Friday, May 21, 2010

Doctors, Society & Politics: A Personal Perspective on the Malaysian Context


Doctors, Society & Politics:
A Personal Perspective on the Malaysian Context
Dr David KL Quek, President MMA
Malaysian Orthopedic Association Annual Lecture, May 21, 2010, Johor Bahru


Thank you for the great honour of inviting me to give this Annual Lecture of the MOA. I stand in awe in the shadows of previous distinguished speakers such as Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan (former Bar Council Chairman), Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim (former Deputy Chairman international board of Transparency International) and Dr Ang Swee Chai (physician extraordinaire involved in the humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of the Beirut massacre).
I wish to take this opportunity to discuss with you my personal perspective on how and why I think the Malaysian in general and the physician in particular, should more properly engage with our evolving society as we totter along towards some form of democratic maturity; why we need to be involved in our increasingly complicated and contentious sociopolitical discourses, and how we must participate in enhancing our healthcare mandate.
Some of you are aware that I have been quite forward in airing my views through my blogs and occasional commentaries in the alternate media. I do believe that more of us should be more forthcoming and join in this rising chorus of advocacy, of passionate vocalizing and sharing, of positive action. More than 50 years of silent passive acquiescence is enough. We must now awaken and become individual and/or collective agents of change for a better Malaysia. Although my political inclinations are probably not secret, I wish to categorically state that I am not a member of any political party.
I wish to quote one of my personally most admired intellectual and political leaders—Vaclav Havel, playwright and writer, social critic, samizdat (underground writing) pioneer, and reluctant first president of then newly emancipated Czech Republic who went on to win the Nobel Peace prize. In his first speech (New Year’s day, 1990) Havel talked about the “contaminated moral environment”, which the Czech Republic had just broken free from. Although taken from a different context and era, I believe it still applies equally well to our Malaysian situation. I quote:
“We live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought… Only a few of us were able to cry out loud that the powers that be should not be all-powerful… we cannot blame the previous rulers for everything… because it could blunt the duty that each of us faces today, namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably, and quickly… Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.”[i]
I will amplify on how I think this is important for Malaysians to ponder upon; to seize this heightened awareness and crucial moment in history for greater engagement, involvement and perhaps empowerment. I believe we all have a tremendous if obligatory stake in our own nation building. We are who we are, because of what and how we choose to do, or not to do. We should be the masters of our own fate and destiny. We must continue to believe that change is possible.
Contrary to what many people may think, there appears to be a convergence of many minds in our Malaysian society. Lawyers, doctors, professional bodies and NGOs are more and more aligned to a common objective where we hope to have a greater say and influence in the direction of where our country is going.

Last year’s Annual lecturer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan had said that: “Malaysians have changed dramatically; we are more vocal, we are not prepared to suffer in silence or to watch others suffer and most importantly we see clearly what is happening before us. We are bored with explanations or statements that insult our intelligence… There must be a “passive resistance” by the people against unjust actions. We have seen ordinary people producing extraordinary results when they stand firm against injustice, dishonesty and the destruction of our institutions. Indeed, what we have seen is an awakening of the will, wisdom and the collective conscience of the Malaysian people. And that is a formidable force that those in power ignore at their peril.”[ii]


Why the Doctor should become more Involved…
Increasingly as doctors, we are expected to take on leadership and stewardship of patient issues and enhance human dignity. We are exhorted to more directly impact on society so that our professionalism, our acclaimed ethical bearings can be put to better use. Some have even insisted that we take on the lead in directing rather than advising policy makers i.e. engage with politicians and even indulge in politics.

