FEBRUARY 18 — We suspect the housemen imbroglio has been a sizzling hot topic of conversation in the many coffee rooms or chat groups of doctors. We can attest that the exchanges in our doctors' WhatsApp group has been very volatile, even diametrically opposite but undoubtedly soul searching.

We were first dumbstruck by the scandalous allegation of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Malacca chapter president and deputy dean of Melaka Manipal Medical College that “1,000 students drop out due to poor command of the English language.” 

This simplistic and ill thought analysis of the attrition of housemen from the health service is not the first of its kind and neither will it be the last.

In 2008, Artemis Tower, a lawyer, made a mockery of a law tutor who was not proficient in the English language, writing, “mediocre young academics whose command of the English language is way below par.”

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We debunked him; “And Artemis Tower seems convinced that his linguistic artistry and gymnastics would win him the day in the legal courts despite all the hard evidence to the contrary. I shudder the thought of our judiciary being manipulated by linguistic prowess overwhelming the substance of evidence. And by the way, you can be rest assured that none of us would make a laughing stock of Artemis Tower et al when they make a mockery of the Malay language whilst battling their cases in the legal courts.”

This is the subtle manifestation of a colonial and Anglophile mindset that needs to be liberated. It also manifests a racial innuendo that is highly disturbing.

Our Malay, Chinese and Indian colleagues have a language handicap largely because many of us come from home environments where English is not the spoken language. It is utterly shameful that after nearly 60 years of independence, some see this handicap as an object for abuse and ridicule.

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This allegation is yet another medical blame game, which first found its roots around the time UKM initiated its medical program in 1972. Even before UKM graduated its pioneer batch of doctors, there was much skepticism about the quality of the doctors mainly trained in the national language.

Fast forward 40 odd years, and the skeptics have been proven miserably wrong. Many of the nation’s top medical consultants and researchers are the proud alumni of the UKM medical fraternity.

And since when was medical acumen and competency directly correlated to the mastery of the English language? We graduated from the UK and Australia, and could easily discern that our “Mat Salleh” colleagues were not infrequently beating around the bush with their linguistic prowess, attempting to address a clinical situation, but obviously void of substance.

Besides, the Europeans do not give a hoot to the British language and neither do the Japanese and Koreans but have nonetheless excelled in their medicine. And mind you, their English is even more atrocious than that of our local graduates!

* Datuk Dr Musa Mohd Nordin and Prof Datuk Dr Azizi Omar are consultant paediatricians at Damansara Specialist Hospital

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.