Self-Regulation of Professional Bodies

I read in interest of the controversial CLP exam, which is said to be a very hard qualifying exam for many law graduates overseas before they can practice in Malaysia. The low passing rate seems to suggest that there is some quota involved, either in the numbers or racial composition. However, the examination director seemed to claim otherwise. Candidates, he said are judged based on merit and knowledge, and those who fail do not answer the exam questions accurately, through resorting to an academic discourse of the law.

While we have no reasons to question the credibility of the examinations director and the members of the board (that includes the members of judiciary and the Malaysian Bar), certainly many overseas graduate who are required to take such qualifying exam and fail, would tend to be critical.

While I do not pretend to know much about this, I would like to offer my opinion on this issue, from the medical perspective. In this post, I would like to justify the need for self-regulation to ensure both competence and protection of the local training, as well as addressing the question of quality and merit.

Firstly, I think that self-regulation is essential to maintain quality in professional practice within a local context. A university qualification, while giving necessary training and exposure to the profession, is not the sole determinant of whether one is qualified to practice.

For example, a medical graduate overseas may not necessarily gain entry to the medical profession until they show competence in practicing safely and effectively in a Malaysian context through years of housemanship. This means that a medical graduate from China, or Zimbabwe or even the United Kingdom, while may possess adequate medical knowledge and skills, may not necessarily be fit to practice in the Malaysian context.

It could be the language and cultural competence that are questionable or inadequate clinical skills and biomedical knowledge. A doctor may know the skills necessary to treat congestive heart failure, but may not have the cultural competence needed to deal with say a rural shaman from Kelantan who opt traditional medicine. Knowledge is culturally conditioned, and to train in one context and to bring it to another requires more than just good theoretical skills.

Hence, the medical qualifying board is justified to evaluate, refuse or retrain candidates before admission to the profession, on the basis of theoretical and practical competence.

Secondly, self-regulation is needed to ensure that the local training of graduates will be given primacy to meet societal needs. Thus, overseas graduates will naturally be given a secondary preference.

This is evident in the medical profession of many developed countries, like New Zealand where preference is given to locally-trained medical students instead of depending on overseas and foreign graduates. Besides the cultural and linguistic competence stated in the previous argument, it is essential for these countries to do so to ensure that they can adequately meet the needs of the society without forever depending on foreign medical graduates outside for various reasons.

It is reasonable therefore; that overseas graduates be given a secondary preference to ensure there will not be too many nor too little professionals in the particular field. Quotas and limitations are justified to serve the purpose of limiting the numbers to ensure quality and exclusivity of the profession, besides ensuring the viability of domestic training. To open up the profession and not to protect domestic interests is to do disservice to the society in the long run.

The question of quality and merit may come into the discussion, when there is protection towards domestic training. Proper quality control and assessment of domestic training can take place to ensure that it will not be compromised for the sake of protectionism. The question that we should ask now is not whether the self-regulation is justified, but rather whether the self-assessment and external evaluation are properly and thoroughly done, to suit and provide for local needs and context. With credible and qualified professionals on board, there is no valid justification for criticism aside from personal opinion.

Even the notion of quality is not fully unproblematic as it is context-conditioned. While there are some criteria of what constitute quality and competence, defined by the wider professional community, there are some criteria that are good somewhere but not necessarily be so elsewhere. For example, while good spoken English, awareness of social justice, competence for high-end clinical procedures and Maori culture may be considered as medical competence in the New Zealand, it may not be so in the Malaysian or American context. Thus when applied to compare competence between foreign and local graduates, a careful distinction must be made not to confuse between what are essential for quality and what are not, to offer a fair assessment of quality within one's context.

The question that we should frame therefore is not whether there are any qualitative differences between overseas and locally trained professionals, but what criteria we use to define quality, and whether they are fair criteria within a particular context. To carelessly compare is unjust and unfair to all.