Although some of us more traditional physicians may baulk at this idea, it is good to note that even as early as in the mid-nineteenth century (1848), physician-pathologist Rudolf Virchow had said that “Politics is nothing more than medicine on a grand scale.”[iii]
The story of Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow is indeed a magnificent exemplar of a renaissance man. Not contented with just discovering leukaemia, distinguishing postmortem thrombosis from embolism, mastering microscopic examination of cells and tissues, and founding cellular pathology and pathologic physiology, Virchow was also known to be an incurable public service advocate.
Virchow felt his social duty keenly: “Medicine is a social science and as the science of man, has a duty to perform in recognizing these problems as its own and in offering the means by which a solution may be reached… medicine has carried us into the social sphere, there to meet up with the great problems of our time.” “Physicians,” he articulated, “are the natural attorneys of the poor.” [iv] Virchow of course went on to be elected into the Berlin City Council, the Prussian House of Deputies and later becoming a member of the Reichstag. He was a co-founder of the German Progressive Party.
Thus perhaps, it is not too much to expect that the modern day physician may be expected to also share some of the traits of this magnificent man. Increasingly, I believe the medical profession is called upon to be more socially engaged, politically involved even. Being among the more favoured and endowed cognoscenti, we should lead in matters not just pertaining to health, but perhaps to even actively shape its ultimate form and function. But should we just limit ourselves to only things medical or health? I believe otherwise. Indeed, I venture to say that the expected public roles and responsibilities of the physician have changed and have expanded.
Of course, quite a number of Malaysian doctors have already steeped themselves in politics, and then some. We are keenly aware of some of our more astute if rambunctious physicians, not a few of whom have led us down garden paths of crumbling political wilderness and had contributed to so much of our maligned if fractured institutions.
In many ways therefore, as physicians, our moral covenant with society needs to be renewed, indeed our moral imperative needs to be redefined, rekindled. In 1901, an editorial in the BMJ, extolled the possible potential power of the doctor in politics, if only we choose to use this effectively, and I quote:
 “The medical profession is treated by politicians as a negligible quantity, but this is partly because it does not know, and partly because it does not care to use, its power. What doctors could do if they chose to use the legitimate influence which they have...”[v]
Perhaps it is time to reconsider our changed role and ask ourselves just as Alice in Wonderland had been asked: “Who are you?” said the caterpillar. “I hardly know, sir, just at present,” Alice replied rather shyly, “at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”[vi]

