Ceylon Today Editorial

It’s a Mad World Out There

13 October 2016

We commemorated the World Mental Health Day last Monday which was remembered under the theme of "Psychological and Mental First Aid".

However, the day only stands as a reminder to our society that mental health is a serious matter that should not be ignored or taken lightly. However, the reality of the situation is that most of us do not take it seriously and only give it a second's glance.

Sri Lanka is yet to receive the memo of being politically correct and we know for a fact that it is long overdue. We are still stuck in the period where we address things as per they are labelled and stereotyped by the majority. We still go around liberally using the words Pissa or calling each other lunatics. No effort has been made to correct ourselves as of yet.

Our ignorance goes beyond this point of being politically correct. At any given chance we tend to associate mental illness with ridicule and vilification. We do not realize that we are thoughtlessly trivializing a sensitive, and often serious issue.
Things are definitely not what they used to be, of course. The Angoda Mental Hospital has gone through a thorough modernization process and has come out successfully as the National Institute of Mental Health. It is now, not an asylum for freaks, outcasts, misfits, the untouchables, the persona non grata and the social pariah.

It is a humane facility responsible for treating those who have been clinically diagnosed with a mental disorder or illness through proper care and legal forms of treatment. It is now a hospital where patients are taken care of physically and mentally.
However, the service is far from perfect. In fact, it could get so much better.

One of the biggest issues the National Institute of Mental Health is facing is the matter of patient overcrowding. The long running stigma surrounding mental health still forces Sri Lankan families to abandon patients in the care of the Institute. The Institute is currently housing over 1,000 patients and over 400 female patients at an institute managed halfway home. The hospital expects around 7,000 to 9, 000 admissions per year and is constantly faced with the risk of running out of beds to house patients, regardless of its many acres.

More so, there is a lack of psychiatrists and psychologists who are qualified to treat patients. For the 1,000 odd patients at the National Institute of Mental Health there are 10 consultant psychiatrists. Across the island, the need for having consultant psychiatrists at every base hospital is yet to be realized. There are even fewer specialists in sub areas such as adolescent, geriatric or child psychiatry. Sri Lanka has less than five forensic psychiatrists in the system.

Even the examinations that provide qualifications to practise psychiatry do not have a commendable pass rate. If 60 students/trainees sit for an examination only 10-15 would pass with the proper qualifications to practise at a recognized institution.

Yet, this is not the recurring problem of the Institute, and institutions like it, struggle with. The main issue is a simple lack of knowledge that leads to rampant stigma and discrimination.
Stigma is the most common barricade to seeking help and medication – this is mostly due to a limited understanding and lack of awareness of the cause of mental illnesses.

Unlike in illnesses with a physiological cause and cure, people are often sceptical of those diagnosed with depression, for instance. However, when diagnosed [if at all] there is shame and ridicule associated with mental illnesses; those suffering are labelled 'crazy' or 'retarded' and a taunt widely used is that such people belong in the 'Angoda Mental Hospital'.
Thus, the public awareness on mental health is a must. And it should be brought about and implemented from an early stage. Especially among school children whose school syllabus does not include a section on mental health which obviously leads to fear and ignorance.

Furthermore, most schools do not have qualified counsellors who can provide proper help/advice to children who are suffering from disorders. Colombo elite schools might have counsellors however; the lack of counsellors in schools in the rest of the country is something to be taken seriously.

We fear what we do not understand. But, when it comes to mental health, we are aware that they can be treated and helped. This knowledge should be shared without being affected by fear and ostracization.

Daily News Editorial

Commendable move by President

13 October 2016

President Maithripala Sirisena it appears has taken the wind off the sails of the Joint Opposition functionaries whose perennial claim has been that the Yahapalanaya government has been giving stepmotherly treatment to our war heroes. Even when the Salawa armoury exploded some JO members went to ludicrous lengths to claim that it was due to the low morale of the military personnel guarding the facility, at the shabby treatment meted out to the war heroes, that the catastrophe took place. The arrest of a number of military intelligence personnel for complicity in the murders of journalists Lasantha Wickrametunga and Prageeth Ekneligoda provided grist to the mill of the JO campaign to portray the government as being “anti-war heroes”. What is worse, they accused the government of mistreating our military personnel at the instance of the West and the Tamil diaspora, in a clear attempt to gain political mileage at the expense of our servicemen.

But what was the reality? No sooner the war was over the military was deployed to do menial work such as sweeping up roads and digging up trenches for the city beautification project of former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Even worse, the war heroes who were deified by the Rajapaksas (and also the public) for winning the 30-year-old civil war were made to sell vegetables, in rented out stalls, dealing a slap to the dignity and honour of the uniform.

