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Wednesday, 12 October 2011

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Expat docs’ duties and the public interest

No less unsettling than the number of Sri Lankan medical doctors serving in foreign climes, rather than being of service to their motherland in its time of need, is the number of public health institutions which have been shut down in recent times.

We have it on the authority of Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena that this number currently stands at 45. For a country which has been priding itself on its free health services to the public, this figure is discomforting. The chief reason for the closure of these institutions which play a pivotal role in sustaining the people’s health is the dearth of doctors.

However, there are some 10,000 local doctors serving in the West at present, while health institutions are thus consigned to the Limbo of forgotten things and the people virtually left in the lurch as regards an essential service.

Needless to say, a duty is cast on these Lankan medical officers who are currently making their services available in foreign countries, to pay heed to the Health Minister’s appeal that they return to their motherland and serve their fellow countrymen, since their medical education here was financed entirely by the local tax payer. These expatriate doctors are conscience-bound to respond positively to this appeal and it is likely to be the wish of the majority of the local public that this would be the case.

These issues are by no means new to the Lankan public. We in the press have been tirelessly highlighting them over the past few decades with the expectation that the consciences of particularly our public sector medical officers would be sufficiently stirred to enable them to be imbued with a sense of social responsibility. Considering that the medical brain-drain from Sri Lanka has been continuing, the inference is inescapable that the consciences of some of our medical doctors are sealed steadfastly against moral pressure.

There may be valid reasons for this continuing brain-drain but the collective good of the country cannot be bartered away for some feverishly sought greenbacks and painstakingly earned perks that may not, in the final analysis, prove very fulfilling on account of the prohibitively high costs incurred in achieving the dream of material fulfillment in competition-ridden foreign climes. However, it is also no secret that very many Lankan doctors who end up practising and earning in foreign lands get an opportunity to do so on account of availing of scholarships and related facilities which come their way as a result of state mediation and sponsorship.

So, thanks to the Lankan welfare state these doctors get an opportunity to engage in comparatively lucrative employment abroad but at an unbearable cost to Sri Lanka. The string of provincial medical institutions that are facing closure for want of qualified medical personnel is the glaring proof of this. Need we tell our less conscientious medical personnel that it is the ordinary people who are compelled to suffer on account of their lack of moral concern?

Our medical personnel currently serving in foreign lands for mainly the pecuniary benefits it brings them should take into consideration that the terror menace is no more in this country. President Mahinda Rajapaksa too has time and again called on all sections of the Sri Lankan expatriate community to help in the historic task of rejuvenating Sri Lanka.

If terror has been among the leading causes for the medical brain drain, that factor has now been eliminated and the medical personnel concerned are duty-bound to return to Sri Lanka and give of their best in the monumental enterprise of rebuilding Sri Lanka. This duty is inescapable and it is hoped that this call of duty would be heeded.

Since the moral argument does not seem to be carrying any weight with some of our medical personnel, the state should consider other measures, perhaps even those of a legal nature, to make it incumbent on state medical personnel to return what is due from them to the public of this country.

Perhaps, the conditions attached to obtaining scholarships should be made more stringent. More fool-proof bonds need to be drawn-up between the state and the doctors concerned and the costs of violating them by the relevant personnel rendered more and more prohibitive. The bottom line should be that the costs of violating agreements with the state should hugely outweigh any benefits of working unconscionably abroad.

Political challenges in post-war Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan perspective:

Undoubtedly the greatest challenge in Sri Lanka at present is the restoration of trust. On the one side there is fear that a separatist agenda has not been abandoned, on the other there is fear that unity will be enforced by subordination of minorities to a dominant centre.

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You and I are the beggars being bludgeoned, didn’t you know?

There are jokes and there are jokes. Some are witty, informative and thought provoking. Some are tasteless and derogatory. Some are witty and tasteless. I remember two from probably the decades ago, both of the car-sticker type. The first was ‘Preserve wildlife, pickle a squirrel’. The second was as bad, ‘Eradicate poverty, shoot a beggar’.

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Pressing need to revamp Civil Defence Committees

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has declared that the Civil Defence committees will be re activated. The Civil Defence Committees helped the government in its concerted effort to eradicate terrorism. The Defence Secretary is of the view that these committees should be revamped to perform a more effective role in the efforts to eradicate crime.

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