DOCTORS AND MPS

                 I am deeply honoured to be conferred an Honorary Membership of the Medical Alumni Association.  But I feel a little guilty for getting in the easy way.  Your members spent many years in medical school memorising uncommon and often unintelligible medical terms before they can join the association.  But I have been made an alumnus without having to sweat for it.  We know Singapore is famed for its instant trees.  Now, you are introducing a new species of instant ‘doctors’.  It is all just too easy for me, and also ironical, for I had consciously chosen not to be a doctor.

2                             Nearly half a century ago, when I was studying in Raffles Institution, I opted for the science stream like most of my classmates.  I did well enough to qualify to do Medicine.  I even scored a distinction in biology.  But I was not attracted by blood.  So after my “O’ levels, I went against the flow and switched to the Arts Stream.  Most of my classmates and good friends went on to study medicine while I graduated in Economics.  My friends became doctors and practised what they were trained to do.  As for me, my career did not turn out the way I had planned.

3                             My life seemed to have a will of its own.  Perhaps there was an invisible guiding hand.  But it was certainly not the invisible hand of the market.  From wanting to be a professor, I became first a civil servant, then a shipping executive, an MP, a Minister, then Prime Minister and now Senior Minister.  Please do not extrapolate.  Whatever will be, will be.  My wish of having a Ph D and sauntering around a university campus as a professor with books under my arms never materialised.  You can say that I failed to achieve my youthful ambition.  Thus, you would understand why I am pleased to accept your invitation to be an honorary member of your association.  I can now rub shoulders in the select company of my doctor friends as a member of one of Singapore’s most prestigious associations.

4                             A doctor’s life bears some similarities with that of an MP’s.  When I became an MP, I found that I had to behave like a doctor.  I set up my own clinic but we call the consultations, meet-the-people sessions.  Once a week, I would open my clinic to listen to people’s woes.  They would come with all kinds of complaints.  Some wanted HDB flats, others hawker stalls.  Some wanted approval to marry Work Permit holders; others help to deal with problems of divorces.  Some wanted places in good schools for their children, others, financial assistance to pay their bills.  Indeed, I had to deal with all kinds of ailments - some genuine, some not.  As doctors, you would have come across hypochondriacs; as MPs, we too meet our fair share of them.  Like doctors, we listen patiently, diagnose the nature of ailment, and prescribe advice and medicine, which usually takes the form of a letter to the relevant government department.  But doctors have to be careful not to be fooled into giving unwarranted medical certificates or pills.  Similarly, MPs must know how to handle residents who threaten not to vote for us unless we do them special favours against policies and rules.  Like doctors, we derive great satisfaction when we solve the problems of those in real pain.  And like you, we suffer in silence when we encounter those who are a real pain.

5                             So I would say doctors and MPs have much in common.  You treat medical illnesses, we treat social ailments.  But there is a critical difference.  You deal with your patients as individuals, but I heard that some do not even do so.  They deal with only a small part of the patient’s body and forget the individual.  On the other hand, an MP must not only deal with his constituents as individuals but also as parts of the larger society.  MPs are less concerned with individual problems than with community and national problems.

6                             Equipped with my clinical experience as an MP, I readily took on the appointment of Health Minister earlier in my career.  I felt I was qualified even though I did not have medical qualifications.  As Health Minister, and later as Prime Minister, I had many opportunities to work with Singapore’s health care professionals.  By and large, I found them dedicated and committed to their work.  They make us proud.  We have one of the best medical services in the world.

7                             The SARS outbreak last year was a sobering and frightening experience.  It was my most anxious moment as Prime Minister.  But I was encouraged by the selfless manner in which our doctors and nurses cared for their SARS patients, despite the risks to their own lives and their loved ones.  I knew that we would pull through.  By the way our doctors dealt with the SARS episode, especially those in public hospitals, they have truly earned the confidence and respect of all Singaporeans.

8                             Singapore’s healthcare sector has come a long way since our independence.  Today, we are widely recognized and respected as a regional healthcare hub.  But we should not stop here.  Rather, we should persist in our efforts to scale new heights.  One area that has changed over the years is in “doctor-patient relationships”.  With better education, patients are increasingly playing a greater role in the medical well-being of themselves and their loved ones.  Apart from reliable diagnoses and treatment from their doctors, they now expect to receive value-added health advice and information beyond what is available on the internet.  Apart from medical skills, doctors must therefore expand their repertoire to include good communication, health advocacy and resource management skills.  They should also be prepared for demands of greater transparency and accountability.  These are areas where the Medical Alumni Association can play a role.

9                             As a fraternity of many luminaries in the medical field, members of the Medical Alumni Association are role models and mentors to younger doctors.  The association serves as a beacon to the profession.  You have a vital role to play in inculcating your successors with the same ethical values that have earned you the trust of Singaporeans.

10                         Like MPs, doctors are society’s leaders too.  You have a responsibility for educating and leading the public to prevent, control and combat major diseases.  The role that the medical profession has played in the fight against Heart Disease, Cancer, SARS and AIDS are good examples.

11                         I had said that there was much in common between a doctor and an MP.  This is now manifested in some similarities between your association and the political party I belong to as well.  I was told that you have established a Young Alumni Chapter to inject fresh blood into the association.  In my political party, we have a Young PAP for the same purpose.  You have a Women’s Chapter, we have a Women’s Wing.  You have just installed a new President tonight.  We just elected a new Secretary-General yesterday.  Perhaps these are coincidences, perhaps they are not.

12                         Since a non-medical man can be an honorary member of the medical alumni, surely a doctor can be an honourable member of Parliament.  In fact, our Parliament is currently infected with doctors.  In 1965, out of 51 MPs, there was only 1 who was a doctor.  Today, there are 9 doctors out of 84 elected MPs.  In the latest batch of 9 NMPs, one-third are doctors.  In Cabinet, we have a breast cancer surgeon, an eye specialist and a neurologist when we had none before.  At the rate we are going, Cabinet may soon run its own medical service.

13                         Frankly, I am not surprised by the increasing number of doctors who want to be MPs.  Some aspects of a doctor’s professional instincts make him a naturally good public servant and leader.  Doctors are driven by an intrinsic desire to improve their patients’ quality of life.  They have to uncover the roots of their patients’ ailments in order to treat the disease, not just the symptoms.  Doctors also understand the importance of prescribing bitter pills, if necessary, to thoroughly cure their patients.  Good MPs, like good doctors, have to develop a deep understanding of the root causes of society’s problems.  Otherwise, they cannot competently represent their constituents.  MPs too must often make difficult choices.  Sometimes, they have to take unpopular decisions and accept the side effects for the sake of the long term benefit of their constituencies and country.

14                         To end my brief remarks, I want to set you a quiz.  Can an MP make a good doctor?  No, unless he is a good doctor.  Can a doctor make a good MP?  Yes, only if he is not interested in chasing after money.  Can a good doctor make a good Prime Minister?  I do not know the answer.  We do not have any precedence of a medically-trained Prime Minister in Singapore.  But there was one in a neighbouring country.  I asked because the process of national leadership self-renewal is ongoing.  As you would have concluded from my remarks tonight, doctors and MPs have much in common.  So just as you have graciously invited me to join your medical fraternity tonight, I would like to invite those, and especially the younger members, with the passion and aptitude for public service to join our political fraternity.  You will find practising politics as satisfying as practising medicine, and perhaps more so, because you can make a bigger impact on more people’s lives.

                 Thank you.