LTTE going the wrong way - Deva

By Roshan Peiris

EPDP leader Douglas Devananda who has survived many an assassination attempt by the Tigers, says LTTE actions such as assassinating elected representatives only show they are going in the wrong direction.

Throwing his party's fullest support behind government moves to pass the constitutional reforms bill in parliament this month, Mr. Devananda says in an interview with The Sunday Times that there are certain areas in the devolution proposals which do not meet the Tamil aspirations. Excerpts:

Q: What have you to say about the breakdown of civil administration in Jaffna, the Wanni and other areas under government control?

A: There is no breakdown in the civil administration. There are only disturbances because the LTTE is instigating the people in an obvious move to make life difficult for the people.

I must sound a warning, that the LTTE is looking for long term political gain. The security forces and the Government must not get caught in the LTTE trap.

Q: Is it correct that some 300,000 displaced people, mainly in the uncleared Wanni areas, are suffering largely due to the ambiguous stand of the LTTE?

A: We are not sure there are 300,000 displaced persons. We are trying to institute an independent survey to see how many refugees are there in the government controlled areas and in the LTTE-controlled areas. A thorough survey has to be done.

Q: What about the food situation. Why is the Army not distributing the food?

A: In the government-controlled areas, there is no problem with regard to food distribution, but in the LTTE-controlled areas a problem exists because of a dispute about opening up the supply routes. This has affected the food supplies to the uncleared areas. The government has little concern for the suffering of these people.

Q: The Essential Services Deputy Commissioner General Upali Soysa has said millions of rupees have been allocated to rehabilitate the Mullaitivu, Mannar and Kilinochchi. So how can you say the Government is unconcerned?

A: It is nonsense. Giving millions is not the solution. What can you do with the money, eat it? Just giving money cannot help when there are no goods to buy — food, medicine, clothes, etc. The supply routes must be opened if the people are to buy food, which is now not available.

Q: Is the EPDP supporting the constitutional reforms, including the devolution package, as a possible solution to the ethnic problem?

A: Yes. After all we need a political solution through devolution. The Government proposals for constitutional reforms are by far the best, except on the subject of the unit of devolution. However, they unfortunately fall short of a final solution to the ethnic problem. They can be considered as a positive step in the right direction. We also note that the devolution proposals do not address some of the important issues in the perspective of the Tamil-speaking people. For instance, in the preamble, Sri Lanka is not recognised as a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and a multi-cultural plural society.

Next there is the de-merger of the already merged North and East provinces. Even the quasi-federal form of the state proposed in the reforms becomes unitary in practice, due to certain restrictive Articles. Then, there are the discretionary powers of the President to dismiss regional governments and dissolve regional councils.

This power could be misused by a future president. There are also the restrictions placed on regions in respect of levying and collecting taxes. There is, besides, the absence of reference to the ethnic composition of the armed forces or even the national police force.

Q: Are you asking for more safeguards for the regions?

A: Yes. There is an absence of safeguards for the regions when the interests of the centre conflict with that of the regions. This is restrictive to the regions.

Q: Some say that devolving more powers to the region would amount to a division of the country.

A: Devolution will not divide the country. On the contrary it will help unite the country. Devolution will respect the rights of the Tamil-speaking people. Not being starved of political rights, they will inevitably co-operate to unite the country once their political rights are respected.

Q: What is your party's solution to the ethnic problem- in short?

A: There are three stages.

1. The two Sinhala-dominated major political parties in the south must agree on a solution before Tamils come in. For a starting point there are the provincial councils on which both parties agree.

2. There are government proposals on which all political parties and the Tamil speaking people agree on. These proposals could be looked into and implemented. In the devolution package there are areas acceptable to all parties — that is another starting point.

3. Finally, a cease-fire must be implemented with the help of foreign countries so as to solve the ethnic problem once and for all.

Q: With the LTTE's activities somewhat checked in the west, do you think that the LTTE is still strong?

A: It is difficult to say. They may have a hold on the minds of the Tamil speaking people. But even this is doubtful because the LTTE policies have added only sufferings to the Tamil people.

