Institute Jantung Negara (IJN)

To kick start with the continuation of the previous post, I would like to extend my greetings of Merry Christmas to everyone, young and old, sick and healthy, staunch believer of religion and non-believers. Christmas was never an isolated celebration catered only to one religion but a moment of celebration of happiness and joyfulness and certainly togetherness as well. It's the year 2008's Christmas and 2007's Christmas theme of 1 Utama's decorations are still fresh in my mind especially with it's previous toy soldier theme. Nevertheless time passes, even though we are still feeling stuck in a particular time frame. Before the Penang trip goes for a full wave of explanations, I would like to touch on the issue of the government's interest on privatising IJN (Institute Jantung Negara/ National Heart Institution) by selling 51% of it's equity stake in IJN to Sime Darby Berhad. Better or for worse, this is easily summarised as an attempt of pure corruptions by our 'elected' government law makers.
A brief history of IJN. IJN was initially a unit under the wing of the government hospital. It was a unit that was dedicated to heart complication matters. In the year 1989, when former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammad succumbed to a heart complication disease and was warded into the heart unit under the general hospital's wing for a heart bypass. He then realised that this country is lack of a specialised hospital that provides cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery services for Malaysians. After that onwards he begin a plan to institutionalise the heart unit under the government hospital's wing into a full fledged institution that is now called IJN. IJN comprises specialised cardiologist, from cardiac surgeon to cardiologist that are well trained to meet the rising demand of heart medication throughout the nation. The first chairman of IJN was Dr Yahya. Dr Yahya was the doctor that had conducted Mahathir's bypass surgery in the year 1989. Therefore IJN was institutionalised officially in the year 1992 and later incorporated in the year 2005. It is now own by the government under the purview of the Ministry of Finance led by Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister-in-waiting.
The above context are the ''stories'' that are circulated around. How genuine? May the readers decide for themselves, especially with the appointment of Dr Yahya as the first chairman of IJN.
IJN was constructed through the use of public funds that are derived from tax collection. Therefore it would be counter productive to sell it off to Sime Darby Berhad as this moment. The moment when people and I meant rakyat are going through a very hard time to acclimatised the bearish market, the fallout economy, the financial meltdown and everything that America had done which gives and delivered a negative and a horrible outlook to so many average Joes' that are working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. Like it or not, Najib is compromising with the welfare of the general population. And bloody hell, Najib is capitalising this issue when everyone is having a hard time to make ends meet. We have a whole general population of low-class, low-earning rakyat and he wants to send IJN off. Fuck it, Sime Darby won't give a shit of capitalising their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). What the hell would Sime Darby Berhad wants to buy out IJN if not for the profits. Yes, IJN is a very extremely successful institution that is earning big bucks. IJN doesn't only provide services for the local but also overseas patients. For your information IJN is one of the most advance heart institution in the South East Region. It would be immaterial if IJN do take into consideration the welfare of the low-earning rakyat when the fact is they bloody hell don't. Is Najib hoping to commit suicide because if this privatisation exercise do take off, I swear he'll be out in no time from the government office; from the premier's chair right after the 13th general election. I am harping on this issue is for a particular reason. Non of you people know that I, THUM CHUN HON, was one of the very first young infant heart patient of the IJN unit under the government hospital wing. I did my first operation in the year 1989 (49 das old) and had my picture taken as a commemoration of the successful operation. My parents paid RM5 for both of the operations. Imagine if IJN was a privatised institution during that time, then the heart operation would have cost between RM10,000 - Rm15, 000 each. Imagine now if its privatised, then it would be around RM50,000, and that's for an operation equal to my case. What about the complicated ones? This is not an isolated case, as the welfare of the rakyat must never be compromised at all cost. We paid taxes for it's establishment and we will enjoy the services of it freely. Penang trip postpone to next post. Promise.