Global and Local Sociopolitical Cynicism Runs High
The political climate in Malaysia is overcast, yet fickle and unpredictable—there have been floods, drought, earthquakes and even tsunamis! There is pervasive cynicism and a brooding sense of despondency and uncertainty—many are disenchanted, angry, yet deep-down faintly hopeful that some better sense will prevail to move us forward into a new deal, a renewed sense of belonging.
We hanker for a more meaningful and inclusive unity, rich with our cultural diversity, yet without all the ethnic baggage and baiting, racist taunting, scandalous corruption and insulting polemics. The public is clamouring for a clearer moral direction and certainty for our nation. Just shouting the jingoistic “1Malaysia” is not enough; it must be heartfelt and not simply lip service.
While perusing the Times magazine recently, I came upon the British election story, where I was somewhat surprised to note that even there, political skepticism runs high. David Cameron, Conservative leader and now just elected British PM had said during the election campaigning that,
“People just aren’t cynical about politicians. They’re pretty bloody angry; I’m sickened by what’s happened in our politics... Change vs. more of the same is the big clarion call. The change we need, the change we believe in, change we can trust, change that happens—call it what you want.”[vii]
So it is not something peculiar or special about Malaysian politics. Malaysia is perhaps just a grosser example of escalating and exasperating excesses: of ‘endemic’ fraud, gratuitous graft, crippling corruption, wanton patronage, unchecked abuse of power; of terrible profligacy and wastage. But clearly we are not alone in this.
When championing Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III, in the recent Philippines presidential elections, Newsbreak magazine editor, Maritas Vitug echoed the cry of the populace: “Our trust in politics has been so eroded that the people just want a new leader who will do the very best—who will not be corrupt, who will be good.”
Perhaps, such expectations and wishes are the common public cry for change for the better. Perhaps, they are simply too good to be true. Perhaps this wistful thinking will forever remain elusive, but this has not stopped many people the world over, from yearning for more moral leaders—maybe the least bad will do.
Our own leaders seem mired in petty and scurrilous shenanigans, which appear to tear at the social fabric of our nation. Thus, more enlightened citizens are desperately looking up to someone or anyone, whom they can trust, to displace the overflowing cynicism that has pervaded our sociopolitical space.[viii]
The recent Hulu Selangor by-election results point to the state of confusion of where public perception is heading.  The political fault-line is wafer thin (1725 votes). The Sibu by-election reinforced this view that the public is almost equally confused, with the opposition winning by just 398 votes in a bitterly fought campaign. Malaysians appear evenly divided at this juncture, although ethnic divides have widened, hardened even.
It appears that mundane local issues too easily sway us. National interests often take a backseat, trumped by parochial issues, which if promised knee-jerk piecemeal resolution or even overt largesse or patronage goodies, we could be nudged to choose one way or the other. Perhaps money politics and promises (tens to hundreds of millions of ringgit exchanging hands?) and proffered political position (senatorship) can buy just about anything in this Malaysian climate of blatant self-serving venality.
Sadly, even as we grapple with that narrow win or loss, depending on which side you stand, other dispiriting issues continue to dominate our sociopolitical landscape and shatter the myth of a harmonious well-ordered society. It is sad when foreign political observers, deride our political maturity by decrying our intellectual naïveté, and slam our petty mindedness! Australian AsiaRisk commentator, Manjit Bhatia in a hard-hitting commentary believed that “Malaysian politics has become more and more of desperation than of cleverness or even of organic intelligence.”[ix] His comments that Malaysian politics are mired in primordial ‘political psychology’ rooted in racial baggage and ‘morally bankrupt divide-and-rule’ games, rather than via essence of true intellectual discourse, are worth contemplating.
We are riven with oppressive graft and corrupt practices. We have that RM 8 billion military contract to purchase some 257 APCs (each costing more than the best made US Abrams tank in the world!); the scandalous 3.4 million ringgit purchase of our Scorpene submarines[x]; we have that 76 million ringgit investment of lobbying time with President Obama and some American politicians/businessmen; we have that uncovered sale of oil-rich sea blocks off Limbang to Brunei; that brazen RM12 billion Port Klang Free Trade Zone debacle; and the fatal police shooting of a young 15-year old boy out for a midnight joy ride in his sister’s car, etc.
Hence, it is not surprising that when polled, corruption and abuse of power, social problems, crime and public safety, and political uncertainty continue to top the 6 most problematic concerns in the country!
It is therefore, not wrong to suggest that the informed Malaysian skeptic now believes that our civic institutions are corrupt and crumbling—from the blatantly one-sided trigger-happy prosecutorial law enforcement authorities to our seemingly browbeaten judicial system.[xi]
Our self-censoring mainstream media are a shameful testimony of a sycophantic pliant state of affairs! When 2 media producers (ntv7 producer Joshua Wong and RTM TV2 producer Chou Z Lam) resigned due to undue pressure and censorship problems, pathetic half-hearted cries for more press freedom finally made some headlines, although more so in the alternate media.
This recent exposé ironically coincided with World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Malaysia is ranked 142 out of 196 this year, trailing behind East Timor, Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia. Journalist CC Liew in The Malaysian Insider lamented that: “Our Sword of Damocles is the Printing Presses and Publications Act.”[xii] But I don’t think this draconian oppressive law to muzzle dissenting voices will be relaxed anytime soon.[xiii]
Yet, despite all these, I believe that most Malaysians are still trying to make sense of our hardboiled reality, and scrunching our eyes to catch the elusive silver lining among the very dark clouds overhead. Those who have unfortunately lost all hope however, had also probably left our shores in the droves—some 300,000-odd, over the past 18 months or so![xiv]

