By Peter John Jaban, Sarawak Rights Activist
KOTA KINABALU: The recent announcement that Putrajaya is considering the import of 15,000 Indonesian nurses to patch up an 18% vacancy rate is not a solution.
It is a humiliating public admission of systemic failure.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) is treating our healthcare system like a revolving-door sweatshop.
“We call upon the Federal Government to stop outsourcing our national healthcare security to cover up your refusal to pay local workers a living wage.
“The Great Healthcare Robbery* – Malaysia does not suffer from a shortage of talent.
We suffer from a severe shortage of political will. Our locally trained, world-class nurses are fleeing to Singapore and the Middle East in droves.They are not abandoning their country; they are fleeing financial starvation.
When a fresh Malaysian nurse in a public hospital is expected to survive on a base salary of roughly RM2,600 to RM3,500 while enduring brutal 24-hour shifts, it is not a career but it is exploitation.
Across the causeway, Singapore lures them with RM12,000 to RM17,000 a month, while Dubai offers up to RM18,000 tax-free.
Putrajaya’s brilliant counter-offer? Bring in 15,000 foreign workers instead of fixing the leaky bucket.
This policy is an insult to every local medical graduate who has been forced to look abroad just to afford a middle-class life.
Sarawak is Not a Colony for Federal Leftovers
This federal quick-fix is completely blind to the realities of East Malaysia. Importing Indonesian nurses might satisfy the commercial greed of private medical tourism hubs in Kuala Lumpur or Penang, but it will do absolutely nothing for the critically understaffed, underfunded rural clinics of Kapit, Baram, or Lawas.Under the spirit of the *Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63)*, health is supposed to be a shared responsibility, yet Sarawak continues to be treated like an afterthought.We do not want a two-tiered system where our local nurses burn out training foreign replacements while being paid fractions of what their skills are worth globally.
If Sarawakian youths are given the right incentives, fully funded localized scholarships, and a dignified regional wage scale, we can staff our own hospitals.
Our Demands: 1. Immediate Freeze on Foreign Nurse Influx
Halt any G2G agreements with Indonesia until a comprehensive, transparent review of local nurse retention and wage revision is presented.
2. *Immediate Health Autonomy for Sarawak:* If Putrajaya cannot afford to pay nurses a competitive regional wage, devolve full financial and administrative healthcare powers to Sarawak so the state can implement its own specialized civil service wage scale.
3. *A “Stay and Thrive” Retention Bonus:* Implement a mandatory 35% market-incentive allowance for local nurses working in high-pressure public hospitals and rural Borneo clinics to match regional economic realities.If Malaysian nurses are good enough to anchor the world-class hospital systems of Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Australia, they are good enough to be paid a thriving wage at home.Putrajaya must stop using foreign labor to suppress local wages.
Pay our local talents what they are worth, or step aside and let Sarawak manage its own healthcare..