But what hit the nadir was the deployment of Navy personnel to perform domestic chores at the palatial homes of Basil Rajapaksa and the use of army personnel to tend to the canines of the youngest offspring of the former President. For good measure, the war winning army commander was also thrown behind bars for the audacity of politically challenging the maha rajano. Not only that, further indignities were in store for our war heroes when the handpicked military personnel providing protection to defeated Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, holed up in a five star hotel, were made to kneel on the tarmac, on the orders of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

On the contrary, President Maithripala Sirisena has decided to accord the dignity and respect due to our war heroes by giving recognition to their valour and sacrifices in a most tangible form. For the first time since the end of the war, a scheme has been launched under a concept of the President, to enlist and engage all retired service personnel for productive purposes to benefit the country. Under the tittle ‘Retired War Heroes’ Human Resources,’ a scheme has been launched to deploy those servicemen with the necessary skills and aptitudes in the various technical fields in the development projects that have been earmarked to take the country forward. In this way these war heroes will be given the opportunity to be of productive use to the country, like they did in the battlefield, to redeem the nation from the threat of division.

At the launch of the scheme on Tuesday appointments were give to five retired military officers to serve as Technical Officers in state sector undertakings. According to the President, there are 1,13,598 retired servicemen, in the age group where they could still be of service to the country, who could be similarly used in the country’s development programmes. He also assured that the recruitment of these retired military personnel will in no way affect the filling of the regular vacancies in the state sector.

Speaking at the occasion the President said there had been accusations from various quarters that his government had been neglecting our war heroes but noted that it is only now that these valiant men were treated with dignity and respect and given the opportunity to better their lot while at the same time lending their service to the country.

The move is a commendable one indeed since we have among our retired war heroes a whole army of men and women with multifaceted skills and talents that could be of immense benefit to the country. These war heroes had been long languishing without much activity which may have been alien to their nature as battle hardened warriors. In other countries, particularly in the west, it has been the practice to enlist the services of retired military personnel once they had been demobilized.

We too should follow suit. This, while giving them the necessary outlet for their military mindsets, would also fill them a sense of pride that the state is willing to appreciate their sacrifices on the battlefield on behalf of the nation.

The Rajapaksa regime, it has to be said, exploited the war heroes merely for political gain. There was the highly amusing scenario witnessed in many parts of the country (barring the North and East) where government candidates at a Provincial Council election held just after the war victory having erected military bunkers to serve as their party offices while some candidates went about in military fatigues. Had the Rajapaksa regime been genuinely concerned about our servicemen it would not have made Karuna Amman a government Minister, knowing of the latter’s role in the massacre of thousands of our fighting men.

The Island Editorial

Yahapalanaya sans polls

13 October 2016

State Minister of Finance Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena has let the cat out of the bag again, so to speak. There won’t be local government polls until next June, he has told the media. Facing an electoral contest in the near future is a worrisome proposition for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, which has pathetically failed to fulfil most of its pre-election pledges.

Those at the levers of power campaigned on an anti-corruption platform before the last two elections. They also undertook the Herculean task of ridding the country of nepotism and cronyism and putting an end to the culture of impunity besides strengthening the rule of law and ensuring the independence of the judiciary and other state institutions. But, today, those responsible for several mega Central Bank bond scams which cost the state coffers billions of rupees have not only gone scot free but also are seen in the exalted company of government leaders. The Customs trade unions are up in arms against an order to suspend a probe into the fraudulent release of hundreds of luxury vehicles. A questionable coal tender which has ‘shocked the conscience of the apex court’ has gone uninvestigated. Instances of the government making a mockery of its commitment to good governance abound.

Worse, the cost of living which affects the voting public direct continues to rise and the government is hell bent on heaping more tax burdens on people further aggravating their economic woes. Public resentment, which is evidently welling up, is likely to find expression in a protest vote at the next election.

LG polls are derisively referred to as kaanu-bokku (gutter-culvert) elections. But, this time around, they will assume national importance because the two main parties led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena will have to joust for dominance. The much-flaunted cohabitation between the UNP and the SLFP is conspicuous by its absence at the grassroots level and the mini polls are likely to be bitterly fought. The entry of a new political force led by the Rajapaksas into the fray will make the situation worse for the ruling coalition.

State Minister Abeywardena has also said President Sirisena will shortly decide what action should be taken in respect of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, on the basis of reports on the alleged bond scams. If he ever tries to get tough with Mahendran he will run the risk of alienating the UNP, which has thrown its weight behind the latter. It may be recalled that the marriage of convenience between the SLFP and the UNP almost broke up on the question of appointing Mahendran’s successor a few moons ago.

It is, therefore, doubtful whether the President will want to bring his party and the UNP on a collision course once again by taking on Mahendra. For, his position in the SLFP will be greatly weakened if the UNP breaks ranks with him. An executive president without control over Parliament finds himself or herself in an unenviable position. The SLFP rebels led by the Rajapaksas are likely to let Sirisena stew in his own juice in such an eventuality by allowing the UNP to form a minority government or engineer crossovers from the SLFP. Such an arrangement will stand the rogues of the previous government in good stead in that a weak administration, struggling for survival, won’t be able to remain maniacally focussed on the ongoing probes against the grandees of the previous regime.

We bet our bottom dollar that the government will postpone the mini polls indefinitely on the pretext of finalising electoral reforms. And, the SLFP will, for its own sake, cooperate with the UNP on the question of bond scams and shielding the fraudsters responsible for them.