LETTER | Of late, social media platforms are entangled with the Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman temple relocation issue in Jalan Masjid India, Kuala Lumpur.

In the blink of an eye, the pressing issues of former prime ministers like Najib Abdul Razak’s addendum and Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s alleged money laundering have been swept aside.

Upon reflecting, whenever there is political turmoil, there would be a religion or race issue which suddenly surfaces and the attention completely shifts.

The race and religion trump card has become a very effective smokescreen to shift optics. Such a convenient coincidence!

While the Health Ministry was under intense scrutiny for scrambling with the medical officer’s e-placement debacle again, a similar problem with medical graduates’ e-placement into housemanship recently happened and it was drowned by the temple relocation issue.

The failure of the current Health Ministry director-general (DG)to steer the ship is ever so apparent. With all the attention temporarily being swayed away from the ministry, the DG is allegedly maneuvering a move for extension of service.

If it happens, it would be nothing short of a calamity. In the event he fails in his bid for extension, there is also a Plan B allegedly being mooted for one of his minions to take over the seat.

It would be witless to even have one of the current deputies to be promoted because their entire team has failed in every aspect over the past couple of years.

Promoting any of the deputies wouldn’t make any difference, as the famous saying goes, “Monkey see monkey do”.

Health Ministry Dzulkefly Ahmad seems to be throttling along the path of former health ministers Dr Adham Baba and Dr Zaliha Mustafa by becoming an unavailing health minister.

Since last year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has been boisterous about digital transformation in Malaysia, but the Health Ministry is on the path of digital regression. Is this another case of empty vessels making the most noise?

However, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL). HKL’s director is storming into unchartered waters by digitalising the hospital. The current director of HKL appears like a breath of fresh air, outdoing his predecessors in just a year.

Perhaps it is time that capable people are promoted instead of following the primeval ways of seniority-based promotions. In fact, this methodology should be applied across the board in all ministries.

It is high time more pressing issues are highlighted instead of being disillusioned by other distractions. As the proverb goes, “If you commit to nothing, you’re distracted by everything”.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.