Why Health care fails to adopt technology... 5 Reasons.... by Dr Robert Pearl

Health care fails to adopt technology. Here are 5 reasons why.

ROBERT PEARL, MD | TECH
KevinMD, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Why do so many seemingly great technologies fail to penetrate the health care system?

I hope the following five answers shed some light on the realities of technology adoption in health care.

1. Many new technologies don’t address the real problem

Tech entrepreneurs often take a backward approach to invention. They start by discovering a nifty technology. Later, they figure out how people can use it.

This technique often teaches entrepreneurs a tough lesson: Technology is worth nothing if it doesn’t solve an important problem or improve lives.

Alan Cooper, considered by many to be the father of modern user experience design (UXD), said the ideal approach is “goal directed.”

Meaning, innovators should start with the goals of the end-user. The solutions come next. When the order is reversed, the results usually disappoint.

As an example, the health care world recently has become enthralled with wearable devices. Many of these devices help solve the problem of what gift to give a loved one during the holidays. But few of these devices solve major health problems.

These wristbands, sensors, headsets and even “smart clothes” can obtain and transmit huge amounts of data on anything from heart rhythms to blood pressure. But there’s little evidence those wearing them overcome abnormal heart rhythms or elevated blood pressures better than those who don’t.

Besides, physicians don’t want all that data anyway. They find it overwhelming, redundant and unlikely to make a clinical difference.

Physicians would love a tool that truly helps patients better manage their diet, exercise and stress levels. Many applications available today claim to modify behavior through alerts, reminders and real-time feedback, but few have demonstrated measurable success.

Entrepreneurs hoping to make a positive impact on our health should focus on helping patients avoid chronic diseases and manage health problems when they arise. And they would be wise to do this using technology that already exists while developing solutions that are easy to use and inexpensive to buy.

Apps using new, complex or expensive technologies will face an uphill battle for adoption.

2. No one wants to pay for new technologies

Creating an innovative tool or app that can help doctors and patients isn’t enough. These products must also be monetized.

In health care, that proves difficult.

Patients, physicians, hospitals and insurance companies long for the benefits and value of new technology. However, each thinks someone else should pay for it.

Further, entrepreneurs must understand the financial difficulties inherent in health care’s current fee-for-service payment model. Doctors and hospitals will be slow to embrace any technology that lowers costs or reduce patient visits. Why? Because today’s payment model financially rewards doctors and hospitals for the volume and cost of services they provide — not the quality of outcomes they achieve.

Until our payment model moves from fee-for-service to “pay-for-value,” some of the most effective technological solutions will be hard to sell.

3. Physicians are reluctant to show patients their medical information

Prior to the modern electronic health record (EHR), common wisdom was that doctors owned the medical information contained in a patient’s chart.

It made sense at the time. With only one copy of the medical record on hand, the safest place for it was the chart room located in the back of the doctor’s office.

Many doctors believed it was necessary to keep it out of the hands of patients, worrying the information could be harmful if read.

Much has changed in the era of information technology and consumerism. More and more, patients object to the paternalism of the past – asserting their right to access to their own health records.

But now there’s new medical record problem arising. As computers and keyboards replace charts and pens in exam rooms across the country, technology is now the physical barrier between patients and physicians.

But computers don’t have to create distance.

Some doctors are flipping their computers around and using the health data on screen to educate patients. This transparency ensures the information is accurate. It invites patients to participate more closely in their own treatment plans.

Still, today’s exam-room computers are clunky. Physicians would relish a more user-friendly tablet, capable of rapid data entry and mobility. And patients want access to their health data beyond the doctor’s office. Entrepreneurs who can address both of these needs will find an eager market.

4. Technology slows down many physicians

For the average physician, entering data into an EHR takes longer than keeping a paper record.

The problem isn’t just the time it takes to type but also the structured format of the data entry. It simply takes more time when the application prevents physicians from skipping steps or leaving out clinical details.

Frustrating as it may be for doctors, the added information reduces the risks of medical error, avoids redundant testing, and facilitates easier access to test results.  But the benefits to the patient are clear, even when the technology adds time for the physician.

Just think, an EHR can prompt surgeons to ask patients about drug allergies as part of their medical history. Using this information, an EHR app can trigger an alert should the doctor accidentally try to order an antibiotic the patient is allergic to.

Physicians like to assume they’d never make such a mistake. Science proves otherwise. Some estimate the rate of drug errors by doctors has jumped 50 percent in recent years. Another study found 1 in 5 medications used by seniors are prescribed inappropriately.

Entrepreneurs can help physicians reduce the time needed for data entry by developing software applications that include macros and smart lists. Apps with alerts can help reduce medical errors.

But, of course, getting doctors to embrace these more effective approaches will be the next big challenge.

5. Many physicians see technology as impersonal

Go ahead and ask a baby boomer physician, “What is personalized medical care?”

The doctor is likely to talk about the importance of the human touch or about how subjective the “art of medicine” is.

Yes, these are important factors in medicine. But providing personalized care in the future will require much more than that.

With the advent of gene sequencing and the exponential growth of medical information, physicians won’t be able to meet the unique medical requirements of individual patients without advanced IT systems.

