Articles, Opinions & Views: COMMENT - Madani should not reduce healthcare budget to save money By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers On War, Politics and Burning Issues
Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
COMMENT - Madani should not reduce healthcare budget to save money By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, May 04, 2026
Malaysiakini : Billionsdown the drain,but healthcare neglected
I
am one of those people who believe that healthcare is a human right. I
believe that this is one of the areas where our tax ringgit could be put
to the best use, together with education. But what are the priorities
of our successive governments?
We have billions of ringgit poured
into the religious bureaucracy over decades, the sole function of which
is to hamper reforms in favour of regressive ideas that have divided the
people of this country.
This also includes public health policies, not to mention health policies for marginalised groups.
Think
about this: every time the government, through one of its instruments,
responds to every perceived slight, provocation, and engages in the
persecution of individuals deemed detrimental to the well-being of the
state, this costs money.
When the government enables programmes
and individuals who stir resentment amongst the various ethnic
communities in this country, this costs money.
Think about the
money lost in leakages because of crony capitalism, on double or triple
pensions of the political class, and inflated government projects. Think
about the money lost when the government decides that it needs to spend
tax ringgit to aid foreign victims of wars when the rakyat are
grappling with vagaries brought upon by international geopolitics.
Galen
Centre chief executive Azrul Khalib said, “The Health Ministry should
not be treated as a convenient place to find savings. Health is a core
public investment. It protects lives, productivity, economic stability,
and social trust,” and this is the alpha and omega of this issue.
Every
time you visit a public healthcare facility and notice the dilapidated
condition of the buildings, keep in mind that successive governments did
have the funds to maintain these structures, but instead diverted those
funds to other projects deemed more important.
This
is about priorities, and successive governments have demonstrated that
they do not view healthcare in the same way they view other programmes
that they believe will keep them in power.
The least well-off suffer
CodeBlue has done some remarkable coverage on this issue. If you think urban folks have it bad, think again.
Class
determines the level of healthcare available, and again, the majority
are “penalised” because more often than not, especially in rural areas,
they are short-changed by the federal and local government, which have
no problems sustaining projects which offer no tangible benefits but
have no interest in providing quality healthcare.
In such
circumstances, it is left to the ordinary rakyat to fend for themselves.
Online, there are an inexhaustible number of stories of how healthcare
workers from top to bottom are helping government hospitals or clinics
with money from their salaries, which is not very much to begin with.
Rational
people should question the need for government employees to use their
own salaries to supplement the needs of a government facility, which is
there to support the rakyat.
Instead, we have political shysters attempting to divide the rakyat on issues like a water festival, for instance.
This
is the problem with Malaysia’s healthcare sector. We have the expertise
and commitment to handle almost any situation. We also have competent
people, but they have always been sidelined.
We also have the laws
and tools necessary to deal with healthcare issues, but they have never
been applied consistently and rationally.
Only someone ignorant of the realities in Malaysia would claim otherwise.
Different tune when in power
And
you would think that Pakatan Harapan, which has at one time or another
in their years as the opposition, would have a strategy when it comes to
this country’s healthcare system.
But as always, once in power, they forget about the average Joe Rakyat who relies on this system.
In
2023, Ipoh Timor MP Howard Lee, who, to be fair, is one of the more
interesting candidates the DAP has to offer, fumbled with the issue of
healthcare in an interview with CodeBlue,
which is worth revisiting because it shows you how political operatives
use this issue when they are not in power and how their tone and agenda
change when they come into power.
Lee was arrogant when he said
that he would not entertain “emotive questions”, but the reality is that
healthcare for the majority of Malaysians is an emotive issue, whether
you rely on public healthcare or are workers in the public healthcare
system.
Life, death, or quality of life are emotional issues, so is public healthcare, and the funding of it should be sacrosanct.
There is a reason why the political elites and the enabled class play football with this issue.
Unlike
the rest of us, who rely on public healthcare, they have money to spend
on private healthcare or are accorded VIP or privileged status when
they use public healthcare.
It says something about our society
when the healthcare budget is trimmed while the gross enabling of
institutions which provide very little benefit to the average rakyat
endure.
The issue of healthcare could be a real vote getter for
Madani as it is in many countries, and more’s the pity that Madani does
not understand this.
