Kota Kinabalu: The Federation of Traditional Malay Medicine of Malaysia (Putramas) has been given the task to register all traditional medicine practitioners or healers of various indigenous ethnic groups in Malaysia. Towards this end, Putramas formed its Sabah and Sarawak chapters recently to facilitate the move as requested by the Traditional/Complementary Medicine (T/CM) Division of the Ministry of Health.
The Sabah chapter is led by Dr Ismail Idris, who is also President of the Borneo Traditional Medicine Centre with Dorothea Justin as deputy and Benedict Topin (secretary-general), announced liaison chairman for Putramas Sabah & Sarawak Chapters, Prof. Razali Bolhi, here recently.
Prof. Razali. who is also a member of the T/CM Division's Criteria and Standard Programme for T/CM Practitioners, said the ongoing registration exercise was aimed at identifying all traditional medicine practitioners in the country, including those from the indigenous groups in East Malaysia.
"It is to document their practices so as to better preserve them as part of the nation's cultural heritage. Putramas shall encompass the traditional healers or medicine men or women of the various indigenous ethnic groups, including the bobohizans of the Kadazandusun Murut community in Sabah," he said.
He said the rationale behind the grouping of the traditional medicine practitioners of the various indigenous groups under the term "Traditional Malay Medicine of Malaysia" was to better project a national identity and their origin as the people of the Malay Archipelago.
He also noted that the move was particularly focused on the indigenous ethnic groups, as they were still very much lagging behind compared to their counterparts in traditional Chinese or Indian medicine practice.
"The Chinese physicians are very well organised and they have their representatives here to take care of them," he said.
Besides this, the registration exercise also aims to better prepare them for the impending implementation of the T/CM Act that is expected to be tabled in Parliament some time next year.
Under the proposed Act, all T/CM practitioners in Malaysia would be required to equip themselves with the 'certificate of practice' that is fully recognised by the Ministry of Health, failing which they will not be allowed to practise i.e. to treat others.
"The enacting of the T/CM Act would better regulate the T/CM industry so as to safeguard the public interest, as well as that of the T/CM practitioners, particularly foreign practitioners from such countries like Indonesia, Philippines and China.
"Especially when we talk about 'health tourism', it is only appropriate that we promote our own culture and heritage, instead of promoting others," said Prof. Razali, who is also the President of Borneo Indigenous Holistic Healers Foundation.
He also said that practitioners of traditional/indigenous disciplines of complementary therapies may register themselves under Putramas, while those practising the non-traditional/indigenous disciplines like the reflexology or shiatsu, etc, could register with the Malaysian Society for Complementary Therapies (MSCT), which is another member of the T/CM Division.
More information can be obtained by calling Dr Ismail at 019 534 2558 or Benedict Topin at 013 868 5678 or Dorothea Justin at 019 851 8844.
