Merujuk kepada pelaksanaan Cukai Barangan dan Perkhidmatan (GST) bulan depan, Dr Mahathir berkata jika kenaikan harga ubat-ubatan membebankan rakyat, mereka harus memaklumkannya kepada kerajaan.
"Ia adalah hak rakyat untuk bertindak balas. Jika ini beban kepada mereka, mereka boleh memberitahu kerajaan... 'jangan tambah apa-apa cukai lagi'," katanya pada sidang media di Serdang, hari ini.
"Jika anda mengenakan cukai, kita tidak akan undi anda lagi", katanya.
Bekas perdana menteri yang lantang itu berkata demikian mengulas kenyataan tidak semua ubat-ubatan, termasuk yang penting, akan dikecualikan daripada GST.
“Hanya ubat-ubatan di bawah National Essential Drug List saja tidak dikenakan cukai,” katanya.
Beliau berkata, tidak dapat dielakkan di mana kos penjagaan kesihatan akan meningkat dengan GST yang akan dikenakan ke atas “semua perkara”.
Pengamal perubatan menyuarakan kebimbangan mengenainya sebelum ini dengan Persekutuan Persatuan Perubatan Swasta mengatakan senarai ubat-ubatan di bawah NEDL meningkat terhadap rawatan susulan penyakit kritikal dan komplikasinya.
Laporan lain turut menyatakan hingga kini, hanya 320 ubat-ubatan mempunyai kadar cukai sifar yang mewakili 13% daripada jumlah keseluruhan 43,000 ubat berdaftar.
Dr Mahathir yang juga bekas doktor, turut menyatakan ia adalah satu "keajaiban" kepada Putrajaya bagi membiayai perubatan percuma di hospital kerajaan memandangkan kos yang semakin meningkat.
"Ketika saya menjadi perdana menteri, kami bimbang bagaimana membiayai perubatan percuma yang diberikan kepada rakyat Malaysia.
"Pada zaman British ketika saya masih menjadi doktor, ia adalah 1% sebotol campuran ubat batuk. Jadi kerajaan tidak menghabiskan terlalu banyak wang. Tetapi kos perubatan sudah naik.
"Bagaimana kerajaan masih boleh mengekalkan rawatan perubatan percuma adalah sesuatu yang ajaib," katanya.
Bagaimanapun, Dr Mahathir berkata, walaupun terdapat cadangan untuk memperkenalkan sistem insurans namun idea itu yang tidak mengambil kira kepada "Rakyat Malaysia tidak suka untuk membayar apa-apa".
"Terdapat pelbagai cadangan untuk kita memiliki insurans kesihatan. Tetapi rakyat Malaysia tidak suka untuk membayar apa-apa.
"Selagi kita tidak meminta mereka membayar rawatan mereka, saya fikir kita lakukan dengan baik," katanya selepas menyaksikan majlis menandatangani perjanjian di antara Universiti Perdana dan Universiti California, San Diego (UCSD) untuk program perubatan dan penyelidikannya.
Dalam ucapannya kepada pelajar-pelajar perubatan di universiti itu, Dr Mahathir menyatakan rakyat kini cukup kaya untuk mendapatkan rawatan di hospital swasta yang "mengenakan sebarang jumlah yang mereka suka".
"Ketika saya menjadi pengamal perubatan swasta, saya hanya mengenakan RM3 untuk rawatan dan RM5 dengan suntikan.
"Saya hanya mengenakan bayaran RM3. Adakah itu sangat mahal? Saya tidak begitu kaya pada masa itu. Tetapi saya mampu lakukannya.
"Oleh sebab itulah saya lebih memberi tumpuan kepada politik. Berbanding dengan apa yang saya lakukan sebagai pengamal perubatan swasta, gaji saya sebagai perdana menteri besar. Saya fikir kerajaan murah hati untuk memberikan jumlah yang besar kepada bekas doktor untuk melakukan sesuatu yang beliau tidak lakukan,” katanya sambil mendapat tepukan gemuruh.
Bekas perdana menteri itu berkata, kepentingan kerjasama antara Universiti Perdana dan UCSD diharap dapat menyumbang kepada pembangunan penjagaan kesihatan negara.
"Kita perlu tahu prosedur yang dijalankan di negara lain. Tidak kira berapa banyak yang kita tahu tentang sesuatu, sentiasa ada sesuatu yang lain yang kita tidak tahu.
"Kita tidak boleh mendakwa kita mengetahui segala-galanya. Itulah sebabnya kita perlu bekerjasama dengan orang lain yang pakar dalam penyakit lain. Saya pasti ia akan menyumbang lebih kepada penjagaan kesihatan di negara ini," katanya.
Dr Mahathir juga menekankan kepentingan pengajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris di sekolah bagi membantu bidang perubatan bersaing dengan dunia luar.
"Saya sentiasa merasakan kita perlu belajar sains dalam bahasa Inggeris walaupun saya seorang negarawan yang mahu mempromosikan bahasa kebangsaan," katanya.
"Tetapi untuk tujuan praktikal, kita perlu mendapatkan arahan mencukupi dalam bahasa Inggeris supaya kita boleh memahami penemuan baru, kertas penyelidikan baru dalam bidang perubatan yang tidak terdapat dalam bahasa kebangsaan tetapi hanya bahasa Inggeris,” katanya.
Pada 2003, Dr Mahathir yang ketika itu perdana menteri memperkenalkan semula pengajaran kedua-dua mata pelajaran berkenaan dalam bahasa Inggeris bagi menangani penguasaan kemerosotan bahasa di kalangan pelajar Malaysia.
