Sunday, May 21, 2017

President summons Cabinet meeting on Monday ! Cabinet reshuffle suiting SLFP whims can break up consensual govt.

-Environment ministry a flop under president should be changed first !

(Lanka-e-News - 21.May.2017, 6.30PM) All ministers of the government of good governance had been issued notification to be present at the presidential secretariat at 8.30 a.m. next Monday (22). According to Pro Rajapakse media this is in connection with a cabinet re shuffle.

Yet based on reports reaching Lanka e news , the president has not discussed this cabinet re shuffle , if any with the prime minister (P.M.). Under the 19 th amendment however the president cannot make ministerial portfolio changes without the consent of the P.M.

Meanwhile the leaders of civil organizations that worked with commitment to propel the good governance government made requests to the president and P.M. earlier on to change the portfolios of six ministers while mounting charges against them .Among those ministers were Arjuna Ranatunge , Wijedasa Rajapakse and Vajira Abeywardena.

A leading lawyer speaking to this writer pertaining to the cabinet re shuffle said, if changes are being introduced , firstly , the minister of environment under the president should be changed, because the president as regards his environment ministry has failed in every respect.

Yet , the need to effect ministerial changes is being sought by the defeated SLFP party and not by the UNP party with 108 M.P.s which is in a majority in parliament . That is, by those opportunists who are on the fence trying to get the best from both sides , having one foot in the deposed discarded corrupt Rajapakse camp and the other in Mathripala’s .

Their main target is Ravi Karunanayake who received the award as the best Finance Minister of Asia and was chosen by a most famous 7 5 years old independent economic magazine of Britain. However , Karunanayake who is very popular among the UNP membership has a small group within the UNP who are making sly secret hostile maneuvers against him. Among them is a minister who is protecting the corrupt crooked Rajapakses while concealing the quantity of gold of theirs.

According to them , Ravi’s ministry should be allocated to Mangala Samaraweera . The latter who made the largest contribution to form this government secured the foreign ministry at his own request . Moreover it is also a universally acknowledged fact it is Mangala as foreign minister who was solely and wholly responsible to restore the international image of the country which was moth eaten and damaged irretrievably during the previous regime . It is also indisputable it is because of him the country could get back the GSP plus too.

Ravi Karunanayake is the only foreign minister in the world who held that post only with the treasury under him sans the Central bank and commercial banks .Only God knows whether Mangala Samaraweera too would have to hold that post similarly.

If he is a politician he/she must discharge his duties duly no matter what portfolio is designated to him/her , but that is an entirely different matter . But , pressures being mounted on no occasion against the most infamous Blue brigand crook Arjuna Ranatunge , the Ports minister to remove him from that post or for the dismissal of Wijedasa Rajapakse from his portfolio who said (villainously despising and discarding the policies of the government) that as long as he is the minister he would not arrest the criminal Gotabaya Rajapakse, is a matter for rude shock.

While it is the UNP with a majority having 108 parliamentary members that should have clamored for the reshuffle ,what is taking place is the converse. This is obviously to create conflicts and chaos within the united consensual government.

The UNP backbenchers are refusing to bow their heads before this stupid ‘tail’ .The UNP majority is not going to kowtow to this obnoxious attempt and yield to these pressures.They can easily right now overturn the 3 provincial councils under the power of the SLFP of Maithripala Sirisena .

If the aim and ambition of the corrupt Machiavellian Rajapakses are to unleash such a chaotic disarray , a cabinet reshuffle like this is most conducive to their dastardly and diabolic plots.

At this juncture what the good governance government ought to do is withdraw the ministries of ‘Weda beri’ (incapable and incompetent ) Dasas , and wheeler dealer minsters who are the prime and paramount cause of all the chaos , confusion and corruption ;and thereafter forge ahead replacing them with new competent and efficient ministers .