Deepening Crisis of Public Trust
In the early 2000s, British citizens were sucked into a vortex of public recriminations where doctors faced their greatest nemeses and fallout—e.g. rogue doctors who had became killers, reckless surgeons who had over-stepped their surgical skills, excised body parts that had been withheld by pathologists, without permission, etc. Scandals like these had thereby shaken the very foundations of their much-touted National Health Service. Public trust fell to its lowest ebb. But this was not confined to physicians alone, as the BBC’s Reith lectures in 2002, described.
“…We are in the grip of a deepening crisis of public trust… Mistrust and suspicion have spread across all areas of life… Citizens, it is said, no longer trust governments, or politicians, or ministers, or the police, or the courts, or the prison service… Patients, it is said, no longer trust doctors (think of Dr Shipman!)… ‘Loss of trust’ is in short, a cliché of our times.” ~ BBC’s Reith Lecture, 2002[xv]
So there is nothing exceptional about periodic scandals and crises of public trust around the world. This has always been, since time immemorial. Loutish man had always to be constrained by a Leviathan; by social and/or public laws and regulations to dampen his/her penchant for digressions along easier paths of self-serving mischief.
For Malaysia therefore, this may be just one of these cycles of recrimination or a return to our innate brutish behaviour run amuck! But for some of us, we feel that it has the potential to develop into one prolonged debilitating landscape, which seemed to have paralysed our nation, our progress, our development.
Decades of mismanagement and personal/political aggrandizement had left us with a mindset that is flawed and an pervasive if simplistic take that handouts are OK, that ‘lebih kurang’ mediocrity is good enough—we’ve become soft and lackadaisical. We are not known for our competitiveness. Yet when our Universities continue to decline down the ladder of competitiveness, we strike out vehemently to say that there are too many flaws in the methodology and that we will not be participating in future surveys![xvi]
A general air of despondency has pervaded our shores. Many of our most important assets, our better-educated and knowledgeable citizens are losing faith, and hope. For many, our national pride and patriotism has been repeatedly baited and battered until they have become hollow hurtful clanging shibboleths of desperation—deeply etched as negative memes into our troubled minds!
These are the disturbing developments vis-à-vis the Malaysian sociopolitical scene. Although we are not alone, we are a growing body of cynics. We are increasingly mistrustful toward one another. Every day we read and are exposed to relentless streams of shifty and salacious actions by politicians, officials, police, judiciary and even among our fellow citizens—corrupt practices, petty thefts, snatch-thefts, daylight robberies, mindless attacks, killings even; child rapes, abandoned babies; police atrocities and excesses, etc.— an endless crescendo of dispiriting stories… It is difficult to remain optimistic or positive.
Our lifestyle standards, purchasing power, shrinking exchange rate, workplace discord and unspoken separateness, are causes for concern for the ordinary folk. Our glut of mass-produced under-qualified university graduates ensures that they continue to languish as unemployable. Not that anyone really cares. More money is doled out to retrain them some more! Our government-sponsored diploma mills brazenly bid for public offering at the stock exchange, as if such largesse were guaranteed gold seams of profit! Even our broadband standards have fallen by the wayside and are left far behind our faster growing neighbouring states, despite the early initiation into our own Silicon Valley, i.e. our MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor) and Cyberjaya.[xvii]
Growing Pains Post March 8, Political Tsunami
But political shenanigans and vagaries have clearly shaped and defined public confidence in Malaysian society, ever since March 8, 2008, our so-called political tsunami. Some glimmer of hope for urgent change for the better has been ignited.[xviii] Conversely too since then, political wranglings and political one-upmanship have ratcheted up a few notches. Politicians from all fronts have relentlessly pushed and pursued these farces of absurdities to its limits![xix]
While not unique to Malaysia per se, these “growing pains” are especially true of societies, which are undergoing painful transitions into more credible versions of a mature democracy—where human rights and justice concerns take their rightful place as the pinnacle of modern evolved society.[xx]
In Malaysia’s case however, we appear to have been stuck in a protracted adolescent phase of petulant and stuttering “childhood”. The pulls and tugs of small-minded chauvinism and ethnocentric bigotry remain too entrenched, too hardwired to prevent that so important breakaway step into final maturity. Even our DPM could not take that plunge to commit himself as a Malaysian first, for fear of diluting his political capital as an ethnic champion![xxi]
Our “maverick” former prime minister, Tun Dr M too, could not escape the grips of this confused identity crisis. Dr M has been constantly reminding everyone and contradicting himself repeatedly at different forums, that this crutch dependency must end some day…[xxii],[xxiii]
We have yet to fully embrace acceptance and tolerance of our multiethnic, multi-religious diversity, so much touted in our jingoistic shibboleths such as “Malaysia Truly Asia”, “1Malaysia”, even! My belief is that this is that juncture where Malaysia is today, at the cusp of possible change, for better or for worse…[xxiv] Dare we hope for the better?
We must move away from intimidating fear and self-censorship. Because this timid mindset only allows cobwebs of prejudice and racism to amass under the proverbial carpet of overarching top-down paternalism of government knows best. Those days are passé; they are over and should be deeply buried!
Increasingly, we must opt for more forthright candidness that might serve us better if only we could harness these differences into a synergistic strength of diversity and a collective unity of purpose. Malaysians have to learn to balance the rule of law with the sagacity to oppose unjust laws and systems when they violate human dignity.
We cannot allow ourselves to be sidetracked by ethnocentric and prejudicial fears and flames of passion, which are fanned by Machiavellian politicians of a bygone era, trying to recapture that lost amber of obsolete ethnic pride and bigotry, of shameless political expediency!
We must consciously strive to finally exorcise the stubborn stains of irrational tribalism and prejudice, the acknowledged corruption of our Malaysian soul so entrenched in ethnically-dominated interests, venal pursuits, rent-seeking political patronage. This blemish has led to so much economic wastage, opportunity costs and productivity leakages, that even latterly, our current Prime Minister was forced into openly acknowledging when announcing the New Economic Model (NEM) for Malaysia.[xxv]
It is certainly time to rid our Malaysian political scene from rent seeking and corrupt patronage expectations. Merit-based, efficient, competitive and productive enterprises must drive our future transformation.[xxvi] Perhaps at last, we can move forwards, away from what has held us back and debilitated our former strengths and unique position as a rising Asian tiger economy, within the greater Asian 21st century and sphere of preeminence.

