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Rape shocker in hospital quarters sparks countrywide doctors’ revolt
View(s):The knife-point rape of a female doctor on Monday night, following her return to her hospital quarters after finishing her day shift to wait on call at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital premises, shocked the nation and led to the question: If a doctor is not safe within the hospital premises, is anywhere safe anymore?
It is as safe, perhaps, as a heavily guarded suspect is, inside a heavily guarded Hulftsdorp courtroom in the Chief Magistrate’s building.
The brutal incident rendered hollow all the hosannas sung on Women’s Day which fell last Saturday, on the importance of promoting and safeguarding the fundamental right of every woman of Lanka to work unmolested at the work place. But after singing last week, ‘No Woman is Safe Until Every Woman is Safe’, why were the sopranos silent in these last seven days?

SUSPECTED RAPIST: He stalked female doctor to her quarters inside Anuradhapura hospital premises
On Tuesday, the Leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa, broke the news to Parliament: “Last night within the Anuradhapura Hospital premises, a doctor was seriously attacked. She was tied and sexually molested at knifepoint.”
With the nation’s IGP on the run for the last 16 days, despite a magistrate court warrant to be ‘caught on sight,’ and the female accomplice in last month’s courtroom killing of Ganemulle Sanjeewa seeming to have vanished from the face of Lanka, despite a massive police hunt and a million-buck reward, it is, indeed, commendable that the police team assigned to track him down managed to successfully identify the alleged suspect, locate his whereabouts, and hunt down their quarry in the wilds of Galnewa and presented him handcuffed on a platter to their superiors, all in a good ’24 hour’ day’s work.
Such an amazing feat of detective work that would have made the best of the best sleuths at Scotland Yard immensely proud had they done it themselves not only proved their mettle when given free rein but also preempted the striking doctors demand of continuing the strike until the suspect was arrested.
The strike announced on Tuesday night by doctors at the Anuradhapura Hospital soon spread islandwide on Wednesday morning. Government doctors downed their stethoscopes and came out in full force, demanding the suspect be arrested, but even though their main demand was swiftly met by Wednesday noon, due to a piece of excellent police work, the doctors announced they’d remain on strike until Thursday morn. They said it was to show solidarity with their raped female colleague and to convey to the government the serious lapse in security measures taken at government hospitals.

RAPE PROTEST: Group of women and men stage protest at Lipton Circus in Colombo against the rape of a female doctor inside Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital’s doctors’ quarters
Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa’s answer to the crisis was to visit Anuradhapura Hospital on Wednesday and take an inspection tour of the premises. At the end of the tour, he passed the buck of blame to the director of the hospital and staff and said they had failed to take the necessary measures to ensure security in the hospital.
On Friday, Jayatissa removed the hospital director, Dr. Samaraweera, from his post and appointed Polonnaruwa Hospital Director Dr. Karunaratne as acting director of Anuradhapura Hospital, presumably with the extra ‘guard duty’ added to the post. With the sudden removal of Dr. Karunaratne from his post as Polonnaruwa Hospital Director to assume his new post as acting Director of Anuradhapura Hospital, the vacancy created by his removal presumably, was filled with the appointment of another doctor as the acting Director of Polonnaruwa Hospital.
Though some people may dismiss the rape of a female doctor inside hospital premises as an isolated incident that simply does not warrant special concern, in a land of a billion and a half people, did Indian doctors treat the rape and killing of a 31-year-old female doctor inside a Kolkata teaching hospital seven months ago as an isolated incident that warranted no strike in protest?
In an island of just 22 million people, neither did Lankan doctors treat the rape of a 32-year-old female doctor inside the premises of Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital on Monday as an isolated incident that warranted no strike in protest.
An Indian female doctor in Delhi said of Kolkata’s last August 9th incident, “My first reaction was that of absolute horror. I could feel the anger in my bones. Hospitals are supposed to be places which are safe and revered, like temples. When I don the white coat to save lives, I expect to be provided safety.”
Her fears, her angers, her concerns, found echo in every doctor’s breast throughout India, even as her words must have resounded in every doctor’s breast throughout Lanka when a rapist struck inside the Anuradhapura Hospital premises on Monday night.
If rape can be committed inside the Temple of Medicine and murder inside the Temple of Justice with impunity, do not these two ‘isolated’ incidents alone suffice to reveal the rotten state of Sri Lanka’s public security?
Like Nero played the fiddle while Rome burnt, the authorities play the rilaw counting game while Lanka sinks into a state of lawlessness.
