OUR Malaysian nurses are overworked, underpaid and underappreciated, but all PAS MP Wan Razali Wan Nor cares about is their attire, which he claims is too tight and not syariah-compliant.
That is the problem with PAS leaders and their deep-rooted obsession with dressing.
In the past, they berated our airline crew’s uniforms, which they claimed were too provocative.
But this is probably the first time that the nurse’s uniform has become a point of contention with the party. Never mind that our nurses no longer wear skirts but only slacks. That is still not enough for the Kuantan lawmaker.
Most of our nurses already wear headscarves and all are certainly modestly dressed. They don’t need PAS to lecture them on donning the burqa like they do in Afghanistan.
Wan Razali should also do his homework. There is an unprecedented shortage of nurses in Malaysia.
There are already calls from the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) to liberalise the nursing labour market and bring in foreign nurses amid the shortage in both public and private hospitals.
The reality is that other countries within the region are offering better packages to Malaysian nurses to work in their countries, and the brain drain will affect our healthcare, said APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh.
It is said that when Malaysian nurses sign up to work in the Middle East, their employers welcome them by making sure they are picked up at the airport with chauffeur-driven limousines.
There have been news reports that Johor is facing a severe shortage of nurses, estimated at between 15,000 and 18,000, following an exodus to Singapore.
Last year, Johor health and unity committee chairman Ling Tian Soon was quoted as saying that he knew of a friend whose salary as a nurse in Singapore was equal to that of a specialist doctor in Malaysia due to the currency exchange rate.
According to Homage Malaysia, fresh graduate nurses in Malaysia are paid RM1,500 a month while in Singapore, the average pay is about S$2,500 (RM8,500) a month. In Dubai, new nurses can earn 5,000 dirham a month (around RM6,800).
It said nurses often need to work two eight-hour shifts in a day (which translates to 16 hours). This means they are stretched thin, putting a toll on their mental and physical health.
It also means that these nurses would end up with little chance to upskill or pursue further education due to a lack of time and energy.
According to Segi College, citing data from the Health Ministry, Malaysia had 113,787 registered nurses in a country of over 32 million people in 2021.
This means that the nurse-to-population ratio is 1:454, which falls short of the 1:300 ratio recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Indeed, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa has said that steps have been taken to remedy the situation, including expediting the appointment of doctors and nurses.
But we need more than just politically-correct promises from our leaders.
As pointed out by Homage Malaysia country manager PC Gan in a write-up last year, “Nurses are not just administration staff or clerks, but highly trained medical professionals, often the first responder and the last barrier between life and death.”
She said that Homage, which operates in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Japan, has observed differences in the way nurses are treated.
“It is with regret that Malaysia is one of the worst offenders in the ill treatment of and discrimination against nurses,” she claimed.
And certainly, PAS MP Wan Razali needs to accord a high regard and appreciation for the work of these health workers.
Many of them risked their lives, as frontliners, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wan Razali seems to have forgotten their contributions as all he could notice, in his warped mind, was that their uniforms are apparently too tight.
This is the same MP who had to retract his claim that a women’s rally in Kuala Lumpur in March was an “LGBT march”, which he could not prove when demanded to do so by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul.
Wan Razali’s incoherent outbursts in Parliament are sickening. He needs to be nursed back to health.