As medical knowledge advances, the perceived rift between “high tech” and “high touch” is becoming a relic of the past.

Telling a patient he has cancer requires time, compassion and well-honed interpersonal skills. This is the traditional art of medicine. But figuring out the exact cancer treatment — given dozens of alternatives, the patient’s unique genetics and the many sub-types of each cancer – is more a matter of technology and science. Increasingly, treatment possibilities exceed the human mind.

In addition, when doctors lament modern medical practice becoming impersonal, they fail to understand how most people prefer to manage their lives.

In today’s era of consumerism, if you ask patients what they mean by personalized medical care, they’ll talk about being able to decide how, when and where they obtain information and treatment — just like they do when they travel or buy retail products and services.

Today’s busy people want to receive care through technologically enabled alternatives like video visits and secure email, rather than through the traditional office visit. And they’re frustrated by a health care system that refuses to accommodate them.

There’s a waiting market for entrepreneurs who can help people receive care virtually, without having to miss work or school — particularly if the solutions are less expensive.

To meet these preferences, entrepreneurs need to look further than at the hundreds of millions of smartphones resting in the hands or pockets of Americans today.

Overcoming these barriers

Across history, it often has been the next generation that figures out how best to use new technology. Health care may be no different.

But if hungry entrepreneurs don’t want to wait 10 or 15 years for the demographics to change, they would be smart to provide solutions that use currently available technology to solve patient’s problems in the simplest and least expensive ways.

Robert Pearl is a physician and CEO, The Permanente Medical Group. This article originally appeared on Forbes.com


http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/09/health-care-fails-adopt-technology-5-reasons.html

The Star: Moderates need to speak up more, says GMM.... by Hanis Zainal

Moderates need to speak up more, says GMM

by hanis zainal

The Star: Saturday August 23, 2014 

PETALING JAYA: Reasonable Malaysians need to shape public discourse on policies and issues, says Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) chief executive officer Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

He said moderates in Malaysia tended to be low-key and their views were often unaired in the public sphere.

“I urge the moderates to speak up more and reclaim the centre stage to shape public discourse on policies and issues,” he said.

Saifuddin stressed that in a democratic country, everyone deserved the chance to be heard, including the extremists in society, but the best way for moderates to be heard is to speak louder than the extremists.

“The only way to do it is by using the voices of the moderates to drown them out and by showing how things can be done in a moderate manner,” he added.

Saifuddin said the majority of Malaysians believed in moderation.

“Malaysians as a whole have been subscribing to the middle path by respecting and tolerating others. That is why we can claim that the big majority of Malaysians are moderates,” he said.

He said Malaysians from different religions coming together to offer prayers to the victims of the MH17 and MH370 tragedies showed that everyone could accept each other’s religious beliefs.

Saifuddin said the The Star’s campaign to encourage moderates to speak up had come at the right time.

“Unfortunately, there are one or two media (outlets) that give too much space for the extreme voices and too little for the moderates.

“We need to give more space for the moderate voices,” he said.

EIU: Malaysia's place in the world, 36th, not great but still livable...

Malaysia's place in the world, not great but still livable, let's stay that way and make our world better! But some detractors would say, 'who you are' determines whether it's really the better place to be born. 

 

Our 36th ranking is suspect, until and unless greater equity and equality of citizenship can exist within this nation without the constant rankling of apartheidist racists!

 

 

 

 

The Economist

Where is the best place to be born in the world today? In a light-hearted ranking that we compiled in 1988, America came top. In 2013, the Economist Intelligence Unit more earnestly calculated where would be best to be born. It ranked America 16th. http://econ.st/W3oKJw

Merdeka Woes: 57 years and still racially-straitjacketed and backward looking...

57 years old and still racially straitjacketed – Dr David Quek

Published: 3 September 2014

Our Malaysian polity at 57 years old is under serious threat. We are in deep troubles, and are seemingly still devolving and falling apart.
As we have all been discovering, of late, there has been a steady escalation of ethnic tensions, of human rights' violations and selective interpretation of the law (especially the Sedition Act) to systematically target opposition leaders as well as dissenting common citizens on very contentious and arbitrary, even petty, issues.
Nowhere in the world do we have so many misguided people using the idiotic recourse of making hundreds of "police reports" against one another, based on political and inane issues. Worse, our police selectively use these politically motivated and manoeuvred police reports to take selective actions against those they choose to believe as "threats" to society.