The pro good governance government masses of the rainbow revolution of 2015 -01-08 too would salute this move. Besides ,the government will also gain strength. Sadly , hitherto neither Maithri nor Ranil have demonstrated they have the political backbones to take such measures.

Wimal Dheerasekera

Translated by Jeff

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by (2017-05-21 13:07:13)

A Cabinet reshuffle must be done with a clear purpose

The President and Prime Minister must make changes in the best interests of the country

By Dinesh Weerakkody-Monday, 22 May 2017

Events, as they say in politics, have conspired to force the President to reshuffle his Cabinet, to sharpen Government and to shine. According to a weekend newspaper it is reported that President Sirisena has finally decided to reshuffle his Cabinet of Ministers and that a few new faces are expected to be appointed to the Cabinet while a few changes in existing portfolios will also be enacted.

The Government needs a thorough shake-up and changing a few ministers will not serve that purpose. After three years in office, some ministers have delivered and some lack ideas and have become stale, detached and complacent. Others are simply out of their depth and should be replaced. When a President or Prime Minister reshuffles his Cabinet for the first time since assuming office many questions are generally asked as to why portfolios need to be reassigned and why new people have to be elevated to full ministerial rank.

When Lee Kuan Yew was once asked as to why he decided to reshuffle his Cabinet in just 24 months, the Singaporean Prime Minister said he was amazed and somewhat amused over the puzzlement. He said it was a mid-term fine-tuning to inject new life into his Cabinet that had been formed two years before.

As Cabinet reshuffles go, Lee’s reshuffle according to him was a very modest rearrangement to prevent his ministers becoming complacent and to move out the non-performing ministers.

Intriguing

The questions raised after Cabinet reshuffles are not unexpected. After all, Cabinet reshuffles, are an intriguing affair. At least for one thing, they demonstrate the power of the Head of State. Perhaps, this is only one decision that he is expected to decide on his own - the other being the date of the general election - consulting only the Prime Minister and very close associates, if at all.

Interestingly, reshuffles therefore tend to be highly secretive affairs, thus adding to the fascination. Even in the case of a modest change. Often the people who are promoted to ministerial rank are told only on the day itself.

The other reason for wide interest is that more often than not Cabinet reshuffles are heavily laden with hidden motives and agendas. On the other hand, at the other extreme, there are those more appropriately called ‘Cabinet shakeouts’, to clear the deck for a new takeover.

A few though tend to overdo it, like in 1986, when South Yemeni President Ali Nasir Muhammad gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘shakeout’. However, not all ministers took their dismissals lying down during that shake out.

There are of course less civilised versions of the ‘shake out’. Like the one initiated by former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1962, which has been dubbed the ‘Night of the long knives’, when half the Cabinet was replaced. Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, who was dubbed the Iron lady, had her own version in mid-1989 called the ‘Night of the Long Hat Pin’. However, it had one other objective, which was met sooner than she had expected. In her biggest reshuffle, she promoted her favourite, John Major from Treasury Secretary to Foreign Secretary, in a move widely seen by many at that time as making him the heir apparent. John Major, the successor to Mrs. Thatcher, too found a reshuffle convenient when a few days after becoming Prime Minister he reshuffled the pack to show that he’s his own man.

Mini-reshuffles do not of course belong to any of the above categories. But it is not without its political significance. On the other hand the public expectation of President Sirisena’s proposed reshuffle is to get the Government to deliver and inject fresh hope. If it is not done with agreement, realism and pragmatism it can lead to further chaos within the Government.

President

It is often said that the Cabinet in most countries wields tremendous power and authority. However, in Sri Lanka, despite the recent amendments, the President still wields substantial power and authority, and few nations in the world have power so highly, concentrated in one office as in Sri Lanka.

It is a sobering thought that the man at the head of the Cabinet, i.e. the President, has the sole responsibility and discretion finally of deciding who belongs to it. This is how most governments work today. In fact Mrs. Thatcher in the ’80s had more power than the Soviet President Gorbachev to decide on the men and women charged with running the country.

