KUCHING: The Sarawak Society For The Blind hopes to get all blind and visually impaired masseurs to be licensed and registered with the Health Department.
President of Sarawak Society For the Blind (SSB), Dato’ Dr Hsiung Kwo Yeun revealed that currently there were about 120 practising traditional blind and visually impaired masseurs in the state.
“There are about 120 blind and visually impaired masseurs in Sarawak and we want all of them to have license issued by the Medical and Health Department,” he said during an interview before a briefing session on Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act 2016 at the Blind Centre, Jalan Ong Tiang Swee here on Wednesday.
29 out of the 40 invited blind and visually impaired traditional masseurs attended the briefing by the Head of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Branch of the Sarawak State Health Department, Dr Mohd Yusfadzry B. Yusuf.
“These traditional blind masseurs have experience and skills with some of them having 20-30 years experience and some of them have been trained by us, some by people in Semenanjung and some by people from China. It is now just a matter of legalising them,” he disclosed.
Although in the past they were given the license by the council, but they have been doing their practices of blind masseurs without a license from the Medical Department.
“After this, we want them to have the license issued by the Medical Department so that they will be respected as blind masseurs and do their job in the community and earning a dignified living,” said Dr Mohd Yusfadzry, adding that the blind and visually impaired masseurs have been providing therapeutic massages unlike refreshing massages or pleasure massages.
“Today is the first time we are inviting the Complementary and Traditional Medicine Unit of the Department of Health to come here to give briefing on the Traditional Complementary Medicine Act 2016 and we are fortunate to have Dr Mohd Yusfadzry to give the briefing and thereafter to do the short testing and giving those experienced traditional blind masseurs a certificate to practice.
“This is the first time in the history of the blind massage that we are doing this to put our blind masseurs on the right platform to legally practice. In the past, although they obtained license from the council but that was not good enough, so we want to legalise their practices,” Dr Hsiung explained.
He added that the briefing would be done in stages for those in Sibu and Miri.
“If masseurs are not registered, they can be compounded with a fine of RM30,000 or imprisonment not exceeding two years or both.
“So, this is a way for us to legalise our blind masseurs in line with the Act. And we agree that this is the right move because the sooner they register, the better it is for the public, department and the masseurs themselves as well as our Society because we want to see them getting a proper job with dignified income so that people will respect them.
“We want to help and guide them in the right path and that is all and we hope their income will increase and that is our ultimate aim.
“The local masseurs here can earn an average income of between RM500 and RM2,000. But this is quite low compared to those in Kuala Lumpur.
“In KL, blind masseurs’ income can reach RM2,000 to RM5,000,” said Dr Hsiung, who is also the Technical Chairman for SBM Massage Committee.
Other than that, the SSB wishes to upgrade the facilities.
“We are also trying to look at the ambiance and upgrade the facilities by setting up the massage clinic with good hygiene, clean towels, proper music, we are slowly upgrading.
“Our society is helping them to upgrade and the Ministry of Welfare is also helping them with the funding by giving them a grant of RM5,000 to upgrade their facilities,” said Dr Hsiung, who is also the vice president of the Society for the Blind Malaysia.
Since it’s establishment in 1963, SSB has been involved in massage activities but were not in organised manner. In 2006, the Japanese Government gave a grant of RM150,000 to the Society to set up a massage training centre and since then, there were organised massage training courses.
Dr Hsiung revealed that the introduction of the Malaysian Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act 2016 was a very important platform for the government and the Ministry of Health to regularise the massage industry.
According to Dr Mohd Yusfadzry, the briefing could be done in all division if there were other organisations or associations who were interested.
“We are looking forward for this type of collaboration and those who want to practice massage or do massage business have to attend briefing on the Act before they can register with the councils.
“It is a platform for them to know and understand the Act. The objective of the briefing was to increase the awareness and understandings of blind masseurs on the Act.” he said, adding that three briefings were done last year – in Kuching, Sibu and Miri.
The Act came into force on August 1, 2016 and has been enforced in stages.
