“Burn all my medical books!”: the true story of an overseas medical graduate coming home to Malaysia

A child who always wanted to be a doctor

From the time he was very small, my cousin said he would be a doctor when he grew up.

This was not one of those dreams children say and forget. From secondary school he was in St John Ambulance. While others spent their weekends playing ball or at the mall, he was learning to bandage wounds and do CPR, and whenever an event needed first aiders, he put on his uniform and stood duty.

Back then we all thought this boy would make a good doctor one day.

A Chinese independent school student takes the long way round

But wanting to be a doctor takes more than heart.

He went to a Chinese independent school and sat the UEC. In those days, the road into medicine at a local university was very narrow for UEC students. His family was not well off either, and the fees to study medicine in the UK or Australia were out of the question.

In the end he chose Shanghai. The fees were more manageable, and he could study in Chinese.

And so a teenager packed his bags for another country, and stayed for years.

That day, more than twenty years ago

When he graduated and came home, the whole family was happy. Everyone thought he could finally be a doctor.

But I will never forget that day.

He stormed through the front door, his face full of anger, dropped his bag and shouted:

“Burn all my medical books!”

The house went quiet.

Only later did we understand. Medical graduates from China had to pass an exam back in Malaysia before they could be recognised as doctors. He had failed that time. He said someone he knew, someone with connections, had passed.

All those years of study, all those late nights, all those lonely years abroad suddenly seemed wasted.

He didn’t give up, but he had a choice

In the end, he did not burn the books.

He gritted his teeth, went back to Shanghai for a few more years of study and sat the exam again. This time he finally got his recognition. Today he runs his own clinic here, doing the work he has wanted to do since he was a child.

It ended well.

But over the years I keep coming back to one question:

What if his family had not been able to send him abroad a second time?

Not everyone gets a second chance

My cousin made it through because his family could hold on.

But how many fail the first time and never get a second? Their families have already borrowed money for medical school and cannot wait any longer. Their parents are getting older and need them at home. And so someone who has wanted to save lives since childhood ends up folding the white coat into a cupboard and taking a job that has nothing to do with what they studied.

It is not that they are not good enough. They just do not have the means to take the gamble again.

The Shanghai cousin