Expanded Moral Imperative for the Physician
In this context, let us return to the possible expected imperative for physicians. What are in it for us, doctors? I have alluded to the fact that the Malaysian doctor is now perceived somewhat differently. We are now caught in the crossfire of growing skeptical if flawed sophistical judgement and inquisition by a larger segment of a more discerning public.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself" ~ Leo Tolstoy
It is perhaps time for physicians to become more engaged and involved. It behooves our dignity and professionalism, and arguably may enhance our trustworthiness in the eyes of the general public. Doctors must be seen to be doing more and we must treat everyone with greater respect and dignity, no matter who they are.[xxvii]
Simply put, while we generally still enjoy our much-vaunted position of trust and respect from the general public, we are getting more than the occasional hiccups from bad press and publicity. Perhaps, this trust has dropped a few notches, but there is by and large hope that doctors can rise above the fray of the mundane mediocrity of Malaysian society![xxviii]
Furthermore, we are exhorted to become more than what we have been accustomed to do thus far—being far too meek, commonly apathetic, conscientiously practice-oriented, and indeed fully focused only on our parochial medical interests, our bread-and-butter humdrum lives and livelihood… Perhaps the physician-politician is the way forward…
Of course, in Malaysia we’ve had some uniquely spectacular if not so consistently acceptable personalities and examples… Dr Mahathir Mohamed, Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Dr Ling Liong Sik, Dr Lim Keng Yaik. But we do have some more beneficent if less truculent, less checkered members of our doctor-politicians, i.e. Dr Michael Jeyakumar, Dr Chen Man Hin, Dr Chua Soi Lek, Dr Ng Yen Yen, Dr Boo Cheng Hau, Dr Lo Lo Ghazali, Dr Mah Hang Soon, Dr Lee Boon Chye, Dr S Subramaniam, Dr Halili Rahmat…
Perhaps, there is greater expectation that as a whole, our usually higher moral standing should buttress a more consistent level of ethics and good societal practices, most of which have taken tumbles from our previously respected lofty heights. Our debilitating institutions and highly questionable state of affairs have cast a shadow of despondency on a large segment of our more enlightened society. Sadly, most of the previous 2 decades of such decay had been intimately linked to our physician-politician extraordinaire—our Maverick Mahathir!
Although many of us traditional doctors are wary of treading on the wrong side of political correctness, there are increasingly greater demands on the astute doctor to act according to his or her expected standard of intellectual and professional standing, training and moral compass—to do the right thing or at least to come right out and say so, without fear or favour.
The public demands that doctors stand up to be counted, to emerge outside of their previously cloistered if self-contained comfort zones. The long gestation within our pupated hibernation phase should cease; doctors must rekindle their sense of commitment and engagement with society.
Doctors are expected to help influence the finer direction of where we hope our Malaysian society should go, although like any other profession, there would be many amongst us, who would be and have been partisan or even ethnocentrically chauvinistic or religiously fanatical! That is why so many amongst us have participated in politics, some more successfully, others less so, some shaping our entire nation, while others simply creating meagre waves of lesser consequence.
But for most of us, we can be less fraternal and still contribute without partisan leanings, which would therefore be less inclined to colour our judgements and perhaps even our professionalism!

