Ambiga fears future doctors view studies through racial lens

Former Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan has expressed concern about certain students looking at issues through a racial lens.

She was referring to the action of the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) student council which held a campaign objecting to the admission of non-bumiputera medical students to continue their studies in the field of cardiothoracic surgery.

“In the UiTM issue, medical students were protesting the admission of non-bumiputera students. I am worried about what kind of doctors they will become later.

“That they see medical studies through a racial lens goes against doctors’ principles and it is totally unacceptable,” she said.

Ambiga spoke as a panellist at the Bersih Congress held at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall today.

On April 25, health news portal Codeblue reported UiTM-IJN Parallel Pathway Programme board member Raja Amin Raja Mokhtar as saying that UiTM agreed to open a path for non-bumiputera trainees to obtain advanced education in cardiothoracic surgery there, following a lack of experts in the field.

As a response, about 100 UiTM students staged a protest on May 14 against temporarily opening the higher education institution’s doors to seven non-bumiputera medical officers for that purpose.

They also wore black clothes to express their opposition, in the campaign that used the hashtag #MahasiswaUiTMBantah.

However, the student council later apologised by describing what happened as a “mistake” and saying it had learnt from the incident.

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