UNP Kalutara pillar leaves party in disgust following Ranil’s snub UNP’s long-standing Kalutara pillar, former MP Lakshman Wijemanne, left the party in disgust on Thursday after receiving a public snub on Wednesday by party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe during a ceremony held to hand over appointment letters to new organisers held at the party headquarters, Sirikotha. As reported in newspapers and aired on TV news, the snubbing incident took place when UNP stalwart, acting Kalutara District organiser Lakshman Wijemanne, protested he had been denied the Kalutara District organiser post despite years of loyal service, nursing the whole Kalutara electorate. Instead, the post had been given to party pole-vaulter, SJB turncoat Rajitha Seneratne. What was worse was that he had been kept in the dark and had only learnt of the appointment that day. But Wijemanne’s complaint to his leader, after receiving an appointment letter as only an electoral organiser, was to no avail. Ranil churlishly turned away and refused to give ear to his complaint, brusquely brushing him off. If the UNP leader had his own reasons for prizing Rajitha over Wijemanne, he did not make them known. ![]() HERE ON WEDNESDAY: Wijemanne receives public snub by Ranil Perhaps, to make a personal complaint against the returning prodigal, Rajitha, in the full glare of media spotlights, was simply not on in the UNP leader’s eyes, but the short episode certainly served to cut a sorry picture of Ranil as an inspiring leader in the public eye. By rudely refusing to hear his followers’ grouses, he will only make Iagos of them all. A dejected Wijemanne, who had spoken quietly but forcefully, could do naught but turn round and walk away. But before his exit, he said, “It’s a terrible wrong.” On Thursday morn, it was clear that Wijemanne could no longer contain his rejection. He issued a video recording to the public domain to explain why he felt dismayed, depressed and dejected at the unexpected turn of events. In it, he reveals his heartbreak at the shabby manner he was treated after his entitled position was usurped by a party-jumping political chameleon that changes its colour to blend with the environment. In the course of his video message, he says, “I came to the party through my uncle, V.L. Wijemanne, the then Deputy Minister of Plantations. This was during J.R. Jayewardene’s time. After him, I took over and nursed the Kalutara electorate. Since then and until now, I had stood steadfast to the UNP and never left the ancestral home to join any other party but remained loyal and true to it. Throughout the UNP’s vicissitudes of fate, in spite of it losing election after election, I didn’t waver but kept the faith. ![]() GONE ON THURSDAY: Wijemanne in Sajith’s SJB embrace “During the 88 riots, I survived an attempt to kill me when I was shot and wounded. I still have hundreds of bullet fragments riddled in my body. They stand as a testament to the sacrifices I made on behalf of the party. Throughout my entire political career, I never sought nor did I receive any favours from the party for my personal gain. Thus, I do not have a single allegation levelled against me, even by the JVP. Can my party peers say the same?’ “I became the spendthrift of my late father’s and mother’s inheritance, and I, in my stubborn resolve to promote, safeguard, and defend the party at all costs in the Kalutara electorate, have become a pauper today. I do not have any regrets, but I’m deeply offended by the wretched way I was treated at yesterday’s party meeting. Before the last election, I was urged by many to join and contest under the SJB. Had I done so, I’m sure I’d have won a seat in Kalutara. But I didn’t. But I did not join. I kept the faith. I believed in the party leadership. I stayed.” Within hours of delivering his heartbreak message, Wijemanne, with his mind made up, was in the SJB office, clasped in Sajith’s welcome embrace. The UNP’s Kalutara loss has ended up as an SJB gain in Kalutara. In an interview with a YouTube channel, Wijemanne later said, “I went and met Ranil at his Flower Road office, where I told him, I will no longer remain in the party.” Wijemanne told the interviewer, “That was the honourable thing to do. But I will never return to the UNP.” The entire episode, which deals with Wijemanne questioning his lifelong faith, conveys the homily that a man’s profound faith in his leader, however unquestioned, is liable to break and shouldn’t be taken for granted if his deep innermost feelings are trifled with and trampled with scorn by an insensitive leader who cannot feel another man’s pain except his own. If this crass attitude toward the remaining faithful continues to remain unsheathed, the day may soon arrive for the exodus to begin to find the promised land where Wijemanne found refuge.
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Hirunika and Hiran call it quitsHirunika and her husband Hiran have decided to end their 10-year marriage and go their separate ways. The mutual decision to part was jointly announced on their Facebook on Wednesday night. SJB firebrand Hirunika revealed on her Facebook: “The decision to sever our marriage was arrived at after much thought and reflection by both Hiran and me. Hiran and I spent 10 years together, and we built our dreams together. We truly appreciate the mutual love we shared during these last ten years, but even after we wed, we never made promises since we knew how uncertain life can be. ![]() HAPPIER TIMES: Hirunika and her husband with their three small children. “Today we face different directions. And it was not a decision we took lightly. We thought it over for months, and we finally decided to lead our own lives, to stand alone, independent of each other.” Unpredictable, too, in this uncertain life, is for a love rekindled to keep its tryst at another time, another place. Especially with their three bundles of joy tugging them back.
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