Letter
by Rudolf Tiller

IS NEW MEDICAL ACT RESPONSIBLE FOR DUMPED BABIES?

The frequency of babies/ fetuses found dumped at doorsteps, garbage dumps, drains, rivers, some killed blatantly and buried, or flushed down toilets have been on the rise over the last two to three years. Media reports suggest that the incidences reported are just the tip of the iceberg.

Shahrizat has claimed more support be given to single mothers. A lawyer apparently by profession, her latest outrageous outburst has now been to reprehensibly execute the parents. Ali Rustam has this novel idea that special schools be built only for teenaged mothers but soon after decided that an expedient scheme would be to actually reduce the matrimonial age to a minor 15 years. Rosmah on the other hand, appears totally lost and doesn’t seem to know actually what to do. But at least she has not come out with some of the ludicrous propositions suggested by Shahrizat or Ali Rustam.

Illicit sex and pregnancies have been on the rise for some time now wreaking social havoc especially to Malay families. With free pornography on the internet, aided further by some rather whacky Malay tabloids and our politicians setting poor examples by bombarding our kids daily on TV with sodomy cases, sexual escapades by politicians – a foreigner will think this is the norm in our country. In a climate such as this, teachers, despite their best efforts, cannot help if kids end up thinking that sex and immorality are OK. Coupled with poor discipline, teenage pregnancies and gangsterism are now established problems in schools.

Malaysia faced a somewhat similar problem in the 1970s when the same social problems cropped up during the “Minah Karan” era when Free Trade Zones comprising of Electronic and Semiconductor companies sprouted up all over the country. Although previous Health Director Generals knew about these problems, they realized that acting on them would introduce other social problems. To avoid stepping into uncharted territory, they condoned abortions until our education system, counseling and improved socio-economic environment reduced the incidence of unwanted pregnancies.

Parents, boyfriends, husbands, wives, victims, etc would visit their doctors discretely who would then arrange for an abortion although abortions are technically illegal in this country unlike in Singapore where abortion is legal on socio-medical grounds and the legal time limit for abortion there is 24 weeks into pregnancy. Singapore further does not define an age limit of consent for the procedure. However ttoday, with the new media and the immoral antics of many of our leaders, Malaysia is facing another tsunami of unwanted pregnancies.

The silent utilization of abortion as a means to curb unwanted pregnancies until a long term solution is found may have changed however, when in 2006 both Chua Soi Lek and the Health DG Ismail Merican, rushed through parliament an Act called the Private Healthcare Services and Facilities Act (PHFSA). Reports of the rise in dumped babies coincide with the passing of this Act. The MOH set up departments to apprehend doctors or clinics carrying out abortions. They even sent matrons to look for equipment used in clinics doing abortions. The ramifications have been far reaching. End result. Now no GP or even gynecologist want to do any abortions in their clinics. Some GPs have in fact flatly told their receptionists to not even entertain patients coming in with unwanted pregnancies.

The Health Ministry run Malaysian Medical Council compounded matters further when in 2007 it struck off UMNO’s own Penawar state assemblyman Dr Mohd Azam Rauzan disallowing him from practicing medicine because he apparently went beyond the call of his medical duties to help a fellow constituent by issuing a birth certificate to a patient who wanted to give her child out for adoption when she knew she did not have the means to care for the child as a mother. The Health DG and MMC without looking into the social circumstances were judgmental in striking off Azam stating it was “to protect the public and the profession”. Short sighted decisions can have serious long term complications. And this is one of them.

Our Social Welfare, Adoption agencies and Syariah bureaucrats virtually make it impossible for a teenage kid to even approach them, let alone help these kids. They look at these kids as social deviants – an evil to society, as untouchables and bind them even further with more red tape. Even Sharizat says they should be hung like murderers. They need help. Where are they expected to go? They go sometimes to their doctors.
Under the circumstances Azam broke the law to help a teenage pregnant mother in good faith by issuing a birth certificate so that the parents can be named and the newborn eventually provided for. And what did the government do to him? He was not only dumped by UMNO but also lost his livelihood as a doctor. Shahrizat, Ali Rustam and Rosmah, the MCA, Gerakan, etc need to look into their own backyard and at their Little Napoleans before they start pointing fingers at others or asking our Universities to “research” the problem.

The primary causes of these lost unmarried teenagers appear obvious. Declining social responsibility coupled with a pathetic education system that doesn’t inculcate proper values seem to be getting both school kids and young parents into trouble. Malaysia, thanks to Shahrizat’s and Ali Rustam’s globally reported “solutions” is in danger of being viewed as a banana republic having a runaway promiscuous teenage problem with no answers to its “dumped babies” problem. Actually there are.

The true solution lies in instilling good values in children by parents, teachers and this country’s leaders – aided by a strong education system. If these qualities are not there, teenage pregnancies will boom. Internet pornography is here to stay. There are even sex scenes in Astro itself to sway a young mind. Children need to be educated, cultured, given guidance and protected. But despite all these checks and balances, teenage pregnancies can happen. If you don’t want abortion as an interim solution, the country must have an alternate solution. Marrying them off at 15 is not one of them. We cannot step back to the Stone Ages nor employ primitive edicts to deal with these problems. The family, as a unit, in this country is more important now then at anytime during its existence and we need to cultivate that.

As an analogy, in the battle to eradicate malaria, you must first focus on preventive measures in killing the vector, the Anopheles mosquito, not on developing expensive vaccines nor building even more expensive ICUs to cater for the complications of the disease. Similarly, Malaysia must focus on preventing teenage pregnancies by better education and counseling, not hanging the parents. From a healthcare point of view, it would be prudent that Malaysia rope in a wise Health DG from Preventive Healthcare instead of righteous clinical specialists. This problem of dumped babies is in part a problem created by our current medical autocrats. Rosmah, would do well to start her research there.

RUDOLF TILLER