KUCHING, June 28: Racial and religious prejudice should play no part in selecting or appointing medical officers.
Medical personnel engaged should comprise all races, religions, creed, ethnicities and gender.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth Central secretary-general Milton Foo, in stating this, applauded the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA)’s role as the integrated voice of the medical profession by upholding the Hippocratic Oath.
He was backing MMA’s response to a statement dated June 23 by the Health Minister Dato Sri Dr Adham Baba where the latter said “this study is proposed to ensure that medical graduates especially among the Bumiputera can serve on a permanent basis”.
Meanwhile, Foo also expressed support for the Ministry of Health (MOH) which issued a statement yesterday (June 27) to rectify any confusion or misinterpretation in response to MMA’s stand.
The ministry said the proposal to prioritise Bumiputera medical graduates for permanent positions were made by Malaysian Public Health Medical Association and Malaysian Association of Islamic Doctors, and it did not represent the stand of the ministry.
It emphasised that the part where “Bumiputera medical graduates” was mentioned was merely quoting the medical associations’ proposal, and that the ministry had always maintained the appointment of medical officers based on merit, performance and not race.
On a related note, Foo said SUPP Youth is urging for devolution of administrative power in terms of medical and health autonomy to the Sarawak government by having the State’s own Ministry of Health Sarawak and forming its own Sarawak Medical Council.
“SUPP Youth shall continue to advocate and fight for the return of health autonomy to Sarawak,” he said in a statement today. — DayakDaily
