5th Column

My dear Doctor Padeniya,

I thought I should write to you now, when our little Paradise island is facing its greatest health crisis in a century. You are the boss of the most powerful medical organisation in the country at a time when thousands are getting infected with the coronavirus and dozens of people are dying every day.

Your organisation, the GMOA, is a trade union. Therefore, you have to fight for the rights of your members who are doctors. We appreciate that. However, you have said repeatedly that you also wish to protect patients, and you are always prepared to fight for that.

In the past, the GMOA, indeed, fought for what they thought were just causes, such as when you staged strikes to oppose private medical schools, both when JR built one at Ragama, and more recently when another was set up in Malabe under MR. The jury is still out on whether you fought for the right cause then.

In more recent years, however, we saw the GMOA change, especially during the ‘yahapaalanaya’ era.  It began talking about other issues. It worried about trade agreements that the country was entering into. You gave your reasons for that, but many asked why a doctor’s union was fighting for these issues.

Those would have been difficult moments for the GMOA. You didn’t hesitate to stage strikes to get what you want, even if it meant inconveniencing the public and putting their health and lives at risk. You always justified your actions, saying that you were fighting for the greater good of the people.

Some of the causes you fought for were, quite frankly, embarrassing. There were times when you staged strikes demanding duty free car permits for doctors, and even more shockingly, asking for prestigious schools for your children. We still can’t understand how that would help your patients.

Doctor, remember the time when the GMOA was on strike and the controversial Ranjan – who is now languishing in jail – caught you out, being still able to get an appointment at your private practice? As always, Ranjan taped the conversation, but you offered a not so convincing explanation for that too.

You even opposed the ‘suwa seriya’ ambulances that were imported from India. Some of your chaps publicly denounced the scheme saying the public should think twice before calling them because they risked getting electrocuted. In the pandemic, where would we be without those ambulances, Doctor?

What puzzles us now, Doctor, is not what you did then. We realise that, as a trade union, you were being selfish. What we cannot understand is why, after shouting all these years for various causes, justified or not as they maybe, you are now suddenly silent. Your silence is indeed deafening!

The trade union which shouted from the rooftops about medical schools, school admissions, duty free car permits, international trade agreements and ambulances is now silent when the country is facing its greatest health crisis in almost a century. Even when you say something, it’s rather non-committal.

Is it because, as Basil maama quite openly told us, you had wanted some nominations for the GMOA at the last general elections? Or is it because you have now ceased to become a genuine trade union that serves doctors, and transformed into yet another branch organisation of the ‘pohottuwa’ party?

Is that why Pavithra did your bidding, sacking four members of the Medical Council, the apex body that regulates doctors, including some very respected non-partisan members who had the guts to stand up to you in the Council? Is that also why you were silent about her ‘muttiya’ and the ‘peniya’?

Is that also why you never issued a statement on your own calling for a lockdown, because you knew that it would upset Gota maama? Instead, you waited until it was no longer possible to stay silent and then, when the other major medical bodies went public calling for a lockdown, you just joined them.

Considering how you and the GMOA have behaved in recent times, none of this is surprising. What was shocking though was your latest attempt – trying to sneak in through the back door to the top of the vaccine queue, surreptitiously submitting lists of your extended families for vaccination.

We realise that, as family members of health workers, they are at greater risk. Still, how are they different from all others such as nurses, attendants, technicians and all of their family members? Or, do you think you are more entitled because you got higher ‘A’ Level marks and a medical degree?

Don’t get me wrong, doctor. There are thousands of doctors who do honest work and stand up for what is right, such as the lady doctor in Piliyandala who stood up to ‘thug’ Lokuge and the other lady doctor who defied the Moratuwa Mayor who thought he could decide who got vaccinated.

Then there are other doctors who work from morning till night in difficult circumstances, putting their own lives at risk to save those of others. I am sure none of them would want to ‘jump the queue’ like you do. By claiming to represent them, you are only disgracing them and the good work they do.

What you and your union have done in recent years, Doctor Padeniya, is not to win the legitimate rights of your profession. Instead, you have shown that there is no difference between you and the likes of the Moratuwa Mayor – because you both believe you can take the law into your own hands!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: If I am not mistaken, doctor, there is that matter of the contempt of court charges against you, the same charges that landed Ranjan in prison. Even if that ends unfavourably, you must be sure that, with all that you have done for the ‘pohottuwa’, you can get a pardon from Gota maama, no?