UPDATE: After a weekend of public backlash, PPIM have made an official statement this evening denying that they were involved in any fundraising, and say that their only role was in offering advice to Nur Farahanis and her family’s lawyer. Beyond this, they told a press conference that her RM70,000 (US$17,000) fine was paid by a local bike club, and other NGOs.
Adding more confusion to the matter was the guilty woman’s purported assertion on Instagram that the Health Ministry had sanctioned her practice, adding a special thank you to Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya and his private secretary Aziaan Ariffin for their support. This is something that the Health Ministry, and deputy minister, have categorically denied. Her post is — surprise! — no longer available.
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A budding YouTube dentist is at the center of a moral debate after two NGOs banded together to pay her RM70,000 court fine, in lieu of the six-month jail term that was meted out.
The Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) and the Malaysian Islamic Economic Activist Organization (PPEM) are at the center of the controversy after bailing out 20-year-old Nur Farahanis Ezatty Adli, a woman who had been running an unlicensed dental practice in Melaka up until earlier this year.
She brazenly told the courts that she learned her techniques and “dentistry skills” from YouTube.
While some of us can barely understand the mechanics of how to easily put a duvet cover on a blanket with a simple roll, this woman is out there claiming that years and years of dental medical study are easily skipped via avid tutorial watching.
This is some Y2K, sub-par medieval-level training – at least in those days you could be guaranteed a decent haircut by your dentist-slash-barber. YouTube tutorials? If only life were that easy.
Melaka sessions court agreed, and found her guilty of running an unlicensed, unqualified, backroom dental shop, and sentenced her accordingly. Nur Farhanis could not pay the fine, and found herself sent to Sungai Udang Prison – a completely appropriate place to find yourself when you are found guilty of breaking the law.
It should be noted that unlicensed dental practitioners are not simply guilty of circumventing health care facilities and services laws – they also put their clients lives and health at risk.
PPIM and PPEM stepped in after she could not pay her fine, and began crowd funding to raise money. Within six days, they reached the RM70K target.
Sit back and think of the sundry ways that RM70K could have been used, whether as a donation to the poor, or to buy medical supplies for those in need. Bailing out a convicted fraudster who put her clients’ lives at risk every day seems to be an interesting choice.
One group not taking the action sitting down was the Malaysian Association of Orthodontists, who issued a strongly worded statement condemning the actions of the two NGOs and reiterated that the actions of individuals offering medical services without proper qualification were “irresponsible people who are obviously only seeking commercial gain.”
They added that “if care is not taken in the diagnosis, treatment, planning and case management of any orthodontic case, the patient may suffer dire consequences which may be irreversible.”
Many Facebook users pointed out the irony of a consumers rights NGO bailing out the very person who put the public’s life at risk with her “services,” and that they should be fighting against such figures who are out there to cheat them.
Sounds reasonable. Logical even.
But what say the other side?
Sultan Idris Education University student counselor Dr Fauziah Mohd Saad defended the NGOs’ action, saying they may have only wanted to “save a young lady from being destroyed”.
She went on to say there was no doubt that Nur Farahanis had done something wrong but, “maybe PPIM just had a soft spot for her and wanted to save her from continuing to suffer in prison.”
LOL. Everyone suffers in prison dot com. That’s why it’s a punishment.
Soft spot? Hmmm … we wonder what she means?
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