RM 100 million down the drain (II)
posted in - Education, - Feedback, - Nation, - Palmdoc |
About three years ago, we made a posting entitled RM100 million down the drain which highlighted the situation in which many medical students in Britain/Ireland who are/were recipients of Government scholarships have declined to return home to serve their nation. We thought that they had Agreed to Return Home. Evidently not, as a Malaysian student in Ireland has written in to inform us of the situation as seen through his eyes :-
I am a Malaysian medical student based in Dublin, Ireland who has been following the developments back home. From my view and personal observations as a student of the health sciences, I would like to bring to attention certain issues relating to Malaysian students overseas.
Indeed, there always has been much furore each year over the number of scholarships which are given out by government agencies most notably MARA and JPA in order for them to pursue their studies overseas, particularly in the area of medicine. I am all for the increase in numbers of scholarships to provide deserving students with such an opportunity, and to increase the number of doctors which we have perpetually been short of back in Malaysia.
However, what deeply concerns me and, I believe, most taxpayers in this country are the numbers of those who pursue their medical studies overseas, often at a cost in excess of an exorbitant RM1 million per student and then choose to abscond from their 10 year bond in government service. As an example, school fees alone in the institution where I am based is Euro40,000 a year – that’s a hefty RM200,000 per year for a five year undergraduate medical course per student, excluding living expenses and other incidentals which amount to at least another RM50,000 per academic year. May I also add that most of the Malaysian students in my course, dare I say 90% of my fellow Malaysian classmates, are on government scholarships.
I understand that this issue has been brought up many times in the media, but more often that not those in charge of bringing these people back brushing it off as just a ‘small number’, or even worse claim that stringent measures will undertaken to prevent this – it is a blatant lie, as I see with my own eyes every day as I do my rotations in various hospitals.
I am in my clinical years hence my lessons and clinical teachings are based in major teaching hospitals where new junior doctors are primarily employed, and I can tell you that it is not the case. There are many Malaysians who spent their time here on government scholarships, but have yet to return to serve what is (supposedly) legally required of them. Some even go on to set up families here with no intention to serve the nation whom they owe. In fact, if one were to ask them their career plans, these people are brazen enough to tell you that those plans do not envision a return to Malaysia.
In my opinion, nothing much has been done to ensure that these absconders make their way back to Malaysia to serve the nation once their course is over. I am sure that, with a bit less of ‘can’t-care-less’ attitude, it is possible to achieve this aim. If the number of such people who run away from their bond in Ireland is this significant, there must be many more absconders working in the United Kingdom where there are many more medical schools compared to Ireland.
Even worse, is the fact that MARA scholars – many of whom are sent to pursue medicine in the UK and Ireland – are not legally bonded to serve the government as this clause is not stipulated in the contract that they signed when accepting their scholarship offer. Perhaps the public is not aware of this fact, as I have never seen this issue being debated anywhere in the media. And it is a sad fact which I, and many others, feel that is plain unacceptable.
This all deeply concerns me, as I believe that there is no good justification at all for this – seeing as to how much money is spent on each student and how badly Malaysia needs more medical professionals. If you tally the amount Malaysia spends each year in order to finance the education, (medical education, no less) of all scholars overseas, this is no measly sum – and Malaysian taxpayers, many of whom cannot even afford such an expensive education on their own children, deserve more than having this obscene amount of money spent on such irresponsible and downright ungrateful individuals.
The way I see it, there is absolutely no compelling reason for a scholar not to go home to serve their part of the deal. Working and pay conditions have recently been revised and improved; most of all, the education they receive has already geared them for a rewarding and personally satisfying career for the rest of their lives, without them having to pay a cent for this privilege. Many of them would not have this golden opportunity to experience studying overseas had they not received such aid from the government. And it’s about time they give back.
The shortage of doctors in Malaysia would not be to this extent if all government scholars were, by hook or by crook, roped back to serve what is due. Surely this is not a difficult task with efficient record-keeping of all scholars and stringent action on those break their bond clause – not just lip service or some clause put in in print for formality’s sake.
The issue of the supply of medical professionals in Malaysia not just a concern of a few pockets of society; since it relates directly to health services in this country, it concerns EVERYONE. Hence, the public is owed an explanation as to why the problem of non-returning scholars is THIS rampant, and what SOLID MEASURES are being taken to reduce this.
I hope that this issue will not be downplayed yet again, or the reporting die off in the media. By solving this problem, there is everything to gain and nothing at all to lose.
