Suggested ground rules for Hartal Doktor Kontrak on 26 July 2021

Here are some suggested ground rules for several groups of people:

Thank you for ensuring that patient care is not compromised, that your non-striking colleagues are not inappropriately burdened, and that you always keep your end objectives in mind (i.e., equal and fair terms of service, and protecting Malaysia’s health system in the long-term). You know the risk of disciplinary action, and therefore your decision to strike is brave. Your decision is also selfless because you may bear individual consequences while the rest of us collectively enjoy the benefits.

Thank you for treating your civil servants and your important healthcare front-liners with compassion and kindness. Therefore, we should not threaten, guilt-trip or punish doctors who strike. Any government will derive more legitimacy and goodwill by fixing problems, especially proactively. To be clear, doctors should not be arrested for a non-violent strike.

In essence, this strike is an employment discussion between employee (contract doctors) and employer (the government). Therefore, DO NOT POLITICIZE the Hartal. You can help by focusing political energy on fixing the structural problems, like a large civil service; an under-funded Health Ministry with its human resources largely determined by the Public Service Department; or fairer terms of service for our healthcare professionals.

I am sorry that Malaysia needed the threat of a strike to provide long-term and fair solutions for our contract doctors. We can’t call them “selfish”, because they have served for 18-months at the COVID-19 frontlines, and will serve for many more months. They are not machines and their demands are actually quite reasonable. Even if we don’t support the strike itself, I am sure that we support the principle of fair treatment for our health professionals. And that’s all they are asking for.

As their (senior) colleagues, we have to ask ourselves: “How can we support their cause, even if we don’t support the strike?”. Because, frankly, we were all Hartal at one point or another. Our junior colleagues are not striking for fun; they are striking because they have reached their physical, emotional, psychological, and financial limits, and because our system is unsustainable.

23,000 of the 52,000 doctors in MOH (45%) are on contracts, and they are mostly on the COVID-19 front-lines. They are not receiving the job security, equal terms and career progression that they deserve. As they have cared for Malaysians, we must now care for them. And as we care for them, we are also caring for ourselves.