By mid 2000, I began to realise that this country is heading the wrong direction, the direction of destruction and no return.
The first 10 years of my medical life was a turbulent one. Getting married halfway through my 2nd year of working life (district posting), passing my Part 1 MRCP on 1st try and moving to JB Hospital to continue my training was the easy part. With a pathetic salary, busy work life (JB Hospital is one of the busiest hospitals in the country) and studying at the same time really pushes you to the limit. By the time I sat for my Part 2/3 in 2002, I had 2 child and got my 3rd in 2004. By this time, I was in debt! Looking into the future and where the country was heading, I had to make difficult choices. I quit MOH halfway through my Rheumatology training in Selayang Hospital and joined Monash University in 2006. My wife who sacrificed a lot with me, had to discontinue her Family Medicine Master’s program in 2002, as it was just too difficult for us to manage the whole family with both of us doing postgraduate education at the same time. We lived by ourselves.
With the help of Professor Khalid Kadir, I was encouraged to complete my Rheumatology training in Singapore while I continue to teach in Monash which was based in Johor Bahru. I am forever grateful to Prof Khalid for this arrangement. This allowed me to complete my Rheumatology training by 2008. Working in Singapore gave me a different perspective of how such a small country could succeed! It is all based on meritocracy and knowledge-based economy. The way they encourage research and development and how they support you to develop new skills and new departments is fascinating. How they attract the best brains from all over the world and keeping their own best brains is something that Malaysia can learn from. Unfortunately, Malaysia is too engrossed with Malay nationalism with race and religion tearing the country apart. The best brains leave to be better received by another country.
Upon returning from Singapore, I encouraged my wife to continue her discontinued post graduate education. She was very eager to complete her post graduate training in Family medicine. She enrolled into the Academy of Family Physicians MAFP/FRACGP program which was a 4-year program. The advantage: you are eligible for FRACGP which is registrable in Australia. As an appreciation of her sacrifice taking care of the family while I was doing my post graduate education, I paid for her course. While Monash gave me a much better salary than MOH, with rising cost of living and higher tax that you must pay in private sector, it was still an uphill task to earn enough for my children’s education, especially tertiary education. As I had mentioned in my past articles, by 2010 I had to remove my children from national schools to private national schools (not international). The racial and religious issues that was happening in the national schools (despite being a missionary school) was not something that I could accept. I do not want my children to grow up with racial and religious dogmatism. It hurts you when your son who is just 10 years old asking you why the Ustaz in his school distributing free food to only Muslim students in the canteen!
Thus, by 2010 with my eldest already 10 years old, I need to save enough money for him to pursue his tertiary education in 7 years’ time. Again, I had to make a difficult decision in my life. While I loved academic life, publishing at least 5 papers in major international journals within 4 years and loved teaching, I had to give up and move to private sector. Columbia Asia Nusajaya invited me to join them as they opened their first hospital in Johor. After much deep thought, I accepted their offer. I was also the Chief of Medical Services for the hospital, for 7 years.
Life working as a consultant in private hospitals in not rosy either. Yes, you may earn much higher than public sector or universities, but it is no work, no money system. The more hours you work, the more money you get. The more patients you see the more money you get. After some time, you will realise that you are earning enough money, but you do not have a life! I have written about this in this blog as well as in my books. There is no work life balance. The unethical practices that happen in private hospitals is something that I could not accept either. In Malaysia, everything seems to be about money. As one of my friends who is a businessman said, Malaysia is the best place to make money!
By 2015, my wife has cleared her FRACGP. By this time, the country was in turmoil. The 1MDB scandal and billions of dollars being swindled right in front of our eyes was sickening. Politically, the government has lost it’s 2/3 majority since 2008. Racial and religious politics went into overdrive. What more can politicians use other than race and religion, the well-known propaganda known time immemorial. The government started going after the citizens to collect more tax and penalties to patch up the loss. By 2016, the private specialist doctors became a fresh new target. GST was introduced. With just a single letter, LHDN decided that the private specialist can’t form a company and divert their income to the company (something that has been happening since 1980s and considered legal) and have to declare their income as personal income. They backdated these 5 years (2010-2015) with reduced penalty of 15%! After much discussion between MMA and LHDN, it was reduced to 3 years. We had to rush to settle this by end of December 2016 which was the due date for the penalty of 15%. This is when I realised that the government could screw you when they run out of money. LHDN is the most powerful organisation under the Ministry of Finance who can even charge you in court without going through the police/AG. The DG has absolute power to order any audit or change the rule and can deem anything as a form of tax evasion.
By this time, I had no choice but to decide my next step. While I was doing well in private sector, it was a one man show. My wife was still a civil servant and my children’s education was totally dependent on me. My eldest son was going for SPM in 2017. We decided that it is best to send our children overseas for education. I wanted them to get a degree which would be more widely recognised all over the world. The world in shrinking and we can’t be living in a cocoon. Fortunately, my eldest was not interested in medicine. I let them do what they are interested rather than coercing them to do what the parents wanted them to do. To date, none of my children are interested in medicine.