In itself, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Strong leaders have of course made a big difference, for example Singapore under Lee Kuan or Britain under Mrs. Thatcher. However, what is equally very important is to have very strong and pragmatic men and women, preferably educated, with a commitment to national service in the Cabinet to advise the Prime Minister or the President, and in some instances to act as a foil.

Needless to say, in the end, the only valid reason to change a Cabinet line-up is to strengthen it or inject new life into it for the benefit of the country. In our case, it is to fulfill the January 8 mandate.

Conclusion

The Government came to office advocating the benefits of a smart, clean and sustainable economy. Many people bought into that vision. Hopefully if the changes are done with a clear set of objectives and based on performance it will provide ministers and their teams with an opportunity to display renewed solidarity and a commitment to deliver. But, for all this to happen first the Government structures must be made fit for the purpose.

(The writer is a thought leader).

Tomorrow’s Cabinet reshuffle more extensive than expected

Ministers, deputies and state ministers summoned to Presidential Secretariat; plum positions for some
Malik signs agreements giving a wide role for China in Lanka’s economy; President off to Australia on Tuesday

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, May 21, 2017

President Maithripala Sirisena, gave mixed signals, not unusually, when he vetoed his own demarche not to chair Cabinet meetings until he carries out a re-shuffle of Ministers. Last Monday morning, he directed the Cabinet Secretariat to summon the weekly ministerial meeting the next day, Tuesday. Officials hurriedly telephoned ministers to tell them the meeting which was indefinitely postponed, would take place at 10 a.m. at the Presidential Secretariat. It was just the week before that Sirisena refrained from formally choosing the date and time for the next meeting.

It came after he hinted to Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) ministers that no Cabinet meetings would take place until the reshuffle was made. He pointed out that he had already pledged that such changes would be made before Vesak Poya, which has now come and gone. This was on the basis that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had agreed to such a reshuffle.

Since their meeting on May 9, the Cabinet Secretariat distributed to ministers different memoranda approved by the President, a prelude to these being discussed at Cabinet meetings. Though they were titled “AGENDA FOR THE NEXT MEETING OF THE CABINET OF MINISTERS,” in the preamble, the document made clear that “The Date, Time and Venue for the Next Meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers will be notified by the Secretary to the Cabinet in due course.” On other occasions, the date, time and the venue form the preamble of the Agenda. For example, for the Cabinet meeting on May 9, it said “agenda for the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers to be held on 9th May, 2017 at 9.30 a.m. at the Presidential Secretariat.” Thus, the spate of telephone calls went out on Monday morning for the Tuesday meeting. That in itself was to give rise to speculation among ministers — would a reshuffle take place ahead of the meeting or would there be a statement of some sort. They were proved wrong.

Listed for discussion on that day were 25 Cabinet Papers on different subjects and a further ten related to Procurement Matters. A sampling would show the subjects were relatively non-controversial.

Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management held on 25 April – and 7th April — from Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe.
Amending the Explosives Ordinance no 21 of 1956 — from President Sirisena who is Minister of Defence.
Continental Shelf Submission of Sri Lanka to the Commission on the limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) — from Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
Development of Batticaloa Airport for civilian flights – from Transport and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.
A pilot project on implementation of flexi hours in Government offices around Battaramulla– from Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka.
Implementation of Major Reforms to enhance the Investment Climate in Sri Lanka — by International Trade and Development Strategies Minister Malik Samarawickrema.
Report on the Actual Expenditure at the end of 1st quarter of the Financial Year 2017 — from Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.
Establishing a reinsurance scheme — from Agricultue Minister DumindaDissanayake.
Procurement related matters included:
Procurement of armoured logistics vehicles for peace keeping operations — from President Sirisena as Minister of Defence.
Renovation of the National Holiday Resort (NHR) at Bentota– from Tourism Minister John Ameratunga.
Procurement of communications equipment for Peacekeeping Operations in Mali — from President Sirisena as Minister of defence.
Entrusting the responsibility of printing school textbooks required to be distributed free of charge to private printing institutions — from Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam.

