Mr Duncan and family are not happy with how they were treated and the service they received at the hospital and Mr Duncan has written a letter of complaint to the authorities.
Although I believe that some government hospitals in Malaysia do well in their service to the public as evidenced by the occasional letters to the press, by and large, the Malaysian public's perception and experience of them are not positive.
Some of my comments published in Mr Duncan's blog on the matter, which I reproduce below, reflect my personal feelings on the subject.
Duncan, welcome to the Malaysian standard of service! It is a service the government tells us is second to none in the world, but one we long suffering Malaysians know better. But of course the government knows better and whatever it says, who are we to contradict? If we are not happy, they will tell us, we could go back to tiongsan (China) for the Chinese or to India for the Indians. But I don't know where the Malays are supposed to go back to - Yunnan? You see, it seems that civil servants here can do just about anything they want, serve you in whatever way they want because even if there are rules or regulations, who are going to enforce them? A government job here is a sinecure and nobody bothers a fart if they perform or not. You leave me alone and I leave you alone. Kita sama-sama cari makan. (We are in the same boat seeking a living, so don't rock the boat, or something like that lah). I sympathise with you and your family. It is disgraceful the type of service you get from government departments and hospitals sometimes, or should I say often times? I am not too sure they will bother about your complaint. Most likely they will give you the go-around and just lay the blame on a misunderstanding, but not on themselves. Malaysians are fed-up with the government and the only way to rectify the bad service is to vote out the ruling Barisan coalition and give the opposition coalition Pakatan a chance to run the show.
Well, what do readers think? Is the standard of service of government hospitals or, for that matter public service in Malaysia, up to par or what?
