Political power-play at the PGIM - Editorial

The Daily Mirror, in its Editorial yesterday, focused on Sri Lanka’s unprecedented crime wave largely because of the politicisation of crime and the criminalisation of polities – compounded by a breakdown in law and order or a crisis where laws are not being implemented.

Today we wish to put the spotlight on the party politicisation of medical education and the deadly effects it is having on the medical profession and the well-being of the people. This cancer of party politicisation has gravely affected many institutions including one of the apex bodies in medical education – the Post-Graduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM).

According to information we have received from reliable medical sources who are concerned about restoring a health service where the well-being of the patients is given priority, the PGIM is in serious crisis with one of the many symptoms being the cancellation of the examination and results of the MD degree course in family medicine. More than 60 medical students have submitted affidavits to the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) - the supreme body that maintains medical ethics in Sri Lanka - making various allegations against the Director of the PGIM. The medical sources have also told us that members of several Boards of Studies attached to the PGIM have resigned because of what they see as growing signs of authoritarianism similar to what is happening  in our country.

Complicating the issues is a conflict of interest where the PGIM comes under the purview of the Ministry of Higher Education while the health service and the SLMC come under the Ministry of Health.

The PGIM Director is a statutory member of the SLMC and last week the Daily Mirror revealed how the Higher Education Minister was poaching in the Health Ministry’s territory by putting pressure on the SLMC’s widely-respected Chairman, Professor Carlo Fonseka to retire. Prof. Fonseka, one of Sri Lanka’s most eminent physicians, is known to maintain the highest values and principles and being anybody’s ‘yes’ man is not one of these virtues. Fortunately the Health Minister intervened to prevent any move to remove Prof. Carlo Fonseka and that means the SLMC will maintain its integrity, but the same cannot be said of the PGIM. It is tragic to see political power-play in the PGIM at a time when political leaders and professional medical associations or institutions in co-operation with health action groups should be working to restore a patient-friendly health service. Student groups and opposition critics allege that the Government, while proclaiming social justice from political platforms, is trying to make money by privatising vital areas such as health and education. If health is put in the market, the poor will be left to die and if education is put in the market, the poor will be shut out of schools – thus denying them the knowledge and wisdom to have access to good job opportunities and maintain their human dignity. What is at stake is the life, the future and the human dignity of millions of people. Ministers and medical institution bosses must realise that when they indulge in self-centred power games for personal gain or glory, they are playing with the lives of the people and some day they will suffer the consequences of their misdeeds with their careers ending up in mortuaries or graveyards.