Ceylon Today Editorial

Collective call to make Provincial Councils meaningful

08 May 2017

A collective call has been made to President Maithripala Sirisena to devolve more power to Provincial Councils and make them meaningful by Chief Ministers of all nine Provinces at the 33rd Convention of Chief Ministers.

The Convention was held with the participation of the Chief Ministers of the nine provinces including Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran at Cinnamon Lodge, Habarana last Saturday (6).

It was interesting to note the unstinted unity of the Chief Ministers voicing together to devolve more power to Provincial Councils.
The Provincial Council system which came into effect following the signing of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord remains as the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

With fervent calls made by the Chief Ministers of the Northern and Eastern Provinces to devolve more power to Provincial Councils, the general impression prevails that Chief Ministers of the Northern and Eastern Provinces are particular about devolving more power to the two provinces which would be a challenge to the unity and integrity of the country.

However, realizing the significance of Provincial Councils and the necessity to make them vibrant, all nine Chief Ministers have emphasized the need to devolve power to the nine Provinces.

The views expressed by the Chief Ministers at the Habarana Convention clearly highlight that despite the introduction of the Provincial Council system as a measure to devolve more power to the provinces in the country, the system hardly remains effective as far as administration on crucial issues such as Police powers and land powers are concerned.

The North and East Chief Ministers have already indicated that their hands were tied as far as resolving various post-war humanitarian problems including land issues in the two provinces.

From the views expressed by the Chief Ministers unanimously urging more power to be devolved to Provincial Councils, it is clear that Provincial Councils remain without adequate power and exist merely as symbolic bodies under the 13th Amendment.

The Chief Ministers pointed out that as a result of not having adequate power, Provincial Councils were losing significance. They also brought to the notice of the President that power meant for devolution remained mostly with the Central Government.

Northern Province Chief Minister, C .V. Wigneswaran making a stark pointer told the President that Rs 1,500 million allocated to the Northern Provincial Council by the Central Government last year, had not yet reached the Council.

Despite introducing the Provincial Council system, to reap the benefits of power being devolved to all nine provinces in the island, to make the democratic system more vibrant by strengthening peace and reconciliation, the strife had aggravated further with Provincial Councils in the Northern and Eastern Provinces being defunct.

As the ruthless war continuing for nearly thirty years aggravating from the time the Provincial Council system was introduced, the Central Government taking a firm stance in restricting power to the provinces and converging power to the centre, remained inevitable to deal with one of the most ruthless militant outfits in the world, the LTTE.

However, it is high time the Provincial Council system was revived in a meaningful manner with power meant for provinces under the 13th Amendment.
While urging to devolve more power, the Northern and Eastern Provinces even urge to go beyond the 13th Amendment to make power-sharing between the Centre and the provinces more effective and meaningful.

The convening of the Chief Ministers at Cinnamon Lodge, Habarana has clearly indicated that the Provincial Council system in the country has to go a long way, to prove itself effective and the Chief Ministers have done their part standing above political differences emphasizing the need to devolve power extensively, to make Provincial Councils meaningful.

Daily News Editorial

GMOA’s double games

08 May 2017

The duplicitous nature of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) was once again exposed when Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake revealed with proof that GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya was all set to offer private channeling services at a leading private hospital in spite of a GMOA-led strike over the SAITM issue. When the news went viral on social media, with a picture of the relevant receipt, the doctor had apparently cancelled his appointments at all private hospitals.

Although this is the first time they have been “caught in the act” as it were, it is common knowledge that doctors who strike during day time have no qualms about engaging in private practice or channeling consultations in the afternoon. On this occasion, a GMOA spokesman categorically stated that their members would not offer channeling consultations in private hospitals on strike day. It seems that the GMOA President himself has violated this directive. If he wanted to cancel the appointments, he should have informed the booking sites and hospitals the previous day. The fact this has not been done shows there was a willingness to work in a private capacity while the strike was going on.

Only the poor patients who cannot afford to go to private dispensaries or private hospitals suffer when the doctors strike. The rich and even the middle class can patronize private hospitals and the extremely rich can go to Singapore, but no such options are available to poor patients especially in remote areas. They depend on rural Government hospitals to which they sometimes have to walk for several kilometres through jungle treks. How does it feel to be told that doctors are not in, when you have walked a good few miles to obtain treatment for an ailment?

A consensus is growing rapidly in society that the Government should take stern action against doctors who hold patients’ lives to ransom in this manner. It is time that doctors stopped thinking of themselves as demi gods who are above the law. Many people who commented on social media sites expressed the view that the medical profession must be recognized as a category that cannot engage in strikes, given its crucial importance, on much the same lines as the Police and the Armed Forces.

