MMC and Cabinet should review derecognition of CSMU medical degrees as Malaysian medical students in CSMU unfairly  penalized because of the irresponsibility, negligence and unprofessionalism of Higher Education Ministry in issuing “No Objection Certificates” (NOC) to unqualified students

Media Conference Statement (3)
by Lim Kit Siang  

(Perak, Monday): The derecognition of the Crimea State Medical University (CSMU) medical degrees by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) only four years after conferring recognition in 2001 is one of the worst  examples of the failure of good governance, as no satisfactory answer has been given with regard to the many contradictions  and doubts in  the various explanations of MMC and the Health Ministry on the derecognition of the CSMU medical degrees.

One thing seems to be clear, that the Malaysian medical students in CSMU are  being unfairly  penalized because of the irresponsibility, negligence and unprofessionalism of Higher Education Ministry in issuing “No Objection Certificates” (NOC) to students who do not qualify to pursue medical courses

The Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Shafie Salleh had confirmed  that  Arts-stream students who had failed their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) were among those accepted by CSMU and that they had apparently managed to obtain NOCs from the Higher Education Ministry to pursue the medical course despite their lack of qualifications.  An NOC is a prerequisite for entry into any university abroad offering medical courses recognized by the Government. 

The solution is for the MMC to liaise with  the Higher Education Ministry to stop issuing NOCs to unqualified students, and not to penalize the Malaysian students in Ukraine or the CSMU, which had strictly complied with the  Cabinet decision of August 2003 on the “No Objection Certificate” stipulation for Malaysian students to pursue medical study, which is the minimum requirement of three principal Cs in the STPM or equivalent or a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3 for medicine and dentistry courses.

The whole injustice of the derecognition of the CSMU medical degrees must be revisited and reviewed.

The MMC had acted unfairly in not giving  CSMU clear notice that its medical degrees were under review for derecognition, as well as in not giving a grace period to CSMU to comply with the MMC requirements before the derecognition comes into effect - in the same way that the University of Malaya was given a  five-year notice before its MBBS degrees were withdrawn by the United Kingdom General Medical Council in the early eighties.

The whole issue of derecognition of CSMU medical degrees should be reconsidered by the MMC and the Cabinet so that justice is done and seen to be done.

(18/07/2005)