Assisted Suicide and the Value of Life

"Existence is special in itself. The natural desire to live is self-evident that life is regarded to be good in contrast to death and suffering, whereby individuals are reminded of the lack of control of life, and neediness for support from others is a reflection of that condition. It is the neediness of the human person, that refuses to acknowledge full self-control, is the human strength, whereby we depend on one another not only to survive, but to flourish (Hauerwas, 1976)

To wipe away the vocabulary of suffering among the living, in the name of naive self-autonomy is to create illusion of self-control and instant cures, which reduces the complexity of life into controllable variables and perfected conditions. To claim that one particular type of suffering is unacceptable to the human experience like the horrors of war, is healthy conscience but to claim that all suffering is ought to be eliminated rather than to cope with, is betraying the very core of the human existence.

This need for one another, Hauerwas (1976) asserts, as an expression for value of life, places demand from society, as a community of individuals to protect and care for the weak and suffering with justice. Euthanasia therefore, can be seen as an absolution from that responsibility. Hauerwas feared that “the demand for euthanasia comes because we lack the skills humanely to know how to be with and care for the dying… We must be careful that the mercy we dispense, especially when it takes the form of ending life, is not necessary because of our original uncare” (p.591).
A question to be raised from this argument would be why should the value of life be antithetical against the noble reason of patient wellbeing and autonomy? Isn’t the ability of one to choose what is best for one’s self a determinant of one’s wellbeing?

In a plural society which may not subscribe to Judeo-Christian idea of the ‘sanctity of life’, the argument may be insufficient to override the arguments for autonomy and wellbeing. But an affirmation of the goodness of the human existence, does suggest the need for justice and protection from society, which sometimes may be conflicting with autonomy and beneficence.

To seek the welfare of the living, through the alleviation of pain and suffering, evidenced by the hospice and palliative care movement, is a much authentic expression of promoting beneficence, rather than assisted-dying. With better care, pain management and palliative medicine, there is very little justification for euthanasia."

36 Prayers for Young Ladies

Prayer 26: For a young man who likes me very much

Lord, today I want to pray
for a young man.
You know well whom I mean,
for it was You who put him
in my path.

The day I met him
I thought to myself
that this was Your own doing,
so I came to You many times
to tell You about the way
he looked at me,
the way he smiled
and talked to me.

I did this as if You were to blame
that I had fallen in love,
that I had indulged
in dreams and wishful thinking.
How many times have I asked You,
like a little girl with a crush,
"I like him, I want him for myself."
And foolishly I thought
only of myself,
without considering his side,
because all I wanted was
to have him for myself.

Forgive me, Lord,
for being so blind to Your love
and being so crazy about him.

Maybe I did him harm
by my flightiness,
    my self-centredness,
    my thoughtlessness.

While he needed something else:
    a faithful friend,
    a sincere companion,
    a generous and understanding heart,
I offered him instead
loneliness, emptiness, and coldness,
because I was so full
of myself.

But today, Lord,
I have come to pray for him,
    as if I had just met him,
    as if I had always known
how to love.

I pray that You may protect him
from the dangers of money and pleasure,
    of selfishness and shallowness,
    of a lack of commitment.

Lord,
make him pure in his actions
and candid in his glances.
Give him a strong heart
that is free to choose the truth
with the liberty of Your sons!

Teach him to despise mere status symbols,
an easy life and servile conformity,
indifference to others' needs
and a mediocre life.

Teach him to be
a sign of contradiction
that is bent on building
a new world.

And if You think I can be of help,
then let Your will be done.
--Hector C. Munoz, OP

Incredible India

John 15:18-25

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.

But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'

20 feared dead as Hindu-Christian riots spread in India
Churches damaged in India as religious riots spread
Mob attacks police station in India, killing 1

Kuasa, Keadilan dan Kebenaran

Penahanan tiga orang dibawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri mencetuskan satu lagi drama terbaru dalam arena politik negara. Ia melibatkan seorang ADUN negeri Selangor yang sering dijadikan kambing hitam dalam percaturan politik perkauman.

Baru-baru ini saya telah memberi ulasan blog saya tentang ADUN tersebut berkaitan dengan isu yang dibangkitkan beliau mengenai papan tanda tulisan jawi. Saya tidak bersetuju dengan hujah mahupun pandangan politik beliau.