Regards,
Malaysian student in Ireland
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September 17th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Send these scholars to local institutions for their medical studies. Impose a heavy penalty if the contract is not honoured. I’m ashamed to learn that there are such characters in the medical fraternity.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
indeed as i was doing my elective posting in malaysia, i have met a few of fellow malaysian scholars who were studying in ireland/uk. and the situation is exactly as what the letter above describes. does anybody know that, in ireland, alot of students are getting married and having kids because the irish government has allocation for the children, and most of them do not have any plan to return to malaysia. finally i have found a scholar who truly heeds the call of duty, my respect is for you (but of course i still would not believe you until you are working in a gov hospital in malaysia)
September 17th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
It is quite easy if the government wants to act, it can just ask the scholar to pay back in full amount plus high interest (as high as credit card interest) immediately or declare them bankrupt if they fail to do so. They can also revoke their passport or prevent passport renewal till they pay back or return. I am sure they can t get a citizenship so fast unless they already have dual citizenship which is not allowed in Malaysia.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Interestingly, this topic often comes up in conversations with non-government sponsored students. Open some beers, have some snacks, this topic would come out more than half the time among the medical students. However, it is a taboo topic in their presence. Who would want to be bad guy? Let’s not forget, most of the times, they are the creme la creme, that’s why they got the scholarship in the first place. You might even need their help with your studies. It’s a primitive response of self-preservation.
It’s not uncommon to abscond, even in Australia. In fact,I would not be surprised if some of the registrars/senior doctors whom I would be working for in the near future were government sponsored students. Shall I be hostile and report them or just treat them normally? That’s a no-brainer.
I am now in the midst of my visa application. I skimmed through the forms and there’s an option to declare your scholarship status, at least in Australia. Thus, if any irregularity is detected, your visa application would be rejected.
What amuses me is that the universities are often, more than fully aware of your sponsorship,if any. I am currently receiving some financial help from a foundation,dealing with the university authority made me realise how much they actually know where your money coming from.
On the other hand, the immigration department seem to just take what you filled in the application forms as granted, unless an irregularity is suspected. For a 1st world country, I wonder at times, if the immigration department overlooks all these on purpose. The sponsorship information can be easily pulled from the universities.
Sit down and think for a while.
They will receive payments from Malaysian government for the exorbitant tuition fees as well as the living expenses, helping the foreign exchange. After graduation, they might even get some of the best brains from Malaysia. Human resources are precious. Mr. Lee, from the south, understood this very well and that’s why they are where they are at the moment. He’s after all a gold medalist in economics.
It’s a win-win situation for them as well. They wouldn’t much care about Malaysia’s own problem unless the Malaysian embassy issues a strong statement pertaining to that matter. Even then, how sure are we that they will help the Malaysian government out?
Thus, there are actually many checks and orders in place. However, every and each one of them has been broken down times and again. Who’s to blame?
I can certainly think of a better use of ISA than the government at this point in time:p
At the end of the day, better mechanisms need to be put in place. Nobody wants to be the bad guy, to pull the trigger, so it’s the system’s fault:)
Reminds me of the interesting “social experiment” conducted by the Joker in Batman.
September 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
government is stupid, weak & corrupted.
don’t blame the student in UK, they are after seeking a better life.
blame the government, and the people who voted for them.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I think it is more of the government lackadaisical attitude that provides such opportunity for scholars. Most internship applications overseas are processed by the government affiliated medical council. I am sure our diplomatic ties with these countries will be useful in ensuring that the students return after they graduate. The government can ensure that the country know the names of students bonded and ensure that they would not be offered a job, if they have no job they cant get a PR or visa to stay overseas.
The problem is most of the time the overseas government were not informed that the students were bonded. Some students just lied about their status as normal international students, not under any scholarship, to receive intern job. Some medical councils in Australia require a release form from the JPA etc before they are allowed to work or apply so how did the student get through the system? Obviously lack of information provided by whoever involved. I do not think the Australia medical council just close one eye because I have heard of cases where some scholars who were not bonded but have to delay their intern application/ starting internship until the council/hospital received a release form. Another possibility is that JPA etc just provides the list to the university (which is not involved in any intern allocation), or just to the state where the scholar is studying. It is important to note that the each Australia state has a different medical council independent of each other (that is a student can be offered internship from more than one state) so they won’t know unless they are informed.