Worse too, that the police now feel they cannot ever be criticised by anyone, even when what they have been doing has been blatantly biased and plain wrong to most ordinary citizens. Are the police above the nation's laws? Are the police now the true powers running the country on diktats of their own, or the home minister? Are we in a police state or under an emergency or military rule? These perceptibly unjust actions of selective and disproportionate application of the law and justice or police action is creating unease and anger among reasonable citizens. They render our rule of law arguable and reek of sadly regressive and repressive overtones!
This is not what our citizens want or wish for. We do not respect, accept nor can we condone such an increasingly cynical administration that is running on unrestrained police actions, runaway hate-mongering bigots, political power-play and shenanigans run amok.
We appear to have law enforcers and deeply-ingrained bigots who are more interested in playing political games, cursing, catching and handcuffing white collar law-breakers, including utterers of unkind words, and irreverent social media rantings, silly "jolok mata" nudists, exhibitionists who dared judder some of our "holier-than-thou" sense of prickly morality and sensibilities!
Let's see, who had been harmed really? No one but themselves, unless of course we choose to think that these could corrupt and undermine our religiously weak-minded brethren! So it seems we'd rather catch these socially-inept misfits than the real criminals, robbers, snatch thieves, or corrupt officials!
These "laws" are now used arbitrarily and selectively to punish, prosecute, and persecute anyone who threatens or dares to criticise this devolving government and power brokers now under siege from their own self-destruct mindsets.
Sadly under the anemic and torpid leadership of our direction-less political masters, some ministers and wannabe politicians and extremists have been pushing the envelope of right-wing, race-baiting agendas, and spreading of ethno-religious hatred with escapable impunity.
This is indeed sad and unbecoming of a modern nation that is aspiring toward a fully developed status by 2020. We appear to have hopelessly stumbled into a stagnating and retrogressive ethnocentric apartheidism, after this long-suffering government found itself losing its power base following the last GE13.
Instead of searching for the root causes of its political weaknesses and shortcomings through an in-depth post-mortem, this minority government has instead embarked on a series of witch hunts to demonise long-suffering minorities and resurrect the archaic but extremely dangerous spectre of racial hatred and ethnic supremacy, now so passé in today's society of global multiculturalism.
We are now running on empty. We are moving backwards when all around us, every neighbouring developing nation has been pushing ahead post-haste to advance and progress, by harnessing the vibrant energies and rich diversities of all its citizens.
It appears that this dastardly cabal of kleptocrats is willing to do everything in their power to stay in control, at whatever costs. They are willing to test the limits of a new-found "banana-republic-style" autocracy by dragging down and bankrupting the entire nation, not just in terms of exhausting all our diminishing financial reserves, but also to shatter our already tattered institutions of governance and civil society.
Please, let's break out of this spiralling cycle of self-defeatism and authoritarianism where the rule of law is no longer respected by the powers that be, where favoured arrogant ministers and callous demagogues are tacitly allowed to spew hatred and racism, while dissenting others face concerted if not starkly different attacks on their personal and civil liberties!
Now we have ministers who think that modern liberal concepts are all but evil and that their own brand of demagoguery based on arbitrary dictatorship and religious extremism is superior!
I fear for Malaysia! We appear to be entering an extremely dangerous phase of our nationhood. We're facing a real risk of potential break-up of our Malaysian polity as a nation of disparate multi-diversity and enriching cultures.
Instead, we're finding faults and excuses to tear apart the fragile fabric of our long-honed multi-ethnic and religious-tolerant cohesiveness. We're drowning in the centrifugal vortices of Charybdis of provoked inter-ethnic hatred and eruptive mutual distrust!
We must stop this madness from spiralling out of control! We must not allow our nation to boil over, into an internecine fire storm of mutually-assured destruction, of them and us. We must resist using the power of dictatorship to kickstart racial and religious apartheid and extremism.
We must not become an irrational failing or failed state! Civil society must step up and be counted to condemn these dastardly acts of rising kleptarchy, autocracy and political supremacist mayhem!
We must reignite our Merdeka flame of unity amid our dispersing diversity and challenges, and work hard toward greater inter-ethnic as well as mutual multicultural acceptance and tolerance. – September 3, 2014.
* Dr David Quek is a consultant cardiologist and president of Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/57-years-old-and-still-racially-straitjacketed-dr-david-quek#sthash.iWrCqfNT.dpuf

57 years old and still racially straitjacketed – Dr David Quek

Published: 3 September 2014

Our Malaysian polity at 57 years old is under serious threat. We are in deep troubles, and are seemingly still devolving and falling apart.
As we have all been discovering, of late, there has been a steady escalation of ethnic tensions, of human rights' violations and selective interpretation of the law (especially the Sedition Act) to systematically target opposition leaders as well as dissenting common citizens on very contentious and arbitrary, even petty, issues.
Nowhere in the world do we have so many misguided people using the idiotic recourse of making hundreds of "police reports" against one another, based on political and inane issues. Worse, our police selectively use these politically motivated and manoeuvred police reports to take selective actions against those they choose to believe as "threats" to society.

