MMC ‘infected’ with irregularities
Council is alleged to have rigged its election and also sanctioned unauthorised personnel to make ‘official trips’ to evaluate programmes.
B Nantha Kumar, FMT
The Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), an authority for policy making in the medical arena here, is fast losing its credibility and transparency.
In the past few months the council has come under fire for making controversial and inept decisions on certain issues.
Examples include consenting to a local college charging a RM1 million fee for an incorporated medical degree programme and increasing the seat quota for another college with no adequate medical facilities and lecturers.
To top it, two of its officers are being investigated for corruption and abuse of power; namely the secretary Dr Wan Mazlan Mohd Woojdy and long serving council member Dr Abdul Hamid Abdul Kadir.
In the latest development, the council is once again being taken to task for allegations of rigging its election.
A check by FMT found that the MMC council election, held between June and July, did not meet the Health Ministry’s regulations.
The Medical Act 1971 and Medical Regulation 1974 must be adhered to in the MMC election process. Nine members from Peninsular Malaysia and one each from Sabah and Sarawak are to be elected.
There are more than 35,000 fully registered doctors eligible to vote and the MMC president must ensure that the ballot paper reaches each of them.
The onus lies on the individual doctor to vote or otherwise, but the president is obliged to send the ballot to their places of practice as stated in the Annual Practicing Certificate (APC) of the doctor.
The doctors are to select the 11 council members and post back the ballot to MMC within the stipulated time frame.
This year, the ballot count was done on July 20 in the presence of the MMC president Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. The result was gazetted on Aug 13, 2013.
No ballot papers received by doctors
A check with 25 doctors, all over the nation, shockingly revealed and confirmed that they never received their ballot papers. Some who have been in practice for more than 10 years said they have never ever received them even once.
A few even claimed that they were not even aware that this is an election year for MMC council members.
This puts into question the validity of their council election since the majority of MMC members were deprived from voting. And did MMC even send out the ballot papers to all eligible voters?
The probability of doctors missing the ballots is low if they were sent to their current practicing addresses.
In an e-mail reply to FMT, MMC secretary Wan Mazlan confirmed that the ballots were sent to the addresses as per their APCs.
Nevertheless, he declined to answer on the total number of doctors who voted in the election. He also kept mum on who are the longest serving council members.
The APC is renewed annually and as such there is a slim chance one would not have received the ballot but received the APC. It is evident that MMC did not send the ballots to all their 35,000 fully registered eligible voters.
The also suspicion arises on the tenure of three of MMC’s council members holding their seats. Dr Abdul Hamid, Dr Milton Lum and Dr David Queck have been holding their positions in the council for nearly 40 years.
