by Jason L
Health Minister, Chua Soi Lek never fails to amuse the general public especially when he makes statements pertaining to the law. I refer to his latest outburst in the media that the Health Ministry is now looking into taking legal action against the DAP if it continues to make false allegations about government hospitals and doctors.
He is further reported to have said that his ministry will “encourage” the Ministry’s hospitals and doctors to sue the DAP if the allegations are baseless. Perhaps he is under the notion that his buddies at the AGs office and the government’s pliable judges will help him fix these pesky complainants once and for all to help boost his rather sagging image of an underperformer in this ministry of many problems. And what will this Minister be remembered for in his contribution to healthcare in Malaysia?
1. PHFSA
Despite numerous problems in his own backyard, and for reasons best known to him, Chua Soi Lek and his contraband of incompetent advisors decided to zero in on GPs and private hospitals as his first task as a Minister by applying the notorious Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act (PHFSA) on them when even his predecessor Chua Jui Meng, a lawyer by training, knew that the Act was a dud.
Soi Lek initially claimed all doctors had been briefed, then lied that even previous MMA chairmen had agreed to this Act during “meetings”. When they revealed that they were threatened with the ISA if details were released to fellow doctors, he arm-twisted his lackey Teoh Siang Chin, a government doctor who was entrusted as President of the MMA into agreeing. A spineless Teoh betrayed the entire medical profession by agreeing to the Act without a referendum from the very doctors who elected and put him there in the first place.
The Minister then conned parliament into agreeing to the Act bluffing them that doctors had agreed to it after amendments had been made. This guy even ignored the warning by former Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar, an authority on medico-legal affairs who warned against passing the Act as it was seriously flawed in law. Till this day “amendments” to this Act have yet to see the light of day.
2. CSMU
Soi Lek’s publicity crazy DG, Ismail Merican almost always trying to upstage his boss, nearly caused a rift in the ruling party, when without prior warning derecognized a 200-year old medical school in the Ukraine, the Crimea State Medical University, where almost a thousand Malaysians were studying causing confusion and anguish to hundreds of parents not to mention a diplomatic row with the Ukraine. In the process, the rash Merican, not known for diplomacy, got Sothinathan of the MIC suspended for his troubles in trying to defend his boss and party. And all because, the previous Education Minister, Musa Mohamad had murmured during a visit to the CSMU, “Why so many Indians here?”
3. MMC
Soi Lek’s loose cannon, Merican, desperately trying to be the politician he was not, decided next that doctors should be his target and focused on a round of suspensions and striking off of doctors to appease the general public that he was indeed the good guy at the expense of someone else’s carrier. Not following basic etiquette and showing complete disdain for facts or evidence, he even went so far as mentioning the names of doctors affected without even waiting for their appeals to be heard in court, breaching all rules of natural justice and mocking the medical fraternity to charge him for contempt.
4. TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
But these two must surely take the cake for now establishing traditional medicine, long seen in Malaysia as a wayward practice comprising of quacks, sinsehs, herbalists, ayurveds etc masquerading as qualified medical practitioners which the MOH itself tried very hard to eradicate in the 60’s, as a definitive service in government hospitals.
Such a unit was first established at Kepala Batas Hospital with great fanfare with Chua being oblivious to the fact that the Malaysian Medical Council’s Code of Ethics Part II (1.4.3) clearly states that any doctor found associating with a person unqualified to treat a patient would have committed an Infamous Act and would therefore be liable to suspension or being struck off. Chua Soi Lek, Ismail Merican, the State Health Director and the Kepala Batas Hospital Director all committed such an offence and should have been disciplined by the MMC.
The Minister however appear undeterred and conveniently unaware that the MMC is an independent body very much like the judiciary. He feels the MMC is beholden to him and by extension he is the law in medicine. It must have riled him proper when his colleague Chan Kong Choy tried to upstage him by calling the shots in trying to implement E-kesihatan. Hopefully the next government would be less generous and call for all four of them to face disciplinary action.
Chua Soi Lek, now truly showing his nefarious colors for the politician that he is in sheep’s clothing rather then his white coat, his legacy will forever be remembered for all the above and the numerous medical blunders you would expect in Africa rather then 21st century Malaysia. Malaysian doctors who held dear to the principles of standards and good faith of yesteryears should remember and perhaps follow the footsteps of the legal profession who decided enough was enough and appear now on the road to setting the judiciary right in this country by calling for the sacking and disbarment of characters out to hijack this country’s laws and constitution. Healthcare may require the same medicine.
This is expected of our Sa Kua doctor.He tried very hard to defend the tainted vegetables claiming that the sample size were too small,whereas he condemned the pig’s farmers over the use of beta-agonist when the sample size were even smaller!Those positive samples were obtained from Eliza test,which were only screening tests and not a confimative test.Also,he approved the use of another beta-agonist(ractopamine),when thisi s banned in Europe!
From whose ar@e will all this money come from?
http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/guests.php?itemid=8514
Untuk tahun ini sahaja Abdullah Ahmad Badawi telah mengumumkan sebanyak empat projek mega yang menelan lebih 500 bilion ringgit, merangkumi pembangunan Wilayah Iskandar, Pembangunan Koridor Utara, Koridor Pantai Timur dan jambatan kedua Pulau Pinang….