Worse too, that the police now feel they cannot ever be criticised by anyone, even when what they have been doing has been blatantly biased and plain wrong to most ordinary citizens. Are the police above the nation's laws? Are the police now the true powers running the country on diktats of their own, or the home minister? Are we in a police state or under an emergency or military rule? These perceptibly unjust actions of selective and disproportionate application of the law and justice or police action is creating unease and anger among reasonable citizens. They render our rule of law arguable and reek of sadly regressive and repressive overtones!
This is not what our citizens want or wish for. We do not respect, accept nor can we condone such an increasingly cynical administration that is running on unrestrained police actions, runaway hate-mongering bigots, political power-play and shenanigans run amok.
We appear to have law enforcers and deeply-ingrained bigots who are more interested in playing political games, cursing, catching and handcuffing white collar law-breakers, including utterers of unkind words, and irreverent social media rantings, silly "jolok mata" nudists, exhibitionists who dared judder some of our "holier-than-thou" sense of prickly morality and sensibilities!
Let's see, who had been harmed really? No one but themselves, unless of course we choose to think that these could corrupt and undermine our religiously weak-minded brethren! So it seems we'd rather catch these socially-inept misfits than the real criminals, robbers, snatch thieves, or corrupt officials!
These "laws" are now used arbitrarily and selectively to punish, prosecute, and persecute anyone who threatens or dares to criticise this devolving government and power brokers now under siege from their own self-destruct mindsets.
Sadly under the anemic and torpid leadership of our direction-less political masters, some ministers and wannabe politicians and extremists have been pushing the envelope of right-wing, race-baiting agendas, and spreading of ethno-religious hatred with escapable impunity.
This is indeed sad and unbecoming of a modern nation that is aspiring toward a fully developed status by 2020. We appear to have hopelessly stumbled into a stagnating and retrogressive ethnocentric apartheidism, after this long-suffering government found itself losing its power base following the last GE13.
Instead of searching for the root causes of its political weaknesses and shortcomings through an in-depth post-mortem, this minority government has instead embarked on a series of witch hunts to demonise long-suffering minorities and resurrect the archaic but extremely dangerous spectre of racial hatred and ethnic supremacy, now so passé in today's society of global multiculturalism.
We are now running on empty. We are moving backwards when all around us, every neighbouring developing nation has been pushing ahead post-haste to advance and progress, by harnessing the vibrant energies and rich diversities of all its citizens.
It appears that this dastardly cabal of kleptocrats is willing to do everything in their power to stay in control, at whatever costs. They are willing to test the limits of a new-found "banana-republic-style" autocracy by dragging down and bankrupting the entire nation, not just in terms of exhausting all our diminishing financial reserves, but also to shatter our already tattered institutions of governance and civil society.
Please, let's break out of this spiralling cycle of self-defeatism and authoritarianism where the rule of law is no longer respected by the powers that be, where favoured arrogant ministers and callous demagogues are tacitly allowed to spew hatred and racism, while dissenting others face concerted if not starkly different attacks on their personal and civil liberties!
Now we have ministers who think that modern liberal concepts are all but evil and that their own brand of demagoguery based on arbitrary dictatorship and religious extremism is superior!
I fear for Malaysia! We appear to be entering an extremely dangerous phase of our nationhood. We're facing a real risk of potential break-up of our Malaysian polity as a nation of disparate multi-diversity and enriching cultures.
Instead, we're finding faults and excuses to tear apart the fragile fabric of our long-honed multi-ethnic and religious-tolerant cohesiveness. We're drowning in the centrifugal vortices of Charybdis of provoked inter-ethnic hatred and eruptive mutual distrust!
We must stop this madness from spiralling out of control! We must not allow our nation to boil over, into an internecine fire storm of mutually-assured destruction, of them and us. We must resist using the power of dictatorship to kickstart racial and religious apartheid and extremism.
We must not become an irrational failing or failed state! Civil society must step up and be counted to condemn these dastardly acts of rising kleptarchy, autocracy and political supremacist mayhem!
We must reignite our Merdeka flame of unity amid our dispersing diversity and challenges, and work hard toward greater inter-ethnic as well as mutual multicultural acceptance and tolerance. – September 3, 2014.
* Dr David Quek is a consultant cardiologist and president of Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/57-years-old-and-still-racially-straitjacketed-dr-david-quek#sthash.iWrCqfNT.dpuf

 

 

 

57 years old and still racially straitjacketed – Dr David Quek

Published: 3 September 2014

Our Malaysian polity at 57 years old is under serious threat. We are in deep troubles, and are seemingly still devolving and falling apart.
As we have all been discovering, of late, there has been a steady escalation of ethnic tensions, of human rights' violations and selective interpretation of the law (especially the Sedition Act) to systematically target opposition leaders as well as dissenting common citizens on very contentious and arbitrary, even petty, issues.
Nowhere in the world do we have so many misguided people using the idiotic recourse of making hundreds of "police reports" against one another, based on political and inane issues. Worse, our police selectively use these politically motivated and manoeuvred police reports to take selective actions against those they choose to believe as "threats" to society.