Meskipun saya tidak bersetuju dengan beliau, saya rasa bahawa sebagai masyarakat yang matang, demokratik dan berilmu, kita perlulah berhujah melalui alasan dan kebenaran, bukannya melalui ugutan kuasa.

Perbezaan pendapat tidak perlu berakhir dengan penyalahgunaan kuasa kekerasan, penyalahgunaan kelebihan politik mahupun amok yang tidak rasional. Sebaliknya perlulah diselesaikan dengan dialog dengan semangat faham-memahami.

Malah, menfitnah seseorang atas sesuatu yang beliau tidak lakukan seperti kes baru-baru ini, untuk mengapi-apikan semangat asabiah demi kepentingan politik sesetengah pihak adalah keterlaluan, dan menurut pemahaman saya tentang ajaran agama Islam, adalah dosa.

Dalam perihal ini, redup hati saya mendengar ulasan Mufti Perlis, Dr. Asri baru-baru ini, tentang penyalahgunaan kuasa untuk menghapuskan puak-puak yang berlainan pendapat.

“Sekiranya ada aliran-aliran tertentu dalam kerajaan yang tidak setuju dengan pendapat satu aliran yang lain, adakah ruang ISA juga akan digunakan? Pernah berlaku dalam kerajaan Abbasiyah yang berpegang pada aliran Muktazilah ketika itu. Dia menghukum orang daripada aliran lain termasuk Imam-imam besar seperti Imam Ahmad juga turut dihukum.

“Kalau di zaman ini, mereka yang kendalikan agama itu dari aliran lain maka mereka yang dari aliran lain itu akan dihukum tanpa memberi peluang membela diri. Ini juga tidak sejajar dengan konsep keadilan dalam Islam,”

Marilah kita kembali kepada visi masyarakat madani (atau sivil) iaitu masyarakat yang bertamadun dan matang, beserta dengan masyarakat yang divisikan dalam Piagam Madinah , masyarakat yang bersatu-padu, adil dan saksama antara umat Islam dan bukan Islam.

Marilah kita kembali kepada keadilan dan kebenaran, membuangkan yang keruh dan mengambil yang jernih.

Marilah kita menghadapi perbezaan pendapat dengan kata-kata yang penuh hikmah, kebijaksanaan dan lemah lembut. Akhlak, peribadi dan tindakan kitalah, yang mencerminkan keindahan Tuhan yang kita sembah, bukannya kuasa politik, ekonomi mahupun budaya yang kita punyai.

Salam damai

More Photos

 

Tea Party di Puncak Pouakai

 

Mari Tulis Jawi

Emilia Yusof painted a very nice piece of the Jawi script, read as "Mari Tulis Jawi". I've found a cool website that can change Malay romanised script to jawi. Enjoy E-jawi!

Yang kurik itu kendi,

Yang merah itu saga,

Yang cantik itu budi,

Yang indah itu bahasa

يڠ كوريق ايت كند،

يڠ ميره ايت ساڬ،

يڠ چنتيق ايت بودي،

يڠ اينده ايت بهاس

Why Learn Church History?

Chris Armstrong gave 10 good reasons to study church history. I particularly like reason #3 and #4.

Reason #3
Because life is too short to learn by experience. To echo Lewis's words that we've just heard, "the scholar has lived in many times." What a rich way to grow in wisdom! Though experience can be the best teacher for some things, for others it does not take us far at all.

Job's friend, Bildad the Shuhite, had it right (for once): "Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned, for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow. Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?" (Job 8:8-10).

Reason #4
Because whatever question is on your mind, someone smarter than you has already seen it clearer, thought about it longer, and expressed it better. Why reinvent the wheel? Also falling under this heading: There are no new heresies—only old ones in new clothes. And again, they've all been answered with more wisdom and erudition than we'll ever be able to muster.

Adventure in Taranaki

Just came back from a tramping trip with Jack and Harold from the Pouakai Circuit in Taranaki, "leaving nothing but footprints and bringing back nothing but memories". Here are some photos to do the story-telling.