Bagaimana mampu Abdullah menafikan kehidupannya kini bukanlah dalam nur kehidupan muslimin yang serba sederhana apabila hiburan irama jazz sudah boleh dibawa masuk ke Seri Perdana dengan kos lebih satu juta ringgit. Apakah dapat Abdullah membuktikan bahawa dia masih berpegang pada prinsip Islam sebenar untuk bersederahan dengan tidak membazirkan wang sebanyak itu? Sejak menikah dengan janda anak dua Jeanne Danker, sudah dua kali Seri Perdana mengadakan konsert hiburan dalam acara pesta-pestaan untuk kaum elit. Sedangkan sebelum ini empat Perdana Menteri tidak pernah terdengar menganjurkan persembahan konsert di kediaman rasmi.
Firstly ,saudara Lim lucky you are not in Singapore,If not you will be a bankrupt by now..
Secondly, please don,t blame MIC and MCA for your problem,Reason ,this is their rice bowl you are talking about.
Thirdly ,The UMNO led goverment , having set a precedence by suspending Sothinathan do you think MPs from MIC and MCA have the guts to bring up matters .All the components parties MPs ,Have all become lap dogs of UMNO.
Even now UMNO leaders are making policies without consulting other component party members.
I would like to remind Chua Soi Lek that only UMNO politicians are above the law (because Nazri is the boss of all the judges in Malaysia), MCA politicians are not.
They could be suspended, charged and jailed by UMNO (yes, it is by UMNO, not by the court because all courts will have to take orders from UMNO).
So Chua Soi Lek, being a civil servant to all Malsysian, will have to open up his mind and listen to any criticism from any Malaysian.
Saudara LIM,Have you forgotten all about the former Wilayah Minister who was caught for money politics, Was suspended by UMNO from the party ,But is still an MP.
What did the other component party members do …NOTHING.
Saudara LIM, By doing so UMNO is saying they don,t trust this guy being a member of UMNO ,But they trust him being an MP.
Saudara LIM,You see they don,t trust him with UMNO,S money ,But they trust him with the rakyay,s money.Sad to say that the people in UMNO are just a bunch of Bigots who are there to help themself get rich,and they careless about the rakyat.
Pity Soi Lek-lah.
You know MCA has to kow-tow to so many people especially from UMNO-ites. So people like make decisions to please their bosses and not necessarily in the best interests of Malaysians.
Therein lies the problem. Soi Lek is not stupid. Only spineless, like all MCA supporters. That’s incontrovertible fact.
Soi Lek is free to rebut here.
Dear YB LKS,
I really can’t name any of the malaysia goverment agencies is a corrupt free body. But if you ask me again about all goverment agencies how it functions, well the answer is, BN buggers joint feast whack the taxpayer money as long as they are in power. We are taxpayer but never allow to enjoys the priviledge we should deserve. Looking at present day, we pay a very high price admitting hospital nowadays if we are not insured. As a taxpayer point of view, please allows our next generation to enjoy more on healthcare and good educations at least.
It is very apparent now that the ruling coalition party has placed itself above the law.
The response or non response to all the recent ‘saga’ will reveal if they are also above our Agong.
This Chua is a shadow of what Chua Jui Meng was.
….less than a shadow….
Chua Soi Lek is definitely a much better politician than he is a doctor. He did not get where he is by being doctorly.
Now he think he is a lawyer? Looks like he has the god complex that doctors developed WITHOUT being a doctor in a first place!!!!!
Putting politics aside, to be honest presence Health Minister doing a better job comparing to the past HM Chua JM.
Banning yellow noodle with illegal substances, banning growth hormone in pig farming, banning harmful medicine especially from China, increase the allowance of the docs etc all these are the good works of the present HM and to be fair we should give him the credit. Chinese have been consuming pork with banned substances for how many donkey yrs just ask yourself what the past HM been doing all these while? Remember seeing Chua SL on tv mentioned he was more worried to get his head chopped by 5 million population of Chinese that few pig farmers who chose to ignore his ministry direction to stop the banned substances. Salute Chua SL for making such statement.
Think it is unfair for the writer Jason L to choose to ignore Chua SL’s contribution in his first term as HM. I might be wrong but personally think Chua SL doing a good job though there are plenty of room for improvement especially in the government hospitals with regard to recent reports of negligence and many reports in the past. These are the ‘good’ works of the past minister and present bureaucratic government system. Chua SL needs to be more stern to replace the heads of the public hospitals who are under performing and unable to improve the condition of the public hospitals.
Well that’s my 2 cents.
There are a lot of power struggle, politiking, conflicts and confusions in the Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia. Not just at the top level. But right down to the grassroot level. One reason being the appointments of heads of all sorts with no or little experience in what they are doing now. With his serious looks and no nonsense approach, Doctor Chua should have been appointed as some head of some department in the Public Health Unit. Being a very learned man, he would have to consider a lot of implications if the government decides to bring on a legal suit because there are just too many news reports concerning negligences that are happenning in his ministry. The Bahagian Nazir ( monitoring / spot check unit ) in the KKM should thank the mass media for supplying information on the real performances of all the health facilities throughout the country. Should there be a real legal suit, the public will get to know more ugliness that is going on behind the scenes. Does KKM afford to have this sort of publicity since it is trying to create a new corporate world class image ?
Name also got “SOI” leh…