I had the oppotunity to experience (again) first hand the implimentation of the so called socialist medicine right here in Malaysia. For the last 7 years I have been lucky enough to have had the option of private medicine paid by my different employers. I use the word lucky because I as do a majority of like minded Malaysians are of the the opinion that the governent run clinics and hospital are of lesser pedigree. My discontent sprung from personal experience and speaking to my friends on the matter gets similar concerted replies.
I played a spot of futsal on Wednesday night and took a rather nasty knock on my knee. I decided to try out the local goverment clinic in Sg. Tua and arrived at 9.15 am the next day. Regardless of what me and some of my friends thought, the place was packed and I had to park some distance down the road. Public medicine has become a little more complicated than what I remembered. Upon arriving at the registration counter, I was given 2 copies of the same number. I was to paper clip one copy with either my ID card, passport or some other type of identification and place it a bucket for processing. Here I diligently waited until 9.40 when I was called up for my turn to register. They are doing things old school and were storing patients records on cards and since my many years of no show, I was given a new card. Next I was given a new number and sent to wait infront of the consultation rooms. Here as I waited another 13 minutes before seeing the doctor, it dawned on me the demografic imbalance of the patrons today. Almost 80% were (perhaps including Indonesians) were Malay, 15% were Indians while less than 3% were elderly Chinese. I wouldn't say I was in anyway suprised by the disparity. The doc who I presented my case to was a very young Malay girl who herself was suffering from flu. Hearing my past injury profile, she briefly felt my inflamed knees before suggesting a specialist visit. She subcribed for me Voltaren for pain and Magnesium Trisilicate to counter possible acid reflux from from the former. Next came the longest wait yet, 50 minutes after repeating the same 'registration' steps with the subscription note this time, I picked up my pills and left. If you are wondering what all this cost me; a single ringgit during registration. Puting things into perspective, the same treatment would have cost me 30 ringgits through private practice.
My last day at what was my home for the past 3 years wasn't as nostalgic as I would have planned it. There weren't any room for the usual friendly but sickening feeling that usually fills me whenever I leave something behind for good. This was because there simply was no room for it as my whole body was reeling from a full day spent packing away everything for moving day. Ilo and me had truely underestimated the time we needed to sort out our 3 years worth of history. I left for KL on a bus at around 6, sadly leaving Ilo behind to do the actual moving the next day as we couldnt get the moving truck hired on that Sunday.
Penang's Down-Under.
My visit to the Penang War Museum.
One of the oddest curiosities in Penang, a Jewish cemetery that sits in the middle of the previously named Jewish Street in Georgetown. This is most likely the only strictly Jewish cemetery you are likely to come across in Malaysia where the genus jew is all but extinct. For more info, check out this wiki article.