We started off at 3am in the morning, driving for five hours at SH3 to New Plymouth, had pies and coffee at a cafe nearby (which is surprisingly run by a Thai Chinese in the remoteness of NZ). Then we rushed to the North Egmont Visitor's Centre to start the track as early as possible.

We then head off the Holly Hut track about 11am. It was quite a challenge to climb up the stairway as we took a lot of time stopping to catch some breath. But once we've climbed beyond the bushline, the views of the Razorback is just amazing, as we tread along the ridge. Some of the path is covered with snow, and it was misty.

It was quite a challenging walk for Harold and Jack. Its the first time Jack's tramping and Harold being a paranoid person, was sometimes overwhelm with fear especially crossing some rocky terrains and the notoriously loose sandy slip, named Boomerang Slip. The slip is a result of erosion from the previous volcanic lava flow.

I was glad that I bought the $40 walking pole which helped me balance and tread challenging terrains, besides protecting my knees from too much impact.

Instead of the three hour walk estimated by the Department of Conservation, we took about 5.5 hours to reach Holly Hut. The hut is a simple 32-bunk hut with solar powered lighting and fireplace heating. There was no one there so we got the whole place to ourselves. We couldn't start the fire despite frail attempts by Jack.(Hover mouse on the pics for descriptions)

The next day, we continued the journey to Pouakai Hut in the Pouakai Ranges. This time it only took us 3 hours to reach the hut, crossing the wet Ahukawakawa swamp, with lovely yellow tussocks

We reached Pouakai Hut by 3 hours. Its a much smaller hut but nicely located to have a gorgeous view of the Pouakai Range and a spectacular view of the Taranaki.

After putting our bags down, we rested for a while before heading up to the Pouakai Peak another good three hours away as a side trip, having a good hot cup of tea on the peak, 1400m elevation from sea level. Unfortunately the views at the peak was disappointing due to the thick clouds. What a stark comparison between the artist's impression and the real thing!

Much to our delight, there's a pile of newspaper in the hut which we used as fuel to start burning the wood and coal at the fireplace. The luxury of heat is much welcomed in the coldness of the highlands, but the heat did not last long beyond few hours after we went to bed. All of us couldn't sleep after the last coal turned into ash, due to the piercing coldness of the Taranaki air.

The final day has come. We were told that if it rains heavily the streams of the Kaiauai track may be flooded making them impossible to pass. We were told to be ready to stay for another night or to turn back the way we come from (which is 8-10 hours long!) should the streams be flooded.

When leaving the hut, we managed to took some lovely last snaps of the Taranaki.

The Kaiauai track involves climbing 2 peaks, Maude and Henry and a sharp descent down into the forest before crossing four streams and a swingbridge before ending the whole track. Before the upgrading of the track few years ago, it was described by an earlier tramper

"Descending 460m in only 1.3 km, the first 60m lures you into a false sense of security as the wooden steps continue - then they end and, for 400m descent, the track becomes a rutted, twisted muddy erosion gully, at times more than waste deep and ony one footwidth wide at the base as it plunges through the dense leatherwood scrub, then the moss- and fern-covered twisted tree trunks of the "goblin" forest zone, and finally into taller fern-filled cloud forest of kamahi and totara."

We are glad that the track was upgraded thanks to the Taranaki Savings Bank (TSB) Community Trust for donating $150 000 to lay down boardways along the way as part of the upgrading program, sparing us from the mud hell.

The descent then led us to the subalpine "goblin" forest with some kamahis. Looks quite Narnia-ish, says Harold.

Apparently we were told that the forest has some evil carnivorous flesh eating giant snails, Powelliphanta annectens that can eat up cows and even elephants! They might be cousins with the Malaysian leeches.

The ubiquitous trees all around reminded me of the Malaysian rainforest, boring us. Thus sights like this uprooted tree is a unusual variety. Some of the river crossings are evil, going down the steep river banks and climbing them up again, through the tree roots and many ladders. At least when we get arthritis at older age, we know where to blame. The swing bridge at the end of the track finally was kinda the finale, ending our 7 hour long ordeal, despite another 40 minute walk up to the carpark.