Q: Some, like Tamil Congress leader Kumar Ponnambalam, don't think the LTTE are terrorists. What is the position of the EPDP?

A: I will only say that the LTTE is fighting in the wrong direction.

Q: Why wrong direction.

A: Because of what they do. The people are subject to untold suffering. They blasted a ship carrying provisions from Trincomalee to Mutur. Then they blast transformers and other equipment. Do these actions show they are going in the right direction, when the people have to bear the brunt of it all? Finally and worse, they killed elected representatives, including MPs. Is that going in the right direction, in their fight?

Doctors: conditions lead to privatisation

By Faraza Farook

With public hospitals limping back to normal in the aftermath of a crippling doctors' strike, a new crisis is brewing in the country's health sector.

Several doctors charge that sinister moves are under way to privatise the health sector by first allowing the service provided at the public hospitals to deteriorate.

The doctors say their fears have been heightened by the government's unwillingness to increase the medical cadre at public hospitals

The doctors also ask why a decision three years ago by the Health Ministry to increase the cadre of medical officers to 8000 has still not been implemented.

There are 5200 government doctors in the country and the patient-doctor ratio is 4500:1, doctors point out. This figure is far behind the ratio in neighbouring countries like India and Paksitan.

The Human Development Report for 1999 also showed there were only 23 doctors per 100,000 patients in 1993. The present ratio shows that there was hardly any increase in the intake.

Doctors citing statistics say that on average the National Hospital treats more some 2,700 clinic patients and around 1,300 OPD patients a day. They say generally a doctor is required to spend 20 minutes on a patient but 12 doctors at the OPD could hardly spend five minutes with a patient.

A doctor at the Lady Ridgeway children's hospital say some 15 doctors treat 2000 patients in six hours. This amounts to barely two minutes for a patient.

Dr. Sandya Seneviratne of the National Hospital say a doctor is required to observe seven points when examining a patient. They are observing the patient, getting a reasonable history about the ailment, a fair amount of examination, ordering an investigation, prescribing drugs, deciding on admission or not to the hospital and advice to patients.

"I hurry through my examination and also expect the patient to relate his problem briefly and quickly because we want to see every patient who comes to the OPD within the duty hours," Dr. Seneviratne said.

"I wouldn't want my mother to be treated like that, yet, with limited time, we have no option but to treat patients in this manner," she said.

Many doctors are fagged out after seeing over a hundred patients. Dr. Seneviratne said though doctors are expected to be kind and gentle with the patients, there's hardly any time even to smile.

Dr. Dimuth Silva also from the National Hospital said, "there are allegations against doctors that they don't pay enough attention and when something happens to the patient, the doctors are blamed. Doctors also charge that the government is encouraging those who pass out from the medical faculty to join the private sector.

According to doctors, President Kumaratunga is reported to have told Health Ministry officials in May that the Government alone would not be able to accommodate MBBS graduates and thus other alternatives had to be sought for employing them.

She is reported to have directed the Health Minister to prepare a scheme within two months to recruit doctors to both the private and public sector.

Further it has been decided to allow and encourage private practice with a package of incentives provided for the new doctors.

"The Government is gradually letting the state health service deteriorate," Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya of the National Hospital says. With poor health services being provided, the public is pushed to seek medical attention from the private sector.

The Sunday Times contacted a few private hospitals in Colombo to find out if there was a steady increase in the number of patients during 1998/1999 and all hospital officials admitted that there was an increase.

60 month salary for dismissed employee

The Labour Tribunal has ruled that the sacking of an employee by Sarvodaya was unjust and unlawful and ordered that the grieved employee be paid a compensation of Rs. 223,200, a sum equivalent to 60 months wages.

Sarvodaya's video feature producer and hostel manager Ranjith Ananda Jayasinghe said in his plaint that his employer Sarvodaya Chief A. T. Ariyaratne had promised him Rs. 2,500 allowance, first from his personal account, then from the Sarvodaya funds to dissuade him from taking up a lucrative offer from a private television company.

Mr. Jayasinghe said Dr. Ariyaratne kept his promise for the first three months but thereafter stopped it. He also said he was then transferred to a section unrelated to his skills, the audio-visual division and attempts were made to persuade him to resign. On his refusal he was chargesheeted for not having attended the meditation sessions. A domestic inquiry later found Mr. Jayasinghe guilty and his services were terminated.

