Healer who lit the way for the poor
Prof. Senaka W. Bibile’s 32nd death anniversary was
yesterday:
Stanley E. Abeynayake
|
Prof.
Senaka W. Bibile |
A medical professor “par excellence” Senaka W. Bibile passed away 32
years ago in remote Guyana in the West Indies apparently of a heart
attack on September 29, 1977. Other than being a renowned professor of
pharmacology, socialist, humanitarian, he was the founder chairman of
the State Pharmaceutical Corporation. He was a popular teacher in the
faculties of medicine in Colombo and Peradeniya. His affable ways, kind
words, subtle ways of explaining the subject endeared himself to the
medical students of his day.
The Bibiles were well-known families in the Uva-Wellassa region once
under-developed vast territories now the prosperous districts of Badulla
and Moneragala.
Born on February 13, 1920 at Ahangama, Kataluwa his mother’s village,
he was named Senaka William Bibile.
His father was Charles William Bibile, a landed proprietor of Bibile
Walauwa in the rural village in the Uva Province. Senaka’s mother was
Sylvia Jayawardena of “Atatagewatte Walauwa” Kataluwa, Ahangama close to
Weligama and Matara towns in the Southern Province.
Young Senaka was admitted to the prestigious Trinity College, Kandy.
He put up in the college hostel managed as that of an English public or
“grammer” school during the British regime.
His happiness at Trinity was short-lived for Senaka’s father died. In
consequence to that calamity, he got into financial straits. The
Principal having come to know about that pathetic situation sought the
financial assistance of a wealthy philanthropist in Kandy. His endeavour
was successful.
That wealthy gentleman readily agreed to help that boy in distress.
Trinity College centenary magazine records his various achievements and
talents and mentions of his winning the biology prize in which subject
he excelled. To qualify as a medical doctor he entered the Faculty of
Medicine, in Colombo, University of Ceylon, then known as the Medical
College. It should be noted that as a medico he was a beneficiary of the
free education scheme - “the priceless pearl” launched by Dr. C.W.W.
Kannangara Education Minister. As a medico his life was not a bed of
roses. Taking board and lodging in an average hotel in Borella close to
the Medical College, he subsisted on frugal meals and tightened his
belt. He had to sleep on a wooden bed.
Diligent medico
Senaka, the diligent medico burnt the mid-night oil and in course of
time passed the MBBS final with first class honours. He also won the
much coveted Dadabhoy prize for medicine and Rockword Gold Medal for
Surgery.
After completing his internship at the National Hospital, Colombo
then known as the General Hospital, he was posted as the Medical Officer
of Health (MOH) Bingiriya, a secluded village in the Kurunegala
district. In that capacity he also worked as visiting medical officer
(MO) at Bingiriya and Hettipola hospitals, soon he got an appointment as
Lecturer in Pharmacology, Colombo Medical Faculty, whilst functioning as
a medical teacher he did a research on “Health of Sri Lankans and their
dietary habits” along with Professor H. Columbine (Physiology) of the
Medical Faculty.
Winning a scholarship, the talented lecturer proceeded to the
University of Edinburgh - U.K. and obtained the Ph.D. in Pharmacology
cum laude with merit.
Returning to the Motherland in 1951, he resumed his duties in
lectureship. His honesty and integrity paved the way for him to become
the Head of the Pharmacology Department in 1954. When the new Faculty of
Medicine was set up at the Peradeniya University, Professor Senaka
Bibile was chosen as the fir
st Dean of the faculty.
A socialist while attending classes, clinics and demonstrations and
preparing tutorials the pensive mood of that calm and quiet medico
induced him to indulge in thoughts of oppression, poverty exploitation
of mankind the lifestyles of haves and have-nots. The anti-capitalist
theories of marxism leninism, communism of Engels attracted his
attention.
A favourite political slogan of his that was often uttered by him was
at the tip of his tongue - “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in
chains” (Rousseau).
During the vacations he used to go to remote Bibile, Badulla, his
hometown and saw to the needs of poverty stricken peasants. With the
money saved in Colombo he helped the poor and sick in his village to
purchase drugs. The produce from his lands specially paddy was
distributed to the people in need.
From his medical student days he was closely associated with the
Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and came into contact with intellectual
stalwarts of the Party such as Dr. N.M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena, Dr.
Colvin R. de Silva, Leslie Goonewardena, Dr. Osmund Jayaratne, Edmund
Samarakkody, Doric D’ Soysa, V. Caralasingham, V. Satchithanandan and
the student leaders - Stanley Tillekeratne and K. Shinya.
Communalizing was anathema to that University Don. He never
differentiated or discriminated against any person whether Sinhala,
Tamil or Moor.
Any human being was a ‘homosapiens’ to him. Unlike several medical
doctors bent on solely making money and who hero worship the mighty
rupee that “don” of many parts was involved in many facets of life.
A kind-hearted gentleman to the finger tips, unassuming,
unpretentious, his interests ranged from medicine, radical political
views of the leftists, melodious sweet music, aesthetic amateur
photographer, love of nature, horticulture and even the niceties of
cookery. That connoisseur of everything beautiful in life was also in
the habit of discussing the art of cooking delicious dishes with various
flavours to satisfy different palates.
Pharmaceuticals
The Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government that came into power in 1970
entrusted the task of formulating a State Pharmaceutical policy to Dr.
S.A. Wickramasinghe, Communist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for
Akuressa and Professor Senaka Bibile.
Previously in 1956 the first Woman Health Minister Wimala Wijewardena
of the MEP Government of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike endeavoured in this
stupendous work. It became an utter failure.
Again the Health Minister Baduiddin Mahamud in 1960 followed suit
that too was a flop. The reason was obvious.