Worse too, that the police now feel they cannot ever be criticised by anyone, even when what they have been doing has been blatantly biased and plain wrong to most ordinary citizens. Are the police above the nation's laws? Are the police now the true powers running the country on diktats of their own, or the home minister? Are we in a police state or under an emergency or military rule? These perceptibly unjust actions of selective and disproportionate application of the law and justice or police action is creating unease and anger among reasonable citizens. They render our rule of law arguable and reek of sadly regressive and repressive overtones!
This is not what our citizens want or wish for. We do not respect, accept nor can we condone such an increasingly cynical administration that is running on unrestrained police actions, runaway hate-mongering bigots, political power-play and shenanigans run amok.
We appear to have law enforcers and deeply-ingrained bigots who are more interested in playing political games, cursing, catching and handcuffing white collar law-breakers, including utterers of unkind words, and irreverent social media rantings, silly "jolok mata" nudists, exhibitionists who dared judder some of our "holier-than-thou" sense of prickly morality and sensibilities!
Let's see, who had been harmed really? No one but themselves, unless of course we choose to think that these could corrupt and undermine our religiously weak-minded brethren! So it seems we'd rather catch these socially-inept misfits than the real criminals, robbers, snatch thieves, or corrupt officials!
These "laws" are now used arbitrarily and selectively to punish, prosecute, and persecute anyone who threatens or dares to criticise this devolving government and power brokers now under siege from their own self-destruct mindsets.
Sadly under the anemic and torpid leadership of our direction-less political masters, some ministers and wannabe politicians and extremists have been pushing the envelope of right-wing, race-baiting agendas, and spreading of ethno-religious hatred with escapable impunity.
This is indeed sad and unbecoming of a modern nation that is aspiring toward a fully developed status by 2020. We appear to have hopelessly stumbled into a stagnating and retrogressive ethnocentric apartheidism, after this long-suffering government found itself losing its power base following the last GE13.
Instead of searching for the root causes of its political weaknesses and shortcomings through an in-depth post-mortem, this minority government has instead embarked on a series of witch hunts to demonise long-suffering minorities and resurrect the archaic but extremely dangerous spectre of racial hatred and ethnic supremacy, now so passé in today's society of global multiculturalism.
We are now running on empty. We are moving backwards when all around us, every neighbouring developing nation has been pushing ahead post-haste to advance and progress, by harnessing the vibrant energies and rich diversities of all its citizens.
It appears that this dastardly cabal of kleptocrats is willing to do everything in their power to stay in control, at whatever costs. They are willing to test the limits of a new-found "banana-republic-style" autocracy by dragging down and bankrupting the entire nation, not just in terms of exhausting all our diminishing financial reserves, but also to shatter our already tattered institutions of governance and civil society.
Please, let's break out of this spiralling cycle of self-defeatism and authoritarianism where the rule of law is no longer respected by the powers that be, where favoured arrogant ministers and callous demagogues are tacitly allowed to spew hatred and racism, while dissenting others face concerted if not starkly different attacks on their personal and civil liberties!
Now we have ministers who think that modern liberal concepts are all but evil and that their own brand of demagoguery based on arbitrary dictatorship and religious extremism is superior!
I fear for Malaysia! We appear to be entering an extremely dangerous phase of our nationhood. We're facing a real risk of potential break-up of our Malaysian polity as a nation of disparate multi-diversity and enriching cultures.
Instead, we're finding faults and excuses to tear apart the fragile fabric of our long-honed multi-ethnic and religious-tolerant cohesiveness. We're drowning in the centrifugal vortices of Charybdis of provoked inter-ethnic hatred and eruptive mutual distrust!
We must stop this madness from spiralling out of control! We must not allow our nation to boil over, into an internecine fire storm of mutually-assured destruction, of them and us. We must resist using the power of dictatorship to kickstart racial and religious apartheid and extremism.
We must not become an irrational failing or failed state! Civil society must step up and be counted to condemn these dastardly acts of rising kleptarchy, autocracy and political supremacist mayhem!
We must reignite our Merdeka flame of unity amid our dispersing diversity and challenges, and work hard toward greater inter-ethnic as well as mutual multicultural acceptance and tolerance. – September 3, 2014.
* Dr David Quek is a consultant cardiologist and president of Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/57-years-old-and-still-racially-straitjacketed-dr-david-quek#sthash.iWrCqfNT.dpuf

 

57 years old and still racially straitjacketed – Dr David Quek

The Malaysian Insider, Published: 3 September 2014

Our Malaysian polity at 57 years old is under serious threat. We are in deep troubles, and are seemingly still devolving and falling apart.

As we have all been discovering, of late, there has been a steady escalation of ethnic tensions, of human rights' violations and selective interpretation of the law (especially the Sedition Act) to systematically target opposition leaders as well as dissenting common citizens on very contentious and arbitrary, even petty, issues.

Nowhere in the world do we have so many misguided people using the idiotic recourse of making hundreds of "police reports" against one another, based on political and inane issues. Worse, our police selectively use these politically motivated and manoeuvred police reports to take selective actions against those they choose to believe as "threats" to society.

Worse too, that the police now feel they cannot ever be criticised by anyone, even when what they have been doing has been blatantly biased and plain wrong to most ordinary citizens. Are the police above the nation's laws? Are the police now the true powers running the country on diktats of their own, or the home minister? Are we in a police state or under an emergency or military rule?

These perceptibly unjust actions of selective and disproportionate application of the law and justice or police action is creating unease and anger among reasonable citizens. They render our rule of law arguable and reek of sadly regressive and repressive overtones!

This is not what our citizens want or wish for. We do not respect, accept nor can we condone such an increasingly cynical administration that is running on unrestrained police actions, runaway hate-mongering bigots, political power-play and shenanigans run amok.

