Tough situations:
- A Malay patient is denied an MC: “Kamu k*ling, makan gaji buta!”
- A Chinese patient rolls on the floor in pain, yet says: “Saya mau doktor Cina.“
- A daughter, after our 90-minute resuscitation attempt on her father: “You are Indian also, but you all killed my father!“
Heart-warming situations:
- A Malay makcik hugged me and cried on my shoulder for the longest time as her husband’s life neared an end.
- A Chinese mother visits me whenever her autistic son is ill because her son trusts and cooperates only with me.
- An Indian mother brought her son back a year after we saved him from drowning to say ‘thank you.’
As doctors, you don’t get to choose your patient’s race, religion or faith. We open our doors literally to EVERYONE who seeks our help.
You may face tough and hurtful situations like the above, but it’s important that you don’t react in the spur of moment to worsen it. For every tough situation, there are also days of love and peace that keep you going.
That is the meaning of Jalur Gemilang.
Shouting loudly doesn’t make you patriotic.
Belittling others doesn’t make you righteous.
There are better ways to handle tough situations.
So dear Dr Akmal Saleh and DAPSY Malaysia, use your political platform to preach love and peace. You don’t need a lowly citizen like me to remind you all about this. (I don’t support either one of them; gave up).
This letter was reproduced with permission from Kevin Raj Selvarajah’s Facebook post. Dr Kevin Raj is an emergency doctor at Pantai Hospital Penang.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