After my wife cleared her FRACGP in 2015, we started receiving calls from recruiting agencies in Australia, offering her a GP position. We rejected all the offers. But something happened in 2016. While I was talking to one my friend from KL, he suggested, why don’t you apply for Skilled Migration Visa (using my wife’s FRACGP) which would give you a PR status in Australia? I was baffled. Is there such thing as getting a PR status without even stepping your foot into a country? Surprisingly, there is such thing and he recommended me to have a chat with a migration agency in Subang. We met with the agent, and everything changed! We thought of giving it a try. It involved a lot of work, from getting the medical registration from Australia (including visits to Australia to confirm job contact), numerous amounts of documents, certification of degrees, English test, police clearance etc etc. It took us almost a year to get all these documents sorted, not to mention the money involved. Finally, by March 2017, we submitted.
There were so many things that went through our mind. Are we really going to leave a country where we were born and grew up? Will our children be able to adapt to the new environment? Would we be able to adapt to a new environment and culture? The worst part, what about me? I am not registrable in Australia as I do not have a registrable degree. It is another long process and money to even apply for assessment. While we were considering all these, and my son was going to sit for his SPM (November 2017), we received another shocking news! In June 2017, my wife’s application for Skilled Migration Visa was accepted and we need to do some final document submission such as medical check-up, police report etc within 60 days. We did it in 30 days and submitted all necessary final documents. Woolah, within 3 weeks, our Visa was approved, and we are officially an Australian permanent resident! This visa is for the whole family, not just for my wife! My children will now be able to enrol into Australian university as domestic students with heavily subsidised fee.
Why am I talking about this? A country which does not even know who we are, gave us permanent residency without even the need for us to step our foot into the country (except I have been to Gold Coast as a tourist). There were NOT a single question of what race or religion we belong to. Those who know me knows that my wife is not an Indian, she is a Malay! What mattered most was your skill and documents! And despite my wife being the main applicant, the entire family received residency status. This is how a country valued your talent and invites you to be part of their country. We are considered equal to their citizens except in voting rights. This is how they attract the best brains. Where are we Malaysia? Race, religion, and nationalism chased away the best brains, only for us to be proud of saying “Malaysian Born so and so……….” Foreign professionals married to Malaysians have to wait close to 10 years to receive their residency status, not to mention the various insults they receive at immigration office. We have a long way to go……
I moved my family to Perth, Australia in December 2017. My wife started working as a GP in January 2018. My eldest son started his university in February 2018 and my other 2 children started their schooling. What happened to me? Well, I had to start my ball rolling. With an unrecognised degree in Australia, I am not registrable in Australia. But as a senior physician I can apply to be recognised (not guaranteed) via the College of Physician. Another long process of degree verification, document collection, English test, interviews etc was conducted by the college (RACP). I submitted my documents in April 2018, called for an interview in Melbourne in May 2018 and finally in July 2018, I received their verdict. I received a “substantially comparable” status which would allow me to work as a consultant with 12 months of peer review before receiving specialist registration. This verdict is only valid for 2 years, which means I must find a job for the 12 months peer review within that timeframe.
Based on RACP report, there were 145 applications in 2018 from all over the world for specialist assessment. 112 were considered “substantially comparable”, majority of these were from countries where specialist training is recognised by Australia such as UK, Ireland, USA etc. Out of 11 applications from Malaysia, only 4 were deemed substantially comparable and I am one of them. The other 2 options are partially comparable and non-comparable. Partially comparable means you need to do top up training of about 1-2 years as a registrar and may or may not need to sit for Part 2 exams. Non-comparable means, case closed. Once again, as my wife’s visa application, I was extremely lucky to receive the substantially comparable status. This, together with my status as a resident in Australia, I was able to look for a job. This was the next hurdle that I had to endure.
While I was going through all these processes, I was travelling between JB and Perth quite frequently. Then came the 2018 General Election. Everyone was euphoric after the historic result. Many wanted me to stay since a new Malaysia has emerged aka Malaysia Baru. Yet again, based on evidence and sentiments on the ground, I knew this excitement is going to be short lived. I wrote an article in this blog dated 4th June 2018 with the title “Towards Malaysia Baru? I predicted that if the new government do not perform at a supernatural speed, either the government will fall before the next election or at the next election. My friends laughed at me and said it is unlikely due to overwhelming majority. Nowadays, they asked me to keep my mouth shut as everything that I predicted seem to be happening!
It was only in January 2019 I was invited for a job interview (after trying for 7 months). Again, I was lucky to be given a full-time consultant job in a regional hospital in Western Australia. Hopefully this would be my last leap of faith. I decided to take it and left Malaysia in May 2019. ……. I received my FRACP in 2020. It saddens me to see what is happening to Malaysia since I left. The vision of Wawasan 2020 remains an elusive dream. The country is more divided than the time I grew up in 1980s and 1990s. Racial and religious rhetoric is tearing the country apart. When even a vegetarian food prepared by Gurdwara Sahib can be questioned on halalness and cleaning a temple by Muslims can be haram, where are we heading?
I can go on writing and ranting but I will stop here. It has been a tough 2 years for most of us. I hope and pray that 2022 will be a better year with disappearance of Covid.
I wish everyone a very Happy New Year 2022………………………
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
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Post Wawasan 2020: Where to Malaysia? Part 5