The multi-millionaire drugs manufacturers and dealers surreptitiously
used all their contrivances to abort this progressive step to dispose of
medicinal drugs reasonably and fairly.
|
A great
humanist |
To the rescue of Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe, MP and Professor Senaka
Bibile the Minister in charge of pharmaceuticals at that juncture T.B.
Subasinghe stepped in boldly and faced the opposition of affluent
monopolistic drug dealers both local and foreign.
The state drugs report prepared by the medical duo was presented to
Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike on March 23, 1971. Its main
proposal out of the five suggestions was to create the state monopoly of
the import of pharmaceuticals.
Their report resulted in the establishment of the State
Pharmaceutical Corporation on September 22, 1971. The obvious choice for
its first chairmanship was Professor Senaka Bibile. Then onwards his
life became perilous at the hands of the drugs vested interests.
At the very outset of assuming duties as the Chairman of the State
Pharmaceutical Corporation, he had the audacity to point out that a
tablet imported to Sri Lanka at two cents by the private sector was sold
at the exorbitant price of 92 cents.
Until then the same drug had been available in the country under a
variety of brand names, the only purpose of which was to enrich a host
of completing importers and manufacturing multi-millionaire nationals as
well as their agents. For instance, at that time there were 23 brands of
tetracycline on the market. With the substitution of generic names,
sanity was once introduced into the field of pharmaceutical business.
During the first year of its existence the Professor Chairman was able
to save Rs. 60 million by way of foreign exchange to our country as far
as drugs dealings were concerned. The Pharmaceutical Corporation was
able to reduce the number of drugs imported from over 4,000 to 171.
Facing opposition
The private sector drug business was diverted to the corporation.
Like most innovators, Senaka faced his share of opposition. Time and
again his motives were questioned by those who had much to lose by the
changes he had initiated. But the greatness of the man lay in his
uncompromising struggle to defend what he genuinely felt and knew to be
the correct and only scientific approach to pharmaceutical management.
He made enemies and those who knew him and these were legion - respected
and admired the grit and determination he displayed in what was in fact
a social struggle against privilege and vested interests in the world of
medicine.
Success
The success of his endeavours was proved by the fact that Sri Lanka
was held up by the fifth Non-Aligned Conference in Colombo, 1994 as
model to be emulated by other developing countries in the
rationalization of the system of drugs procurement and provision.
While serving as the duty conscious chairman of the State
Pharmaceutical Corporation he also functioned simultaneously as the
Professor of Pharmacology at the Peradeniya Medical Faculty in his
inimitable way. An extrovert his lectures were not baring and the
medicos listened to him attentively with pin-drop silence. When most of
the “days” in his time were extroversion, reticent and reserved, his
demeanour was flexible. He was always accessible to his “Charges” - the
students. The service offered by him as the SPC Chairman was ex-gratia -
without accepting allowances, emoluments or even the use of the official
motor-vehicle. Also, a trade union was formed there at his
investigation. To cut the unnecessary expenses of the board meetings, he
served those present with “plain-tea” and “waddais”. He also organized
“Pirith” ceremonies and danas - alms-giving Consultant - UNCTAD.
A prophet is often without honour in his own country. So much so, the
UNCTAD invited him to advise thirteen third world countries on the
re-organization of pharmaceutical management.
On April 24, 1977 he arrived in Geneva accompanied by his loving,
devoted wife, Leela and accepted the assignment as the senior consultant
on that subject for a period of eight-months. For that assiduous and
hazardous task he availed himself of his sabbatical leave from the
Peradeniya University. Initially, in Geneva he prepared drugs policy
drafts for Malaysia, Afghanistan and Nepal.
Then onwards he became inimical to drugs manufacturers and dealers.
He was undaunted of the imminent dangers to his life. He was, as it were
under the “Sword of Damocles”.
From there he took flight to Barbados on August 26, 1977 to prepare
drugs programs for the Caribbean islands of Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados,
Ominicia, Grenada, Antigua, Puertorica and Gujana, all tiny islands in
the Caribbean Sea - the West Indies. In Barbados, the wife of a medical
doctor’s whispered to the ear of Senaka’s wife Leela to the effect that
the antagonistic greedy multi-millionaire drugs businessmen might put an
end to his precious life. She also advised the couple to return to Sri
Lanka at the earliest possible time. But fate decreed otherwise.
True to that gossiping advice, Senaka and Leela were invited to a
dinner party. Soon after that party, the Professor was suddenly taken
ill. He was hospitalised for a cardiological malady. He succumbed to
that heart-attack on September 29, 1977 without proper medical attention
in far often George town, Guyana. His remains were cremated on a small
pyre. The ashes were brought to Sri Lanka and they were placed in an urn
and interred at the Jawatta, Colombo cemetery on October 08, 1977.
Tragic end
Thus ended the invaluable, priceless life of an excellent patriotic
son of the soil - Sri Lanka, an unsurpassed humanist, a “Jeevaka” (a
medical genius) to the medicos and the ordinary fellow - countrymen
alike.
It is evident by a quantum of evidence that he was the victim of a
cruel conspiracy hatched by foreign vested interests in the past as it
also happens in the present against developing countries in Asia,
Africa, Latin America and South America. Professor Senaka Bibile was
affectionately known as “Bibs” among his close colleagues. He was a
genuine humanist, a lover of mankind. The whole world will stand up and
say that this was a man.
The pioneer of the Australian Pharmaceutical Policy Board, Dr. Hart
remarked thus in 1993 when he arrived in Sri Lanka.
“Sri Lanka is the summit of a mountain. Senaka Bibile is a glittering
lamp on that top. By the glow of that light we, the other countries
formulated the drugs policies. |