Tired, aching yet satisfied, we left Taranaki without a full view of the peak due to the constant clouds surrounding it. Thus I guess we had to be make do with a postcard photo. But at least we had done pretty well by finishing the overnight tramp, earning some bragging points and certainly a NZ tramping experience worth dying for.

Jawi

[Updated : Kedah MB defends usage of Jawi, which stupid Kedahan MCA politicians assumed as religious fundamentalism. He said, "I personally like the Jawi script. It is artistic. We have to defend our heritage"]

I share Faisal Tehrani's disappointment with Teresa and DAP in general, whom expressed ignorance to the Jawi script, a precious Malaysian heritage since times of the Terengganu Batu Bersurat 1303AD and the Malay Malaccan and Johorean Sultanate in the 17th century.

Jawi script, while being an adapted Arabic alphabet for spoken Malay, existed in the Nusantara for many centuries as the Nusantaran tradition evolved from an oral to a written one. While it has its roots from the middle east, it is not Arabic nor a product of 20th century Arabisation. One who claims to understand and represent the Malaysian society carefully should be observant enough to differentiate this distinction.

Only after the arrival of the Jawi script, which become a form of the Malay heritage (together with the Malay Sultanate, language and culture), came European as well as Chinese and Indian languages which added up to the cultural diversity. During pre-independence, Jawi is the script for official documents in the British colonial government and the Sultanate alongside English. During independence, the Malay sultanate, language and official religion is acknowledged in the the constitution with acceptance of a free citizenship to all residents of Malaya.

Sadly what little national heritage we have left, is being politicised by some quarters to gain popularity. Instead of trying to appreciate the culture, language and heritage of the land and the Malay culture it has shaped, we forgo history, in the name of pragmatism and our own brand of the so-called 'multiculturalism'. To claim multiculturalism while abandoning indigenous heritage is totally absurd. The Malay language is both expressed in romanised and arabised scripts.

We can raise the question, why don't we include the Mandarin and Tamil script in our road signs since it reflects the demography of the local community? Then why don't we include Thai, Iban, Penan or even Urdu for 'multiculturalism' sake, to be so-called more 'inclusive'? Even if there are many who can't read Jawi, what's the proportion of people who can read other scripts anyway? Since many people can read English, why not just turn all the road signs to English for the sake of its utility?

Without this Malay construct as the backbone of society, Malaysia is not what she was, what she is and what she will be in the future. Only with this construct, in engagement with minority and emerging cultures, we seek a meaningful common vision for a unified society shaped by the values of the people Malaysia represents. A bangsa Malaysia without the Malay heritage is something that I do not look forward to.

I am not against efforts of reconciliation and intercultural understanding, but to sideline the national heritage in vain attempts of gaining narrow communal political score is just appalling.

A nation without a soul, the Malay soul as the basis of the common heritage and identity, will leave us soulless and cold, in the prison of pragmatism, blown by whatever wind of the day.

Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa

Pouakai Circuit

Pouakai Circuit overlooking Mt. Taranaki

The Pouakai Circuit is an awe-inspiring chapter in the New Zealand landscape and geology story. The turmoil of centuries of volcanic activity is apparent as soon as you cross the active erosion scar of the Boomerang slip and pass beneath the towering columns of the Dieffenbach cliffs.

The circuit traverses lowland rain forest, sub-alpine and alpine vegetation zones, and crosses the unique Ahukawakawa wetland and the headwaters of the Stony (Hangatahua) River.

Whāia te iti kahurangi Ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei

Pursue excellence – should you stumble, let it be to a lofty mountain

Middle Class Don't Get Enough?

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/31/budget2009/22210061&sec=budget2009

I just sick when people who can afford to pay RM400 for their power bill, have a car to drive around to Cheras daily and send their kids for private college education, complain that the recent budget not doing enough for them.

What do they want? Free power and petrol to ease up the inflation rise, so that they can drive up to the Curve for shopping more often and can turn on their aircond 24/7 to address global warming?