Clad in black, hundreds of contract doctors across the country staged a brief walkout from hospitals and healthcare facilities this morning to demand permanent positions in the public healthcare sector, before returning to resume their duties.
There was police presence at various locations, and in Kuala Lumpur, Dang Wangi police chief Mohamad Zainal Abdullah said an investigation would be opened on the strike as no one is allowed to be involved in any gatherings during the current movement control order.
However, as lawyer SN Nair pointed out, walking out of a job “isn’t legally tantamount to a criminal offence”.
“Hence, under what provisions of the law can the police exercise their powers of arrest on the doctors? We are a country of laws. The police are not powers unto their own.”
Nair noted that there appeared to be no provision to enforce action against a walkout by the contract doctors under the Emergency ordinance which, as announced by law minister Takiyuddin Hassan in Parliament today, was revoked on July 21.
“I fail to see under which specific provision a charge can stick,” he said. “If the police did arrest (those who went on strike), it would be unlawful, and constitute a false arrest and detention.”
Meanwhile, criminal law practitioner Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali said the doctors were merely carrying out their right to protest and state their dissatisfaction, stressing that Article 10 of the Federal Constitution protects freedom of expression.
He added that the strike was done in an orderly manner and did not cause any inconvenience.
“Where is the offence? There is none,” he said.
“(Speaking) as a criminal lawyer, they are very clearly not breaking the law.”
The strike, which was planned on July 1, was held to demand a fair career path, and for contract doctors to be offered the same benefits as medical officers in permanent positions.
Among those who were warned not to take part in the strike included healthcare workers at Hospital Serdang, with The Malaysian Insight reporting that the Special Branch and federal reserve units would be deployed at the hospital to arrest those who defied this order.
Earlier today, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said he did not have any information that the strike would threaten public order.
Despite prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s offer of a contract extension and fully paid study leave last week, the Hartal Doktor Kontrak group said the strike would proceed, and described Muhyiddin’s solution as “half-baked”.
Mohan Ramakrishnan, a labour and industrial relations lawyer, said the doctors were well within their rights to protest at what they perceive to be unfair treatment.
Noting that while most Malaysians would have spent the past two months at home due to various lockdowns, Mohan said that frontliners have been putting in daily shifts of 12 hours a day or more to help battle the Covid-19 pandemic, and are now simply “fed up at being put in a corner”.
“When they put their lives on the line to help the nation, the government should reciprocate by giving them security of tenure,” he said.
“What’s the use of slogging for the nation when it seems as if the nation doesn’t appreciate it?”