We appear to have law enforcers and deeply-ingrained bigots who are more interested in playing political games, cursing, catching and handcuffing white collar law-breakers, including utterers of unkind words, and irreverent social media rantings, silly "jolok mata" nudists, exhibitionists who dared judder some of our "holier-than-thou" sense of prickly morality and sensibilities!
Let's see, who had been harmed really? No one but themselves, unless of course we choose to think that these could corrupt and undermine our religiously weak-minded brethren! So it seems we'd rather catch these socially-inept misfits than the real criminals, robbers, snatch thieves, or corrupt officials!

These "laws" are now used arbitrarily and selectively to punish, prosecute, and persecute anyone who threatens or dares to criticise this devolving government and power brokers now under siege from their own self-destruct mindsets.

Sadly under the anemic and torpid leadership of our direction-less political masters, some ministers and wannabe politicians and extremists have been pushing the envelope of right-wing, race-baiting agendas, and spreading of ethno-religious hatred with escapable impunity.

This is indeed sad and unbecoming of a modern nation that is aspiring toward a fully developed status by 2020. We appear to have hopelessly stumbled into a stagnating and retrogressive ethnocentric apartheidism, after this long-suffering government found itself losing its power base following the last GE13.

Instead of searching for the root causes of its political weaknesses and shortcomings through an in-depth post-mortem, this minority government has instead embarked on a series of witch hunts to demonise long-suffering minorities and resurrect the archaic but extremely dangerous spectre of racial hatred and ethnic supremacy, now so passé in today's society of global multiculturalism.

We are now running on empty. We are moving backwards when all around us, every neighbouring developing nation has been pushing ahead post-haste to advance and progress, by harnessing the vibrant energies and rich diversities of all its citizens.

It appears that this dastardly cabal of kleptocrats is willing to do everything in their power to stay in control, at whatever costs. They are willing to test the limits of a new-found "banana-republic-style" autocracy by dragging down and bankrupting the entire nation, not just in terms of exhausting all our diminishing financial reserves, but also to shatter our already tattered institutions of governance and civil society.

Please, let's break out of this spiralling cycle of self-defeatism and authoritarianism where the rule of law is no longer respected by the powers that be, where favoured arrogant ministers and callous demagogues are tacitly allowed to spew hatred and racism, while dissenting others face concerted if not starkly different attacks on their personal and civil liberties!

Now we have ministers who think that modern liberal concepts are all but evil and that their own brand of demagoguery based on arbitrary dictatorship and religious extremism is superior!

I fear for Malaysia! We appear to be entering an extremely dangerous phase of our nationhood. We're facing a real risk of potential break-up of our Malaysian polity as a nation of disparate multi-diversity and enriching cultures.

Instead, we're finding faults and excuses to tear apart the fragile fabric of our long-honed multi-ethnic and religious-tolerant cohesiveness. We're drowning in the centrifugal vortices of Charybdis of provoked inter-ethnic hatred and eruptive mutual distrust!

We must stop this madness from spiralling out of control! We must not allow our nation to boil over, into an internecine fire storm of mutually-assured destruction, of them and us. We must resist using the power of dictatorship to kickstart racial and religious apartheid and extremism.

We must not become an irrational failing or failed state! Civil society must step up and be counted to condemn these dastardly acts of rising kleptarchy, autocracy and political supremacist mayhem!

We must reignite our Merdeka flame of unity amid our dispersing diversity and challenges, and work hard toward greater inter-ethnic as well as mutual multicultural acceptance and tolerance. – September 3, 2014.

* Dr David Quek is a consultant cardiologist and president of Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/57-years-old-and-still-racially-straitjacketed-dr-david-quek#sthash.iWrCqfNT.dpuf

57 years old and still racially straitjacketed – Dr David Quek

Published: 3 September 2014

Our Malaysian polity at 57 years old is under serious threat. We are in deep troubles, and are seemingly still devolving and falling apart.
As we have all been discovering, of late, there has been a steady escalation of ethnic tensions, of human rights' violations and selective interpretation of the law (especially the Sedition Act) to systematically target opposition leaders as well as dissenting common citizens on very contentious and arbitrary, even petty, issues.
Nowhere in the world do we have so many misguided people using the idiotic recourse of making hundreds of "police reports" against one another, based on political and inane issues. Worse, our police selectively use these politically motivated and manoeuvred police reports to take selective actions against those they choose to believe as "threats" to society.

