I am writing this letter on behalf of some of the Malaysian students with medical degrees from unrecognised universities.

We are very unfortunate Malaysian students who were sent by our poor parents to attend medical schools which provided affordable medical courses.

We were not eligible for admission in any of the Malaysian government universities and there was little option for admission into any of the local private universities at that point in time.

Our parents could not afford the expensive recognised medical schools in Europe or even India. Most of our parents are general labourers, drivers and low-wage earners from the government and private sectors.

They have spent all their live savings to educate us and want to see us as doctors.

Today, they are depressed watching us struggling with medical degrees from unrecognised universities and unable to work in Malaysia. There is even one fellow student whose father passed away while she was studying.

During the time of intake to these unrecognised universities, the recruiting agents assured us that they would be recognised by the Malaysian Medical Council very soon.

With that hope and to fulfill our ambitions and our parents' dreams of seeing their children as medical doctors in Malaysia, we took up the task.

Upon graduation after six years and returning to Malaysia, we are helpless and have to wait for almost two years to go through the process of getting our qualifications recognised by the Malaysian Medical Council.

This has also resulted in a high percentage of these graduates leaving the country to work elsewhere and contributing to the Malaysian brain drain.

We are very grateful that the MMC has facilitated for us to attend a short course of six weeks and sit for an exam conducted by the local government medical university.

But we feel the six weeks crash course is too tough to absorb, which may result in non-performance in the exam. The failure rates for these exams are very high and the next exam is only after one year.

We feel that waiting another one year is a severe punishment and our humble request to the MMC is to give us the opportunity to attend the examination at least twice a year We are proud to be a Malaysians, this is our country, and we want to serve the people of this nation.

In Malaysia, there is still a shortage of doctors in the government hospitals and in the rural health clinics and with the help of MMC we can and will improve medical care in this country.

We hope that if we don't get through this exam, we would like to sit again for the same exam within two to three months.

We also request that we are given an opportunity to attend practical courses at any of the medical universities for a period of about six months.

We plead to all concerned to help us by giving us, medical students from unrecognised universities, the opportunity to attend exams in local medical universities at least twice a year and provide us with a longer practical training course of about three to six months.

We are willing to go through any tough requirements to be good medical doctors in Malaysia.

Please do not let us waste another year for the next exam.