The ministerial meeting last Tuesday ended in 75 minutes. Other than the memoranda, there was no discussion on any other issue. Sirisena explained that he would have to leave since he had planned to chair a high level meeting of officials to discuss the spread of dengue and the counter measures necessary. When he left, strange enough, most ministers remained puzzled. It was not just the public at large who were unaware of the goings on at the highest levels of the Government but Sirisena’s own ministers in the Cabinet. Some had believed that Sirisena called off his self-imposed ban on Cabinet meetings after his talks with Premier Wickremesinghe on May 12. This was ahead of his departure to Beijing, China.

After the meeting, both SLFP and United National Party (UNP) ministers confirmed it has now been ‘signed and sealed.’ Adding great weight to this belief was President Sirisena himself. He told our sister paper Irida Lankadeepa that a reshuffle would take place. The man who has to carry out this much awaited shift of ministers interpreted his Vesak Poya deadline to be the month of Vesak, not a particular day. In other words, though Vesak was over, there was still time, he seemed to say.

However, the guessing game over a reshuffle has gone on since January this year. Though it died down, it was re-ignited by Sirisena’s own utterances. Most Sri Lankans took them seriously since they came from the President. Now, it is confirmed that the reshuffle will take place tomorrow (Monday). Ministers, Deputy and State Ministers were yesterday asked to present themselves at 8.30 a.m. at the Presidential Secretariat. That makes clear that the reshuffle will be more extensive than earlier expected. Some ministers are tipped to receive plum positions with three or more key subjects. One such example will be a Ministry of Finance, Ports and Communications.

The ‘newly shaped’ Cabinet is expected to be briefed by Sirisena when it meets at 9 a.m. on Tuesday for its weekly session.Earlier, senior UNPers said that there should be no immediate reshuffle and their ministers should be allowed to “work and prove their mettle.” A senior UNPer said they should not be judged from the “critical comments of their SLFP colleagues.” However, the senior member conceded that in terms of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the President was empowered to carry out a reshuffle without consulting anyone.

Section 43 (3) of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution states: “(1) The President shall, in consultation with the Prime Minister, where he considers such consultation to be necessary, determine the number of Ministers of the Cabinet of Ministers and the assignment of subjects and functions to such Ministers.

“(2) The President shall, on the advice of the Prime Minister, appoint from among Members of Parliament, Ministers, to be in charge of the Ministries so determined.

(3) “The President may at any time change the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers and the continuity of its responsibility to Parliament.”

GMOA: Service oriented or sympathy harnessed?

A patient sleeps on a chair at a day of doctors strike on April 7

2017-05-22

We have always been good at political slogans. “Api Wenuwen Api”, created to advertise the previous regime’s all-out war, was hugely successful. It was very clever psychology too, gift wrapping a very self-centred idea (‘api’ standing for the majority) as an altruistic social exercise when the whole idea

was rooted in a completely selfish ‘Me’ generational thing. This became abundantly clear by the way the Rajapakse regime cut the cake after the war was won.
And now, “Api Wenuwen Api” has been hijacked by the anti-SAITM lobby. A slogan at the gate of a government hospital in Colombo said: ‘Oba Wenuwen Api’ (We are for you) which sounds even more altruistic. Doctors earning their living thanks to free education subsidized by taxpayer’s money are now waging a no-quarter-given struggle to safeguard that free education from an amoral private education enterprise. They are fighting for our rights to sneeze without fear of an exorbitant bill. Or so, they say.