Today, the GMOA-led doctors are used to resorting to strike action at the drop of a hat. They agitated for duty free cars and the Government restored that facility. Next they wanted to enroll their children to leading schools in Colombo, regardless of their station of work. This was shot down by Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam. Now they are harping on the SAITM issue, having kept mum when it was started during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure.

It is rather ironic that the GMOA members who oppose a private medical institution do not see anything wrong with working at private hospitals. They will have a more credible case if they oppose all private medical institutions, not just SAITM. Since the GMOA fears the “lack of quality standards” at SAITM, are they 100% satisfied about the facilities in private hospitals? Besides, what is the assurance about quality standards of private medical schools in our region, which the GMOA does not oppose? Hundreds of Sri Lankan students study at these universities which charge very high fees that drain our foreign exchange reserves.

As President Maithripala Sirisena said at a public meeting recently, the solution suggested by the GMOA and many other trade unions (a government takeover of SAITM) is rather easy, but the long-term implications are far more serious. No investor will want to invest in the educational sector here and possibly even in other sectors if that happens. Indeed, we saw a similar effect with the Expropriation Act passed sometime back. Yes, a solution that balances the interests of everyone – patients, doctors, State university students and SAITM students – is needed to the SAITM issue, but it cannot be an ad-hoc solution that creates even more problems. All stakeholders have to acknowledge that private higher education is here to stay, locally and globally, and a viable solution has to be evolved based on that presumption. Such a solution cannot be rushed.

In the meantime, strikes won’t take the GMOA anywhere. By all accounts, Friday’s strike seriously affected only the health sector which is the GMOA’s home turf. But there was no enthusiasm at all about the SAITM issue in other sectors such as education and transport (both public and private) which had normal services. If the GMOA had an iota of public support at the beginning of their anti-SAITM campaign, that seems to have evaporated now. The expose of the channeling appointment will make it worse.

Government doctors must bear in mind that the people paid for their education. Given that the rich in this country mostly evade income taxes, it is basically the poor who had footed this bill through indirect taxes. Doctors thus have a duty to serve the people, especially the downtrodden who come to Government hospitals. Doctors must not shirk this onerous responsibility.

The Island Editorial

Learn from China

08 May 2017

 

Anything Indian goes under the present yahapalana dispensation as is common knowledge. Government leaders shuttle between Colombo and New Delhi so frequently that when they get up in the morning they must be wondering which city they are in. They are known for their predilection for adopting Indian models from ambulance services to devolution. But, there are lessons that we can learn from China, as well, but, sadly they have gone unlearnt. We don’t mean the wrong ones like digging up land to build inland harbours or reclaiming land from the sea to build mega cities at an enormous cost. Instead, we have to learn from China how to hold state officials accountable for their actions at least where disasters are concerned.

In China, as many as 45 persons have been jailed over a landfill collapse which snuffed out 73 lives in Shenzhen two years ago. The media reported extensively on that disaster in 2015, jolting the Chinese authorities into action. Among those sent to jail are the manager of the company that ran the waste soil and construction material dump and the former head of the city administration bureau: they got 20-year jail terms for criminal negligence.

International media reports tell us that 20 Chinese public officials have also been thrown behind bars for the Shenzhen disaster, which occurred as there had been 5.8 million cubic metres of waste materials in the dump which was permitted to hold only four million cubic metres of waste. At the time of collapse, the landfill was 160m tall whereas the recommended height was only 95m. This kind of stringent punishment is called for as it is sure to have a deterrent effect on the entire officialdom; no official will dare expose the public to danger hereafter.

But, in this country, neither politicians nor bureaucrats have to fear legal action for their commissions and omissions which are legion and lead to disasters. Nobody has been held accountable for the Meethotamulla garbage dump collapse, which killed more than 32 persons a few weeks ago. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, we wrote in this space that the officials responsible for running the dump and their political masters were lucky that we were without laws to make them face firing squads for their serious lapses which had led to the tragedy.

Sri Lankan parliamentarians, provincial councillors and local government members visit China at the expense of the public, year in year out, claiming to study various things in that country. Let the Chinese government be requested to take them to Shenzhen and also make arrangements for them to visit the government officials in prison for the 2015 landfill disaster.

Needless to say that accountability is an integral part of good governance, which the present administration claims to uphold. But, it is conspicuous by its absence in spite of moral tub-thumping we hear from the present-day leaders ad nauseam. A former minister has been charged with misusing one vehicle under the previous government. Such action is, no doubt, welcome, but the question is why those responsible for far worse offences such as the mega bond scams which have cost the state coffers and the workers’ superannuation fund billions of rupees and creating garbage mountains which expose the public to danger, have not been hauled up before courts.

Environmental groups are a dime a dozen in this country. Will they care to explore the possibility of instituting legal action against the bureaucrats and politicians, both past and present, responsible for dumping garbage at Meethotamulla over the years amidst protests from the public and in spite of warnings of a disaster?