My Dear Nimal Siripala,

I thought I must write to you because you are once again the focus of attention, caught in the middle of a hullabaloo over a vaccination. Nimal, I know a lot of people are heaping blame on your short but sturdy frame over this issue but being the picture of healthcare and nutrition that you are, I am sure that wouldn’t be much of a burden for you!

Of course, in return you are blaming everybody else but your officials and yourself for the death of a schoolgirl after vaccination. That is completely alright Nimal- Bandula doesn’t blame himself when food prices rise, Susil doesn’t take the blame when principals go on strike and Dulles doesn’t even dream of taking the blame when the new driving licence scheme flops, so why should you? And we don’t want to even discuss resignation, do we?

Pardon me if I am wrong, Nimal, but you seem to be getting into a lot of controversies these days and that is what intrigues me. No, I am not talking about Indian doctors coming to serve in the operational areas or the plans to set up private medical schools-we know that you are not even consulted on such important and sensitive matters!

What I am referring to are the many scandals that have emerged ever since you took office as our dear minister of healthcare and nutrition. If I remember right, Nimal, at first there was a furore about some mothers dying shortly after childbirth because the syringes used had been contaminated. Then, shortly afterwards there was a hue and cry because certain tablets your ministry had imported were found to be ineffective and thousands of patients were falling ill as a result.

Not deterred by all this, Nimal, we had a major scandal involving the blood bank where outdated kits were used on unsuspecting patients. And then, just when we were beginning to think it was safe to go back to a government hospital, we now have this scandal about the rubella vaccination.

I remember someone once saying that when a mishap happens once it is most likely to be an accident, when it happens again it is like a co-incidence and then, if it happens once more it is sheer carelessness. But with you in charge at your ministry Nimal, so many accidents seem to happen, so much so that we begin to wonder whether they are accidents after all!

Of course I am sure you will promise all of us ‘a thorough, independent and impartial inquiry’, -the kind that others in your government offer when journalists are suddenly abducted or killed-but up to now, Nimal, we know that nothing has really come out of all these investigations. And that is why these scandals keep happening again and again!

Anyway, Nimal, just let me in on one little secret, will you? A little bird whispers that you have been offered many other portfolios by Mahinda maama, some of them much more prestigious than the one you currently have but you have refused all such offers and stayed put, looking after the healthcare and nutrition of our poor citizens. Now is that because of all the ‘tender loving care’ that you get at your ministry, Nimal?

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

PS- I now realise why Mahinda maama sent you to Geneva to lead our delegation there for talks with the Tigers. I am sure Mahinda maama has seen or heard of how you talk to and negotiate with doctors, so he obviously thought you were the best man to deal with the Tigers as well-because he never wanted those talks to succeed!