Worse too, that the police now feel they cannot ever be criticised by anyone, even when what they have been doing has been blatantly biased and plain wrong to most ordinary citizens. Are the police above the nation's laws? Are the police now the true powers running the country on diktats of their own, or the home minister? Are we in a police state or under an emergency or military rule? These perceptibly unjust actions of selective and disproportionate application of the law and justice or police action is creating unease and anger among reasonable citizens. They render our rule of law arguable and reek of sadly regressive and repressive overtones!
This is not what our citizens want or wish for. We do not respect, accept nor can we condone such an increasingly cynical administration that is running on unrestrained police actions, runaway hate-mongering bigots, political power-play and shenanigans run amok.
We appear to have law enforcers and deeply-ingrained bigots who are more interested in playing political games, cursing, catching and handcuffing white collar law-breakers, including utterers of unkind words, and irreverent social media rantings, silly "jolok mata" nudists, exhibitionists who dared judder some of our "holier-than-thou" sense of prickly morality and sensibilities!
Let's see, who had been harmed really? No one but themselves, unless of course we choose to think that these could corrupt and undermine our religiously weak-minded brethren! So it seems we'd rather catch these socially-inept misfits than the real criminals, robbers, snatch thieves, or corrupt officials!
These "laws" are now used arbitrarily and selectively to punish, prosecute, and persecute anyone who threatens or dares to criticise this devolving government and power brokers now under siege from their own self-destruct mindsets.
Sadly under the anemic and torpid leadership of our direction-less political masters, some ministers and wannabe politicians and extremists have been pushing the envelope of right-wing, race-baiting agendas, and spreading of ethno-religious hatred with escapable impunity.
This is indeed sad and unbecoming of a modern nation that is aspiring toward a fully developed status by 2020. We appear to have hopelessly stumbled into a stagnating and retrogressive ethnocentric apartheidism, after this long-suffering government found itself losing its power base following the last GE13.
Instead of searching for the root causes of its political weaknesses and shortcomings through an in-depth post-mortem, this minority government has instead embarked on a series of witch hunts to demonise long-suffering minorities and resurrect the archaic but extremely dangerous spectre of racial hatred and ethnic supremacy, now so passé in today's society of global multiculturalism.
We are now running on empty. We are moving backwards when all around us, every neighbouring developing nation has been pushing ahead post-haste to advance and progress, by harnessing the vibrant energies and rich diversities of all its citizens.
It appears that this dastardly cabal of kleptocrats is willing to do everything in their power to stay in control, at whatever costs. They are willing to test the limits of a new-found "banana-republic-style" autocracy by dragging down and bankrupting the entire nation, not just in terms of exhausting all our diminishing financial reserves, but also to shatter our already tattered institutions of governance and civil society.
Please, let's break out of this spiralling cycle of self-defeatism and authoritarianism where the rule of law is no longer respected by the powers that be, where favoured arrogant ministers and callous demagogues are tacitly allowed to spew hatred and racism, while dissenting others face concerted if not starkly different attacks on their personal and civil liberties!
Now we have ministers who think that modern liberal concepts are all but evil and that their own brand of demagoguery based on arbitrary dictatorship and religious extremism is superior!
I fear for Malaysia! We appear to be entering an extremely dangerous phase of our nationhood. We're facing a real risk of potential break-up of our Malaysian polity as a nation of disparate multi-diversity and enriching cultures.
Instead, we're finding faults and excuses to tear apart the fragile fabric of our long-honed multi-ethnic and religious-tolerant cohesiveness. We're drowning in the centrifugal vortices of Charybdis of provoked inter-ethnic hatred and eruptive mutual distrust!
We must stop this madness from spiralling out of control! We must not allow our nation to boil over, into an internecine fire storm of mutually-assured destruction, of them and us. We must resist using the power of dictatorship to kickstart racial and religious apartheid and extremism.
We must not become an irrational failing or failed state! Civil society must step up and be counted to condemn these dastardly acts of rising kleptarchy, autocracy and political supremacist mayhem!
We must reignite our Merdeka flame of unity amid our dispersing diversity and challenges, and work hard toward greater inter-ethnic as well as mutual multicultural acceptance and tolerance. – September 3, 2014.
* Dr David Quek is a consultant cardiologist and president of Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/57-years-old-and-still-racially-straitjacketed-dr-david-quek#sthash.iWrCqfNT.dpuf

Bar Council: Malaysia Must Not Become an Authoritarian State

Our Malaysian polity at 57 years old is under threat! We're in deep sh*t! And we're seemingly devolving!

As we have all been discovering, of late, there has been a steady escalation of human rights' violations and selective interpretation of the law (esp the new Sedition ACT) to apparently target oppositionists as well as common citizens on very contentious and arbitrary even petty issues.

No where in the world do we have so many misguided people using the idiotic recourse of making hundreds of 'police reports' against one another, based on political and inane issues! Worse, police selectively use these politically motivated and manoeuvred police reports to take selective actions against only those they choose to believe as 'threats' to civil society! Worse too that the police now feels that it cannot ever  be criticised by anyone! Is the police running the country on diktats? Are we in a police state or under an emergency or military rule?

These perceptibly 'unjust' actions of selective and disproportionate justice or police action is creating unease and anger amongst reasonable citizens. They also render our rule of law arguable and sadly regressive and repressive! This is not what our citizens want or wish for, we do not respect and cannot condone such an increasingly cynical administration that is running on uncontrolled police actions, runaway hate-mongering bigots, political power-play and shenanigans run amok...

Sadly under the anemic and torpid leadership of our silent/absent PM, fascist ministers and wannabe politicians and extremists have been pushing the envelope of right-wing, race-baiting agendas, and spreading of ethno-religious hatred with impunity.

