Kuala Lampur, Feb. 2 -- Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) MHIT White Paper has sparked debate over its scope and ambition.

The most common criticism of the Base MHIT product is not subtle. It is "too modest", "not ambitious enough", "structurally insufficient".

Some go further: without subsidies or a national health insurance scheme, it is dismissed as tinkering at the edges of a broken system.

It sounds persuasive, until we stop and ask what is actually being assumed.

Are we criticising Base MHIT for what it is, or for failing to instantly deliver what the system has never had?

Are we demanding ambition, or are we demanding immediacy dressed up as moral urgency?

Because those are not the same thing.

There is an unspoken belief running ...