One excuse commonly given by scholar is they want to gain experience overseas to bring home etc but from my personal viewpoints there isn’t much to gain if you just work for intern year. In Australia it is just more for familiarising yourself to the medical system and the intern works basically involved lots of paperworks-patients progress as reported by registrar, patients discharge summaries, arrange investigations ordered by registrar or consultants and not much practical skills except IV cannulations. I think the interns in malaysia do much more than that (heard they performed lots more than just IV cannulations) and they are much more involved in patients care and management (correct me if I am wrong). If you want to gain experience doing paperwork which is basically useless when you go back to Malaysia you might as well go straight back and start learning earlier on. Most of the time this excuse is used to buy time to earn cash to pay back the contract (it was only about RM100 000 to break the contract at the time of signing), or just to get PR/visa or get married and have excuses not to go back (babies too little to travel etc).
One advice to the government is don’t send student overseas with taxpayers money if you can’t bring them back home to fulfil their contract. We are helping the developed countries to produce doctors free of charge and we gain nothing except a big hole in our pocket.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
i think being a local graduate, we see things differently.. everyday, we see people suffering on the hospital beds, our people… and we form this kind of bond, an attachment to them, and our hearts reach out, wanting to make a difference.. YES, we should give back, we want to give back… we hope to do our part…
perhaps, the government should spend the 100million in attracting doctors to work in local government hospitals, increase the incentives for doctors, rather than hoping that these foreign graduates would come home…
September 18th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Quote Pizza Boy: “don’t blame the student in UK, they are after seeking a better life.
blame the government, and the people who voted for them.”
What pizza boy say here is so wrong. If there is no sponsorship from the government in the first place they wouldn’t even have the chances to go to oversea for medical training. They should be grateful that at least they are getting a well recognised medical degree. If they think that renegading the bond for the sake of better life then that is what I term as ungrateful.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:28 am
I agree. Rather than trying to attract those overseas grads to come back to work, I rather they make more incentives for our own local doctors in government hospital to stay in government service.
Unofficial survey I did among colleagues – MAJORITY of them wants to jump to the private side or quit the government do something else completely after they serve the ‘perkhidmatan wajib’ period. sad huh.
don’t blame us – we just trying to find a better life…
September 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
If you have clear career path and a road to an assured Consultant’s post or even Staff Grade…..DO NOT COME BACK!!! But make arrangements to pay back the money given to sponsor you. Service and research standards in Malaysia are useless..to put it mildly….no point coming over to do ward rounds in a ward filled with 50 patients and seeing 60 patients over 2 hours while being on call 72 hours. If you are interested in research you wont get the funds or worse still a HP6 supervisor and that too after buttering your boss maximum at expensive lunches.
This is not service. It’s a travesty. It’s also complete idiocy endangering both patient and doctor currently administered via a stone aged system of Directors and Generals…whatever that means. As long as this government has this nincompoop MOH and a protectionist MMC……you are not going anywhere in Malaysia except the private sector where you would be treating patients way below your potential capability……So no matter how much people curse you for not coming back….if you have that potential to help humanity to the fullest of your potential via a progressive health care system ….by all means stay back but please pay back the tax payers money. The Malaysian healthcare system as it stands needs more Hospital Assistants….it doesnt require doctors …especially one from Imperial College or St Georges….
September 21st, 2008 at 10:29 pm
a lot of what you say is true, esp in terms of career development and frustrations of Malaysian govt service. but you forgot two things (applies to govt scholars only) :
1) you signed a legal document, more importantly you made an oath under your name. no one put a gun to your head then, and you knew what you were getting into. to go back on your word is akin to smearing your own name. however you spin it, you are a person who is untrustworthy and unworthy of respect. I would even consider it as infamous conduct.
2) paying back the money spent, even with interest, does not absolve scholars from their responsibilities. you did not factor in the opportunity cost. if another was sent with the scholarship and came back to serve, the 50 inpatients and 60 outpatients would have more doctors providing better care, however slight. and that makes a world of difference to the patients.
sadly, greed and selfishness cuts across all creeds.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:25 am
When you sign on that dotted line you are all starry eyed and 18. Idealistic and raring to serve King and country. But no one…no one tells you about that murky organization called the MOH or government service. It’s a con an 18 year old will never understand. They always wise up only during their first year as MOs.