This is indeed sad and unbecoming of a modern nation that is aspiring toward fully developed status by 2020. We appear to have stumbled into a stagnating and retrogressive ethnocentric apartheidism, after this long-suffering government found itself losing its power base following GE13.

Instead of searching for the root causes of its political weakness, by carrying out in-depth post-mortem introspection, this lost minority government has instead embarked on a witch-hunt to demonise long-suffering minorities and resurrect the archaic but extremely dangerous spectre of racial hatred and ethnic supremacism, now so passé in today's modern society.

We are now running on empty, backwards when all around us, every neighbouring developing nation has been pushing ahead post-haste to advance and progress, by harnessing the vibrant energies and rich diversities of all its citizens!

Please, let's break out of this spiralling cycle of self-defeatism and authoritarianism where the rule of law is no longer respected by the powers that be, where favoured arrogant minsters and callous demagogues are tacitly allowed to spew their hatred and extremist racism, while others face concerted if starkly different attacks!

These 'laws' are now used arbitrarily and selectively to punish, prosecute, and persecute anyone who threatens or or dares to criticise this devolving government and power brokers now under siege from its own self-destruct mindsets. It appears that this dastardly cabal of kleptocrats are willing to test the limits of a new-found "banana-republic-style" autocracy by dragging down and bankrupting the entire nation, not just in terms of exhausting all our diminishing financial reserves, but also our tattered institutions of governance and civil society.

I fear Malaysia is entering a dangerous phase of our nationhood, we're facing a distinct if real risk of a potential break-up of immense consequences!

We must stop this madness from spiralling out of control! We must not allow our nation boil over, into a dictatorship of irrational failing state! Civil society must step up and be counted to condemn these dastardly acts of rising autocracy and political supremacist mayhem!

PRESS RELEASE

Malaysia Must Not Become an Authoritarian State

The Malaysian Bar is heavily critical of the recent spate of arrests under the Societies Act 1966 and prosecutions under the Sedition Act 1948 and Penal Code.  The raft of arrests and prosecutions of individuals lately shows that we are undergoing an intense period of oppression against citizenry and regression in the rule of law marked by the aggressive curtailment of rights and fundamental liberties under our Federal Constitution.

These individuals are being charged for allegedly criticising or insulting political parties and critiquing or making comments, albeit adverse ones, with respect to court judgments.  These are clearly not offences that are envisaged by, and that are within the ambit of, either the Sedition Act 1948 or the Penal Code.

In order for legal decisions to stand the test of time, they must survive the test of public scrutiny.  Only then can they be seen as sound judgments that will serve to govern our conduct and direct our actions.  In no way should criticism of court decisions, or how they came to be made, be viewed as seditious by virtue of being an affront to the administration of justice.  

The Malaysian Bar is particularly appalled with the charges that have been brought today against Associate Professor Azmi Sharom of Universiti Malaya.  His comments about the Perak constitutional crisis of 2009 are wholly within the purview of academic freedom and public discourse.   This cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, constitute sedition. 

Likewise, we reiterate that questioning the exercise of discretion should not be seen as being disrespectful to those to whom that discretion has been given, but a legitimate examination of the proper exercise of that discretion as permitted by law.

Secondly, our Federal Constitution gives to the state government jurisdiction over the administration of local government, which conceivably includes the creation of volunteer groups to assist with local administration.  The members of the Pasukan Petugas Sukarela (“PPS”) are volunteers recruited from the community by the state government.  Any question over the legality of such groups should be settled by way of federal-state government discussion, and not by the arrest and detention, and the threat of arrest and detention, of members of such volunteer groups. 

 

Even if there is a dispute as to the legitimacy of the PPS, whether under the Societies Act 1966 or otherwise, there appeared to be no imminent threat to national security, public safety or order that necessitated the police and Federal Reserve Unit to descend upon them in the manner that they did.  The arrest of members of the PPS immediately after their participation, at the invitation of the Penang State Government, in the Merdeka Day parade in Penang was therefore an unnecessary, unreasonable and disproportionate use of police powers and discretion.  

Power and discretion are conferred by legislation on the premise or presumption that they are to be exercised properly based on intelligence and common sense.  It appears that neither of these criteria was present.  It gives rise to the impression that the police are arbitrarily exercising their powers merely because they believe they can do so with impunity.  This is an abuse of power and process.

In that light, the threat by the Inspector General of Police to investigate and possibly to charge people who criticise or allegedly disrespect him on Twitter is seen as an intimidation of members of the public, and is another example of a wholly inappropriate response.  

The Prime Minister once famously declared that the days of “government knows best” are over.  Yet the actions by the authorities in recent days to detain, arrest and/or prosecute individuals who have been perceived to have challenged or questioned the authorities, deny the very humility that that declaration presupposes.

The Malaysian Bar calls upon the authorities to cease acting in a repressive and oppressive manner.  These recent events have made a mockery of the 57 years of independence that we have just celebrated.  Malaysia must not become an authoritarian state. 

Christopher Leong

President

Malaysian Bar

2 September 2014

http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/press_statements/press_release_%7C_malaysia_must_not_become_an_authoritarian_state.html