Bagaimanapun, keputusan itu berubah pada 2009 oleh Menteri Pelajaran Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin selepas enam tahun Dr Mahathir bersara daripada politik. –tmi
Scrap GST or lose votes, Dr M tells people to warn BN...
Referring to the goods and services tax (GST) which takes effect next month, Dr Mahathir today said that if the rise in cost of medicines was burdensome to the people, they should let Putrajaya know.
"It is for the people to respond. If this is a burden for them, they can tell the government, 'Please don't add any more taxes'," he said at a press conference in Serdang today.
"If you charge taxes, we will not vote for you anymore."
The outspoken former prime minister was commenting that not all medicines, including essential ones, will be GST-exempt. Only medicines under the National Essential Drug List would be zero-rated.
He said it was inevitable that healthcare costs would go up with the GST as would "everything else".
Medical practitioners had voiced concerns over this previously, with the Federation of Private medical Practitioners' Associations Malaysia saying that the list of drugs under the NEDL was not the complete one for the treatment of all important diseases and their complications.
Another report had said as of today, only 320 medicines were zero-rated, representing 1.3% of the total 43,000 registered medicines.
Dr Mahathir, who is a former doctor, also noted that it was a "miracle" that Putrajaya was able to finance free medication in government hospitals, given that costs have escalated from when he was practising.
"When I was prime minister, we were worried about how to finance the free medicine that we were giving to Malaysians.
"During the British time when I was still practising, it was 1 cent per bottle of cough mixture. So the government wasn't spending too much money. But costs of medicine have gone up.
"How the government can still sustain this free medical treatment is something that is almost a miracle.”
However, in his usual caustic manner, Dr Mahathir said although there were suggestions to introduce an insurance system then, the idea never took off as "Malaysians did not like to pay for anything".
"There were various suggestions that we should have health insurance. But Malaysians do not like to pay for anything.
"So long as we don't ask them to pay for their treatments, I think we (the government) are doing well," he said after witnessing the signing of an agreement between Perdana University and University of California, San Diego (UCSD) earlier for the latter's medical and research programme.
In his speech to medical students at the university, Dr Mahathir also noted that people were now rich enough to seek treatment in private hospitals, which "charged any amount they like".
"When I was a private practitioner, I charged only RM3 for treatment and with injection, it was RM5.
"I charged only RM3. Is that very expensive? I wasn't that rich at that time. But I made it somehow.
"Which is why I focused more on politics. Compared with what I was making as a private practitioner, my pay as a prime minister was a big sum. I thought the government was being generous to give that amount to an ex-doctor to do something that I was not trained for," he said, as the crowd burst into laughter.
The former prime minister noted the importance of the collaboration between Perdana University and UCSD, saying that it would contribute much to the development of the nation's healthcare.
"We need to know of other procedures that are carried out in other countries. No matter how much we know of things, there is always something else that we do not know of.
"We cannot claim to know everything. That is why we need to collaborate with others who specialise in other diseases. I am sure it will contribute much to the healthcare of the country."
Dr Mahathir also again highlighted the importance of teaching Science and Mathematics in the English language in schools, noting that this was how the local medical field could keep up with the world.
"I always feel that we have to study science in English although I am a great nationalist who wants to promote the national language.
"But for practical purposes, we have to acquire a sufficient command of English so we can understand the new discoveries, new research papers on medicine, which will not come in our national language but in English."
In 2003, Dr Mahathir, who was then the prime minister, had reintroduced the teaching of both subjects in English to address the declining proficiency of the language among Malaysian students.
However, the decision was reversed in 2009 by Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, six years after Dr Mahathir retired from politics. – tmi
Gov't admits organising first Shafee roadshow...
The federal government has admitted to organising the first roadshow conducted by Shafee Abdullah on Anwar Ibrahim's Sodomy II trial but said it had nothing to do with subsequent roadshows conducted by Shafee.
De-facto law minister Nancy Shukri told the Dewan Rakyat today the government "only organised the first roadshow".She said this when asked about Shafee's (right) lewd verbal attacks against Anwar in public roadshows Shafee led after Anwar was convicted on Feb 10 and jailed five years for sodomy
"The government only organised one roadshow [...] the rest were done by NGOs and political NGOs," she claimed.
She also said "no one dared" to debate Shafee during the roadshows "despite invitations".
Previously, Shafee had also gone on an Umno organised roadshow, which Umno Youth said would be converted into a nationwide roadshow. The plan was later scrapped.
Shafee, a prominent Umno-linked lawyer, was appointed as deputy public prosecutor to prosecute in Anwar's Sodomy 2 trial at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court, which resulted in Anwar being convicted and imprisoned.
The Bar Council and many other bodies have condemned Shafee's roadshows, in which he had revealed allegedly explicit details of Anwar's sodomy act on his former aide. - mk
Desperate for Change - Why must a government of the day organize a road show to explain the findings of a court case??? The explanation is in the court judgement. Why use public funds to do this road show.. u do road shows for GST yes but why this... unless you know what you have done is wrong and what the judiciary has done is wrong and therefore you are now trying to placate the rakyat and make it look right. GET OUT UMNO!
Justice Pao - The admission of involvement by the UMNO government has confirmed what the majority of the Rakyat already knew - political conspiracy in Sodomy II by UMNO to get rid of DSAI with Shafee as the chief plotter?????
Oleh kerana kerajaan arahkan 2 org pegawai polis yang tidur tu tukar 24 jam.Alang2,
mintak tukaq yang ni sekali....dia juga tiduq ketika waktu bertugas...
cheers.
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