It is a waste of this country’s valuable and scarce human resources when a poor kid who has scored 8As at the PMR and 12As at his SPM exams gets sent to Liverpool to do Medicine but comes back and realizes he is going to be part of a system that has no capacity to improve itself. It’s heartbreaking to see talented British graduates frustrated and left to rot in a Klinik Desa because his Pengarah who is a UKM graduate thinks local graduates should be given preference.
When this kid from the kampong has the opportunity to become a top notch liver transplant surgeon out in the UK because that system there gives you the infrastructure and opportunities commensurate with his abilities, why should he settle for doing circumcisions and treating diarrhea at Gua Musang. Worse still, it is not uncommon to see this million dollar doctors quitting right on the dot of their compulsory service and open clinics dishing out cough mixtures and antihistamines. And some, have even become politicians after the GP stint when they should have evolved into top clinicians and researchers. If you need doctors to do such work, please do not waste a million ringgit of the tax payer’s money sending them to top medical schools in the western world. Train them at home, India or Indonesia. This sought of infamous policies are created by our Education Ministry who clearly do not know how incompetent our MOH is. You give them a diamond; they will turn it to dust.
Alternatively scrap the compulsory service if you still want to send students to million dollar medical schools, let them train properly and join a private hospital here. Why do we keep repeating this nonsense year after year for 50 years? The opportunity lost is always never the student who doesn’t come back. It’s almost always the loss of the tax payer’s money. What sought of government would do this year in year out without soughting out the reasons and looking for solutions but instead wastes 100 million ringgit of the public’s money. This sought of sponsor cannot be worthy of any respect nor trust as they keep wasting tax payer’s money like there is no tomorrow. If you are so concerned about the million ringgit, common sense would dictate that you give out loans instead where legal recourse for non payment can be executed expediently where guarantors become severally liable. . No point gunning for a kid who only wants to improve himself. If you are so insistent he must serve at the backwaters, the solution is simple. Don’t send them to million dollar schools. Period. Otherwise improve your service, infrastructure and incentives so that they can’t wait to come home.
But bluffing 18 year olds about a medical nirvana waiting here out at the MOH is just not going to cut anymore. This country has been left behind severely in almost every sector of the medical field. Joining a system that is rapidly hemorrhaging doctors is the only reason why tomorrow you will be seeing 100 outpatients instead of 60 today. Today you cannot send bright kids to study in places where medical miracles do happen and then expect them to come home to compete with traditional medical practitioners who practice merrily while medical doctors come under the purview of idiotic enactments like the PHFSA. We need a better managed Health and Education Ministry which will not only bring back our own scholars but will attract talent from throughout the world. The problem is the system. So don’t shoot the doctor.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
wrote a very long tirade against Buckberg up there. but somehow it got lost in cyberspace. rejected as spam? may be it is for the better.
but let me express my thoughts on Buckberg’s “arguments” : how dare govt scholars utilise Malaysian taxpayers funds for a wonderful education and then claim we owe them a better life! if not, they are have the right of not coming back! go (insert expletive) yourself!
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:37 am
@huajern, wherever it is, it’s not in the spam queue. Didn’t see it anywhere else. Those writing long replies, do save the text in notepad or somewhere before hitting the Submit button as if your internet connection isn’t good (that means all of us using Streamyx) it might disappear into the ether.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Hi just stumbled on this site, and I really enjoy reading this article. Its worrying to know that there are so many Malaysian medical students who choose to stay overseas instead of coming back here.
Reading Buckberg’s comment, I partially agree with him. Its true that our system is flawed and that there is a lot of things that need changing before we can remedy the situation. His suggestion that those students should be allowed to work in private hospitals where the pay is better and the system is less rigid is a pretty good one.
But I think that our flawed system is not the only problem. It has something to do with the mindset and integrity of those students as well. Those students have to look into their own hearts and ask themselves this: Do I want to save lives of my countrymen or do I want to make good money for the rest of my life? If they answer positively to the latter then I say good riddance!
November 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
never ending story..but believe me many of those who over stayed in dublin are mainly doing locum jobs including GPs and 6 monthly rotating jobs as registrar..very few..very..very few..pls name me 10 who became a top surgeon or researchers there..the rest are happy making their euros and pounds..and correct me if I am wrong..very very few completed the HST programme and become one of the top what ever..so pls come back and prescribe those pcm and phenergan to 100 over ptns that are still waiting outside my OPD
November 6th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
“Ambition is an euphemisms for greed”
Cheers:)