Improving our Caring Ethos
We need to reaffirm our caring ethos, our trained and ingrained approach as our patients’ greatest advocate, no matter the contradictory signals and opposing forces that insist we are out of kilter. Our unwavering stance on the patients’ ultimate welfare should be our primary goal: “Primum Non Nocere”, and that as medical practitioners we are the best professionals to look after their healthcare concerns.

Truth Telling & Ethical Professional Practice
Incredulous and conflicting forensic pronouncements in the Kugan “death in custody” case,[xxix] as well as that concerning the more recent Teoh Beng Hock fall from the MACC building, have punctured the believability of health officials involved in the truth-seeking exercises and justice—so crucial for trust in our public institutions.[xxx] Custodial injuries and deaths number into the hundreds or more, and have remained largely unexplained and unaccounted for, again undermining our state institutions, and potentially breaching international law on human rights and detention rules.
 
We also hear of possibly coerced and altered medical reports from physicians who have been pressured by higher authorities which endanger the independence and reliability of the truth telling process of what the medical examination and reporting is all about.[xxxi] Our forensic integrity has also been shaken, when external experts are increasingly sought to offer more dispassionate and impartial deliberation of the truth.
Unfortunately because of so much skepticism generated, the conflicting evidence of even celebrated foreign experts such as Prof Peter Vanezis or Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, have now become tainted with disbelief and incredulity, by opposite divides of the political spectrum.[xxxii],[xxxiii]
 
In this regard, our local experts and medical professionals must re-examine their own conscience and moral anchor to deliver greater believability and accuracy of their duties and findings. Doctors must not be influenced by any external party or forces; they must endeavour to tell the final unimpeachable truth, without fear or favour.31,35,36,37
State vs. Professional Interests must be clearly defined, with the medical professional always taking the position of determining the medical truth and facts, while protecting the rights and position of the patient, the detainee, the prisoner, even the death row inmate. Detention Health, Torture, Injuries, Death & Medical Professional Duties are all well articulated by world-recognised authorities and bodies such as the World Medical Association (Declarations of Geneva, Tokyo and the Istanbul Protocol), and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. We encourage our medical colleagues to be fully aware of these onerous responsibilities and roles.[xxxiv],[xxxv]

Healthcare Rights Advocacy
Finally, in this day and age, the medical professional is exhorted to be more involved in human rights advocacy. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has quite categorically stated that health is a human right, i.e. every human being should have the right to access to healthcare.
As doctors we must assert our moral mandate, and try and find some equitable equilibrium, while continuing to allow choice and freedom to choose within reasonable boundaries.
In this regard I would like to quote Professor Ian Gilmore (President of the Royal College of Physicians of London who said that:
“As doctors, we are often looking at the single patient in front of us, but as ambassadors for improving healthcare we have roles in the NHS, in healthcare and in wider society to become champions of change to protect the planet from climate change. As private individuals, we may well act ecologically, but may not always have carried our private views into the public arena. It is time we stepped up to the plate.”[xxxvi]
In Malaysia, we too have to step up to the plate and walk the extra mile, to show our fellow citizens that we can do more. Perhaps we can help bring about greater and more beneficent reform, measures which would perhaps regain the public’s trust in us once again.
Doctors must come forwards collectively and singly, to engage in national and practical healthcare issues. We must try to find a better way forward for the Malaysian healthcare system. However, there are many obstacles and divergent viewpoints, which need to be reconciled and overcome.
We need knowledgeable physicians to move the momentum towards the final goal, which is unlikely to be static but perhaps dynamically evolving... I believe the modern physician must learn to embrace his/her expanded role and sociopolitical mandate—that moral imperative to deliver or help engender change. We no longer have the luxury to remain that apathetic uninterested bystander. As caring Malaysians, we must come to the fore to rouse our nation toward a better future for all.
“How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breathe were life.” ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson, in Ulysses

