KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has made it clear today that it does not have any link with the "black flag" movement, threatening to go on strike in support of the contract healthcare workers' issue.
In a statement, MMA president Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy denied any affiliation with certain quarters that had started their own "black flag" campaign.
He said MMA was still working with the authorities to resolve all issues concerning contract healthcare workers in the country and would not condone any strike by any healthcare professionals especially during this pandemic.
"Ours is the Code Black campaign (from July 1 to 12 and Black Monday on July 12), encouraging the people to show their support for the contract doctors by changing their personal profile picture or logo to black or monochrome and we encourage them to wear black to work on July 12, to share pictures of yourself holding a placard saying 'We stand with Contract Healthcare Workers' with the hashtags #saveMYcontractHCW #BlackMondayMY #CodeBlackMy," he said.
He said other than that MMA had also called upon its supporters to visit the 'MMA SCHOMOS' Facebook page for the latest information and to promote the page to increase awareness on the issue.
"We neither call for a gathering nor support or condone any gathering or strike to take place, as we are still in discussion with the authorities over the matter," Dr Subramaniam said, adding that the MMA feared the latest development relating to the black flag movement would cause confusion.
Dr Subramaniam also explained that it had chosen black as a symbol to mourn over the bright young talents the country is losing to other countries and to recognise the predicament of contract healthcare workers in Malaysia.
"We hope this issue will not be politicised by any group. There are 23,077 contract doctors since 2016 but only 789 have been given permanent positions in our public healthcare," he added.
He said the term Code Black (emergency code) was actually a hospital emergency code denoting a threat to personnel - in this case the contract healthcare workers.