Accountants trained to 'look forward'

Accountants have been trained to look backwards, management accounting is training to look forward, says a top expert from Australia.

Leon Duwall, president of Institute of Accountants Australia who is here to conduct a five-day workshop on management accountacy told The Sunday Times management accountants by using modern methods such as the discovery of leading indicators should be able to tell the management whether it was able to achieve a strategic object, and this ability would mean a big change for a company.

The workshop organised by The Institute of Charted Accountants Sri Lanka (ICASL) in association with the Institute of Accountants Australia (IAA) will equip 35 Charted members with the latest developments in management accountancy at a level equivalent to an MBA, Mr. Duwall said.

The object of the tie-up with the Australian institute is to assist the institute here in creating a programme for developing management accountants, a process of providing information to managers, so that they can make important and better decisions.

The objective of the ICASL is to develop skills for Sri Lankans to continue taking the course, so that they do not have to bring in people from Australia. "That is one of the positive things that will come out from this," Mr. Duwall said.

Some of the topics dealt with are modern cost management, strategic cost analysis, understanding Japanese management and strategic techniques, understanding marketing and corporate strategy, looking at the latest methods to understand share holder value.

The ongoing workshop is being conducted jointly by Mr. Duwall and Janaka Ratnatunga, a leading academic and professor at the Monash University.

Who are my parents?

Drain-baby Chandima returns to seek her Lankan roots

By Frederica Jansz

The attention of a passerby was drawn to the sound of a baby's cry coming from within the slimy quarters of a drain at Panadura.

Moving closer the tiny figure of a girl child was seen struggling to breathe as she lay in the muddy and contaminated drain water.

Lifting her up the stranger carried the infant to the Panadura police station and handed her over.

Chandima Danielle Barton, was only a few months old at the time and was suffering from pneumonia and scabies. Taken by police to a home for children in Panadura, Chandima was kept for only a day before being hurriedly transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital. She was at this time presumed to be about five months old. The year was 1975.

Paul Barton, an Australian working at the hospital first saw her there. Watching the little girl as she struggled to live, she pulled at Paul's heart-strings and he decided to adopt her.

Chandima also spent some time at the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital and it is believed that it is here that Chandima acquired her name given by the hospital staff.

Hospital records show that Chandima was at the Children's Hospital Colombo from December 31, 1975 to January 8, 1976. Consultant surgeon Prof. Priyani Soysa had diagnosed her ailment as Lobar (lung) pneumonia, generalized scabies, secondary infection and multiple abscesses.

Later Chandima was taken to the Suwa Setha home. At the time this was a nutritional centre organized by an Australian group Rena Huxley. It was the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.

Paul Barton together with his wife Susan soon initiated a process to adopt Chandima and once she was medically cleared, Chandima left the shores of Sri Lanka together with her new parents.

Given a new lease in life, the infant who was at death's door, is now 24 years old, married to an Australian and the mother of two adorable little girls.

Chandima has returned for the first time to Sri Lanka together with her adopted mother Susan Barton. Chandima is looking for her biological parents, but she has not had much success up to now. She has two birth-marks. One on her upper right leg and one on her buttock. Beyond such identification marks there is very little detail regarding Chandima's origins and she hopes a long shot will come off. "Somewhere out there are my parents and I hope I find them," she said.

Chandima said after having become a mother herself she yearned to "find her own parents." Susan Barton however cautioned that in the event a possible linkage is found a DNA testing should be carried out to ascertain if the blood samples match.

Chandima has five step brothers and sisters in Australia. The Bartons have four biological children and two are adopted, including Chandima. Having completed her schooling in Australia Chandima today lives with her family in Melbourne.

Unable to speak Sinhala, Chandima's eyes looked misty when she spoke saying it was important she be able to trace her roots and identify with a country and culture she has little knowledge of.

If anyone has a clue as to who Chandima's parents could be, Susan Barton can be contacted at P.O. Box 1127, Hawksburn Melbourne 3142, Australia.

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