Deputy Education Minister II P. Kalamanathan is lying about the MMC (Malaysian Medical Council) reducing allocations for medical students intake, an MP revealed today.
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok MP said the MMC has refuted Kamalanathan’s earlier statement that the council was to blame for the reduced intake of medical students.
Kok cited a 19 August article from New Straits Times, reporting that Kamalanathan declared that the drop to 418 students as opposed to 699 places last year was based on the recommendation of the MMC.
However, MMC had rubbished Kamalanathan’s statement three days ago, clarifying that the total size of the approved quota is 1,550 students annually.
The excuse that Kamalanathan gave earlier was that too many students had applied for the medical course, while there were a limited number of spots available. He also claimed that there was an oversupply of housemen and doctors in the nation.
With this new evidence coming to light, it contradicts Kamalanathan’s argument, since there were a total of 1,163 students with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.0 who had applied to study medicine in the 2014/2015 intake, well within the 1,500 quota.
“MMC has never given any directive to any of the public universities/public medical schools to reduce their intake of the medical students,” said the President of MMC Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah who added that the issue of “oversupply” does not arise.
In a clear case of misinformation and cover-up by the Deputy Education Minister II, Teresa Kok had asked why there was a need to blame MMC for the reduction of medical students accepted into university. She also asked why only 418 places were allocated, well below the approved quota of 1,550 students annually.
“With MMC’s denial that it has directed a reduction in the intake of medical students, Kamalanathan cannot keep quiet or he will be called a liar for making a false claim,” Kok fired at the Deputy Minister, providing statistics that showed a decrease from 983 to 875 to 699 students from 2012 to 2014 respectively.
Other than demanding for answers from Kamalanathan, Teresa Kok also “nudged” the Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam for a response pertaining the mysterious issue of deliberate reductions in the medical students’ intake. -The Rocket