Doctors earning their living thanks to free education subsidized by taxpayer’s money
The shortage of doctors in state hospitals is so acute that at one stage the employment of foreign doctors was being discussed
This isn’t just a question of private vs. state enterprises. It’s about monopolies
GMOA and its affiliates have obviously forgotten this oath

But, as things actually, stand: “Api Wenuwen Oba” (You are for us) sounds more appropriate. Everyone who could be enlisted to the anti-SAITM cause - doctors, medical students, nurses - are now expected to champion free education. Its benefit to our doctors can be gauged by a simple survey - stand outside the gates of any government hospital and watch the parade of shiny new cars. One should be grateful indeed for free education. But, as if all this emotional and vocational power isn’t enough, the general public too, needs to be made aware and their sympathy harnessed - hence, oba wenuwen api.
Too bad about those who fail to win this state medical lottery - those who fail to gain entry to medical college by just one mark (some even commit suicide). The shortage of doctors in state hospitals is so acute that at one stage the employment of foreign doctors was being discussed. The medical profession, like the national security apparatus, is a sacred cow. People are offended when its standards are questioned. But no proper survey of deaths due to negligence, overwork and other negative factors can be done because GMOA won’t cooperate. In the entire history of Sri Lanka, only one case that was filed against a doctor for causing death by negligence has been successful (the complainant was a lawyer) but the ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court.

"Nationalising SAITM would be as pointless as what was done to Buhari Hotel and Sri Lankan Airlines. Our doctors aren’t going to help make things less equal here by screaming for nationalization because they are very much a part of those inequalities"

The medical lobby in this country is insular and all-powerful, and wishes to remain that way. They determined that only the state has the privilege of producing doctors. This Brahmin class living well thanks to the taxpayer’s rupees display no democratic niceties in going about this struggle. Participation in SAITM protests isn’t voluntary. There isn’t any pro-or-con discussion about it within the GMOA or medical college unions. One wonders if this was because Rohana Wijeweera was once a medical student, but the JVP and its nemesis Peretugami Pakshaya (Progressive Socialist Front) who control the medical student unions have found common cause here. They too, don’t want to see any privately-educated doctors in this country.
Private education has its bad side. It’s too expensive for quite a lot of people. But nationalization of SAITM is not a solution to that dilemma. Sri Lanka has a ‘trigger-happy’ mentality when it comes to nationalization. This writer holds the view that some essential services, such as public transport, education and health should receive state subsidies given current income levels and gross inequalities. But there should be a clear rationale and logic for nationalization. Nationalising SAITM would be as pointless as what was done to Buhari Hotel and Sri Lankan Airlines. Our doctors aren’t going to help make things less equal here by screaming for nationalization because they are very much a part of those inequalities.

"The medical profession, like the national security apparatus, is a sacred cow. People are offended when its standards are questioned. But no proper survey of deaths due to negligence, overwork and other negative factors can be done because GMOA won’t cooperate."

This isn’t just a question of private vs. state enterprises. It’s about monopolies, which are always bad. It is also about ethics. There is an aphorism taught to all medical students, attributed to the Hippocratic oath: “First, do not harm.” The GMOA and its affiliates have obviously forgotten this oath. Doctors, by negligence, overwork, or genuine mistakes, do a lot of harm. Patients are damaged beyond repair, or die. But this monolithic medical structure makes it impossible to obtain justice.
British brain surgeon Henry Marsh wrote in his memoir about both his successes and failures. He describes visiting a nursing home outside London dedicated to the long-term care of patients with catastrophic brain damage. Inside, he recognized at least five former patients of his. “They call us heroes, and sometimes gods,” Marsh writes of his patients. “Perhaps they never quite realized just how dangerous the operation has been and how lucky they were to have recovered so well. Whereas the surgeon, for a while, has known heaven, having come very close to hell.”
Of course his successes are far more numerous than his failures. But what he says about surgeons is true of doctors, too. What is needed is candour, self-criticism, and compassion towards patients. We have doctors with such qualities, but they remain strangled by the omnipresent tentacles of our monolithic medical structure with the GMOA as its head. It’s a beast devoid of reason and compassion, ever ready to hold hostage the very people it professes to care for.
The government should not yield to it.

