I am a medical graduate from a local public university. My experiences over the last five years in a public university have convinced me that the present government is one that does not recognise the value of skills and talents.

Entering medical school with high spirits, I was dealt the first disappointing blow in a briefing given by the dean. I could hardly believe my ears then (and now) as the Dato' Professor struggled to express his thoughts and ideas in incomprehensible English. He was clearly not proficient in the language.

My only memory of the content of his uninspiring inaugural speech to us freshies was the repeated reminders to students not to indulge in any activities as stated in the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), echoes uncannily familiar of Barisan Nasional politicians.

Over the years in medical school, I would come to know that many lecturers are equally uncomfortable giving presentations and lectures in the English language and I came to accept the fact that one can be poor in the language and still be promoted to a full professorship.

Every year, the BN government proclaims meritocracy whilst not reporting the true figures and their breakdown of university admission. While I was in university, students were ushered in through a back-door twinning programme - their figures never reported in the mainstream pro- government newspapers. Students who exposed this issue were threatened with the UUCA.

As students, perhaps our greatest letdown was the constant departure of gifted teachers. Almost in any clinical discipline, we encountered senior lecturers leaving or planning to leave for the private medical sector, most lamenting about their being passed over for promotion in favor of younger lecturers of a preferred ethnicity.

These motivated clinicians and gifted teachers joined the medical faculty with a passion to teach and impart knowledge but left with a bitter knowledge that in Malaysian universities, ethnicity and 'who-you-knew' came before one's skills and dedication.

I was fortunate to have had studied under these rare breed of clinicians and I can only sympathise with future medical students who would not have the opportunity to do so. These inspiring and experienced lecturers are now replaced by young doctors joining the academic ranks through the Skim Latihan Akademik Bumiputera (Slab).

These are doctors who are offered specialist programmes with the Education Ministry after having completed only one year of Housemanship with the ministry. Their counterparts, the non-bumiputera doctors who wish to specialise or serve as a lecturer, are required to complete all four years of their compulsory government service before being eligible to apply for a local specialist masters programme, without a guarantee that their application will even be approved.

It is unfair to generalise but mostly, I sense a vast disparity in the quality of teaching by these inexperienced lecturers, some of whom are a mere five years older that the final-year medical student.

In more than one department, some of these young lecturers were given fast-track promotions and made head of department, being placed in charge of their former teachers with years of experiences.

Many Malaysians are not aware that when non-bumiputera doctors apply for a Masters Specialist Programme, their colleagues of bumiputera descent would be their superiors whilst current students four years their junior would be equal level colleagues having been exempted from the district posting compulsory for other doctors.

Essentially, the frustration of non-bumiputera students and doctors is the prevailing inequality. In a noble profession like medicine, it is indeed deplorable that the powers-that-be view us through a coloured vision, and it is doubly deplorable that lecturers are themselves not spared this double standard.

How can any healthcare professional serve under such an unprofessional government? How can one continue to have faith in a government under which the prime minister declares that 'all Malaysians are equal' yet practices exactly the opposite?

But then again, the citizens of Malaysia do deserve all the nonsense being shoved at their faces as they were the ones who opted for yet another period of Barisan Nasional reign.