Finally, one of my favourite quotes from Robert Kennedy, reminds us that:
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against an injustice, he sends forward a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

I would like to close by returning to the quote from Vaclav Havel:
“Let us try in a new time and in a new way to restore this concept of politics. Let us teach ourselves and others, that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat, or rape the community. Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not only the art of the possible, especially if ‘the possible’ means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals, and pragmatic manoeuvring, but that it can even be the art of the impossible, namely the art of improving ourselves and the world…”
“The important thing is that the winners will be the best of us, in the moral, civic, political, and professional sense, regardless of their political affiliations. The future policies and prestige of our state will depend on the personalities we select and later elect to serve as our representative bodies…”1


References:

[i] Vaclav Havel. The Art of the Impossible—Politics as Morality in Practice. Fromm International, New York, 1998; pgs 3-9.
[ii] Ambiga Sreenevasan, Former Bar Council Chairman, We Live in Confusing Times. The Malaysian Insider, March 27, 2009.
[iii] Virchow R. Die offentliche Gesundheitspflege. Medizinische Reform 1848:5:21. (Quoted in Sackett DL, Oxman AD. HARLOT Plc: An Amalgamation Of The World’s Two Oldest Professions. BMJ 2003;327:1442-5.)
[iv] Sherwin B. Nuland. The Fundamental Unit of Life—Sick cells, microscopes, and Rudolf Virchow, in Doctors: The Biography of Medicine. Vintage Books, New York, 1988, pgs 304-342.
[v] British Medical Journal. 1901;i:1038. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1120784/ (Accessed 8 April 2010)
[vi] Lewis Caroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
[vii] Times magazine, April 26, 2010, pg29

[viii] Gallup poll. As Asian Economies Falter, Trust in Gov't Remains High, 28 January, 2010.

 http://www.gallup.com/poll/125414/asian-economies-falter-trust-gov-remains-high.aspx (Accessed 11 April 2010)
[ix] Manjit Bhatia. No Reason for Kit Siang to gloat. Malaysiakini, 18 May 2010. http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/132114 (accessed 19 May 2010)
[x] Marhalim Abas. Contract on Scorpene submarine maintenance yet to be signed. Malay Mail, Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010. http://www.mmail.com.my/content/31065-contract-scorpene-submarine-maintenance-yet-be-signed (accessed on 15 May 2010)
[xii] CC Liew.  Whither the Malaysian Press. The Malaysian Insider 17 May 2010. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/breakingviews/article/whither-the-malaysian-press-cc-liew/ (accessed 19 May 2010)
[xiii] Hazlan Zakaria. Press freedom measure of country's maturity. Malaysiakini, May 3, 2010 (http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/130833 accessed May 3, 2010)
[xiv] David KL Quek. A New Malaysia still possible. Malaysiakini, March 9,2010. http://dq-liberte.blogspot.com/2010/03/malaysiakini-new-malaysia-still.html (accessed April 17.2010)
[xv] BBC’s Reith Lecture 1: A Question of Trust: Spreading Suspicion, 2002. http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/radio4/reith2002/lecture1.shtml?print
[xvi] Christine Chan. Prof: University Ranking is not everything. Malaysiakini, 14 May 2010. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/131833 (Accessed on 15 May 2010)
[xvii] David KL Quek. No second chance as standards fall. Malaysiakini Oct 7, 2009. http://dq-liberte.blogspot.com/2009/10/falling-standards-malaysias.html (accessed 17 April 2010)
[xviii] David KL Quek. Malaysia must change for the better. Malaysiakini 25 Sep 2008. http://dq-liberte.blogspot.com/2008/09/malaysia-must-change-for-better-no-ifs.html (accessed 17 April 2010)
[xix] David KL Quek. Shenanigans and Sleaze rules. Malaysiakini 26 Feb 2009. http://dq-liberte.blogspot.com/2009/02/malaysian-anomie-shenanigans-and-sleaze.html (accessed 17 April, 2010)
[xx] Mohd Effendi Norwawi. We must fix our weaknesses. Sunday Star, December 20, 2009
http://dq-liberte.blogspot.com/2009/12/mohd-effendi-norwawi-we-must-fix-our.html (accessed 17 April 2010)

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