PUTRAJAYA, July 5 ― The government reversed today its decision to waive the requirement of a pass for the Bahasa Malaysia subject in the SPM examination for contract medical officers after an uproar by pro-Bumiputera groups.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam today confirmed the decision at a press conference here, adding that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi would elaborate on the decision further.
“Before this, we decided to take them (medical graduates) and grant them the chance to undergo training as graduate medical officers, with the condition that they must pass the paper while they are doing their housemanship.
“Today we decided that they must first pass the BM paper before being appointed as graduate medical officers,” said Dr Subramaniam after a Cabinet meeting.
Housemen who want to be absorbed into permanent positions in the civil service are already currently required to pass the BM paper in SPM.
Dr Subramaniam added that the problem involving medical graduates not meeting the SPM BM requirement is not a worrying one as it only involves 23 people, some of whom are children of Malaysian diplomats who have only been exposed to foreign education systems, as well as those whose parents have worked, or are still employed overseas.
Seeking to clarify, he said that in 2003, the Public Service Department (PSD) relaxed the rule requiring medical doctors to have a mandatory pass in BM, as the county was in dire need of doctors, which led to both locals and foreigners being hired.
This, he said, continued for a prolonged period while PSD conducts trainings at civil service level to help those without a pass in the subject.
However, he added that it was the Health Ministry that later sought to overturn the practice by making it mandatory for graduate medical doctors to have a pass in BM.
“So we wrote to the PSD in November 2015, and after that, early 2016, PSD wrote back saying they approved the ministry’s request that all medical officers who would be appointed to permanent positions need to pass BM,” he said, adding that later when the government was faced with an influx of graduate doctors, the administration was forced to reduce the number of permanent positions and create contract ones.
“In December 2016, we started appointing on a contract basis not permanent, and during this appointments, we faced a situation with this small group, not big. Especially children of diplomats who worked overseas and those who served in other agencies, whereby their children followed a different education system and did not have the chance to take the SPM BM paper,” Dr Subramaniam said, adding that the PSD then gave a waiver to the group, allowing them to do their housemanship and being appointed as contract officers, on the condition that they sit and pass the BM paper during their training.
He said that this situation was however misinterpreted; with reports painting an image that the ministry was waiving the SPM BM rule for every medical degree graduate.
