For the sake of the future of Malaysia! We need to support BERSIH!!
I remember once as a young medical officer, I was boycotted by operating theatre staff when I wanted stern action taken against a staff nurse who went for a kenduri when she was supposed to scrub for a surgery.
An assistant nurse had to cover up for her delinquent senior. Both the nurses – the one who had absented herself and the one suddenly forced to relieve her duty – were Malay. The young patient lying on my operating table waiting to deliver her baby was Malay too. And also Malay, the anaesthesist and other operating theatre staff who gave me the cold shoulder after I remonstrated with the matron.
I had informed Matron right away after I found the young nurse shivering in fear because she was thrown into the deep end and unprepared to assist in a surgery. If I had expected disciplinary action to be taken, I was disappointed. My colleagues who rallied around the race banner sadly failed to see that the patient (someone belonging to their own ethnic community) about to give birth deserved the best medical care.
What if it had been an emergency case where a life was at stake? Malays have to be made aware that an incompetent and one-race dominated civil service may not be beneficial to them and as the majority, they would be the ones ultimately most affected. With such experiences, you can understand why I resigned from the public health sector.
One of my Malay superiors urged me to “think about the service” but then again, if only the Malays themselves could think about how racism among civil servants has hindered their own progress.
1Malay first and foremost
Malaysia has a “huge and largely ethnic Malay civil service, completely loyal to Umno, but increasingly incompetent” that is the biggest obstacle to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia. This was the view of former Economic Planning Unit deputy director-general K. Govindan, according to a leaked United States diplomatic cable.
The WikiLeaks that appeared in Malaysia Today on June 6 had the cable further quoting Govindan’s opinion that our civil service adopts “a very narrow worldview and will oppose, even refuse to implement, reforms perceived as damaging ethnic Malay interests, even if convinced of the long-run gains for Malaysia”.
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has referred to the service as a “Malay administration”. He did not even bother to pass it off as a “bumiputera administration” in which case it can be claimed by the non-Muslim natives of East Malaysia. Alas, the Orang Asli indigenous to the peninsula do not even figure in the equation.
Non Malays have been gradually cleansed from the public sector with only a few remaining now in crucial and inevitable sectors such as teaching in vernacular schools. The Orang Asli have been totally excluded.
Mrs. Chiu (nee Luk Tien Fen)30 December 1954 - 7 June 2011
Mrs. Chiu nee Ms. Luk Tien Fen, a dedicated lecturer at Methodist College Kuala Lumpur, was called home to the Lord on 7 June 2011 after battling cancer. Originally from Sibu, Sarawak, Mrs. Chiu, began teaching at Methodist College Kuala Lumpur in August 1985 as an Economics lecturer.
Over the last 26 years, her guidance reached beyond the classroom as an advisor for the Christian Fellowship group, and administratively as the Head of Arts and later as Head of Panel for economics in 2007 and 2009 respectively. She passed away at the University Hospital in Petaling Jaya at around 11.30 p.m., surrounded by family and friends.
Mrs. Chiu will always be fondly remembered and dearly missed as a loving and dedicated lecturer, administrator, role model and friend to the many staff and students whose lives have been touched by this outstanding woman. Our most heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to her family, friends and dear ones as they go through this difficult time.
The wake services on 8 and 9 June 2011 at 8.30 p.m. and the funeral service on 10 June 2011 at 10.00 a.m. will be held at No.5, Gui Yuan Funeral Parlour, Jalan 229 Kampung Tunku in Section 51, Petaling Jaya.
