Yes, Health Minister

The Law and Chua Soi Lek

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.