Why Doctors and Students Are Protesting Against Sri Lanka's Only Private Medical College

The main building of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine in Malabe near Colombo. Image by Mediajet via Wikimedia Commons

21 May 2017

In Sri Lanka, doctors and students have been protesting for months requesting the government to shut down the private South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), the only private university in Sri Lanka currently training medical students.

They are against the privatization of education and claim that opening private universities will drastically affect children from poor families’ access to education opportunities.

In Sri Lanka, education is state funded and offered free of charge at all levels, including university level. Doctors affiliated to the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) staged a one-day strike earlier this month, protesting police action against students and demanding that the government shut down or nationalize the private medical university.

Defying a court order, about 5,000 members of the inter-university students federation (IUSF) carried on with the protest on May 17. Failing to stop them, the Police tear-gassed the protesters and drove them into a nearby park. Several protestors were injured and admitted to nearby hospitals.

The protests caused severe traffic congestion in the area of Colombo where they took place.

Several students and a Buddhist Monk were arrested during the protest.

The case against SAITM

Since its launch in 2008, SAITM has been the centre of many controversies as students from state-run schools and doctors in government services have questioned its educational standards and medical facilities. More than Sri Lankan Rs 3 billion (US $6.5 million) have been invested by SAITM into the institution including a teaching hospital with 850 beds. The institute claims that its standards and facilities are superior to those of state-run medical universities.

In 2013, the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka granted degree-awarding status to the institution amidst protests from the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) and the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA).

In July 2016, however, the Government of Sri Lanka suspended new admissions to the medical faculty of SAITM after a series of proposals were issued by a high-powered committee of professors following accusations about the standard of the education there.

Now a legal battle is brewing over whether to allow graduates of SAITM to work as doctors in Sri Lanka.

From July 2016, the Sri Lanka Medical Council has refused to register the first batch of 30 SAITM graduates on the ground that the MBBS programme followed by SAITM medical students does not qualify them to intern at hospitals.

Free Education Or Freedom Of Education

On January, 31, in a landmark ruling, the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka directed the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) to grant provisional registration to the South Asian Institute of Technology and Management (SAITM) Medical graduates.

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) vehemently protested this ruling and various student bodies, including the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF), held a series of protests in the Sri Lankan capital in the following week.

On February 7 the CEO of SAITM, Dr Sameera Senarathne was shot at by two unidentified gunmen riding on a motorbike, but escaped unhurt. The attack highlighted the polarisation surrounding the issue of private medical institutions operating in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Medical Council has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the January 31 judgement by the Court of Appeal.

Hilmy Ahamed wrote in a blog for Groundviews:

The state university students who benefit from taxpayers’ money through free education, and political opportunists have continued to protest the SAITM University’s medical degree programme as a threat to free education. They ignore or fail to protest over the hundreds of other degree awarding programmes undertaken by various private educational institutions. Why is it that only the private medical degree programme is seen as a threat to free education? The medical mafia of the GMOA, which holds the stick to ransom every time the Government takes any decision, which benefits the majority of the citizens of the country, are spearheading a campaign against the verdict of the Appeal Court.

And Devan Daniel wrote in the Echelon:

Three decades ago, Sri Lanka had a shortage of doctors, where for each doctor, there were 6,000 people in the population. Things have improved over the years, and today there is a doctor for every 1,100 persons in the country. But according to Fitch Rating Lanka, a credit rating firm, compared with the world average of 670 people per doctor, demand is growing for doctors and better medical care in Sri Lanka.

With the government’s limited ability to set up medical schools or expand existing ones, the private sector must play a role.

The government response

Earlier this month the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena criticised the recent protests and referred to the steps taken by the government to resolve issues with regard to the private medical college, including imposing better education standards on SAITM and taking over SAITM's private hospital.

In April, 2017 the government issued this letter describing their decision regarding SAITM students, including the requirement for a further period of clinical training and a mandatory examination under the joint supervision of the Sri Lanka Medical council and the University Grants Commission: