REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE PENANG MEDICAL COLLEGE
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE PENANG MEDICAL COLLEGE WEDNESDAY, 2 OCTOBER, 2002
Chief Minister, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon,
Foundation Dean, Professor Tom Hennessy,
Dato Ratnalingam,
Distinguished guests, staff and students of the Penang Medical College
On the map, Dublin and Penang are far apart and yet here I am thousands of miles from that remote island Ireland, in this beautiful new College whose walls bear the crests of University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. Not alone that but they flank a third crest which depicts the Irish harp. I have travelled a long way to be close to home for this College epitomises the longstanding productive partnership that has evolved between Ireland and Penang. Here is a place in which both Ireland and Penang take righteous pride.
I have honorary ties to both The Royal College of Surgeons and University College Dublin, which deepen my sense of pride in their international reach and the respect they have earned in this part of the world. This impressive institution represents a legacy of 200 years of rigorous endeavour in medical education. Today, that vocation is pursued in a dynamic partnership between Ireland and Malaysia, marrying Ireland’s world-class reputation in the teaching and practice of medicine with Malaysia’s need for additional doctors. I would like to commend and congratulate everyone involved in the establishment and operation of the College and especially its energetic and dedicated staff and students who are the guardians of a sacred trust passed from generation to generation in pursuit of the best possible medical training and medical care. This generation has a wonderful success story to tell and many, many people can take righteous pride in the part they played and are playing in that success. I would like to pay tribute to every one of them but I ask your indulgence for mentioning a few in particular.
Professors Hennessy, McDonald and Walsh, as well as the College’s Chief Executive Officer, Dato Ratnalingam, are entitled to recognition for making this ambitious project the shining reality it is today. The Penang Committee in Dublin led by Professor Muiris Fitzgerald of UCD and Professor Kevin O’Malley of the Royal College surely deserves an admiring mention and indeed I warmly congratulate Kevin who was honoured recently with the coveted Malaysian title of Dato by the State of Penang.
The presence of Irish educators in Malaysia is no new phenomenon. Irish priests, brothers and nuns carried the bright torch of education here as in other parts of the globe for generations. Just as in Ireland where they helped our nation to unlock its own genius through education, here too they helped many young Malaysian students to grow in skill, wisdom and confidence. Ireland too has gained enormously from the many Malaysian medical students who have studied in our country bringing the story of Malaysia to our people, earning lifelong respect and friendship by their graciousness and their studiousness, allowing Ireland to have a share in the litany of achievements their distinguished careers have created. Little wonder then that our Universities greet each new intake of Malaysian students with a heartfelt Selamat Datang’. I know that a warm welcome awaits the record number of over 100 students this College is sending to Ireland this year, many of whom are sponsored by the Malaysian Government.
The Irish-Malaysian partnership that operates here is unique in its structure and style. It enables students to do their pre-clinical training in Ireland before returning home to complete their studies here. They obtain an internationally-recognised Irish medical qualification while having the life-enhancing chance to study abroad allied to the opportunity to study clinical medicine in their own home environment. It is a marvellous mosaic of opportunity with many tangible and intangible benefits and all the more remarkable for the speed with which it was brought to fruition.
The agreement between the Penang Development Corporation, UCD and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to establish Penang Medical College was signed in Penang just a little more than five years ago and yet the College is already realising its founding ambition to provide world-class Irish medical education here in Penang.
Many Malaysian doctors have gone on to take post-graduate qualifications from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and to such an extent that the Royal College now conducts its prestigious membership examinations in Malaysia as well as in Dublin. Underneath the structure of courses, underneath the brick and stones even of this wonderful building, are the crucial stories of human beings from vastly different parts of the globe, relating to each other, befriending each other, sharing their talents and gifts with one another, quietly bridging the gaps of history and geography, bringing Ireland to Malaysia, Malaysia to Ireland, building up the global civic network which is our best guarantee of peace, prosperity and respect for difference.
I greatly enjoyed meeting the students who have just returned from Ireland and hearing their stories and impressions of student life in Dublin. They will have left their imprint on those they met just as Ireland is carried with them in their heads and hearts. They are ambassadors for a world that is built up by partnership rather than devastated by prejudice. This College shows how much we have to offer each other and I wish Penang Medical College long years of growing success and an enduring, happy and fruitful association with Ireland.
Thank you very much.