That call to arms | Daily News

That call to arms

The remark made by GMOA Secretary Dr. Nalinda Herath that medical students would be forced to take up arms as a last resort if the SAITM issue was not resolved by the government should be treated by the authorities with the utmost seriousness. The statement is a clear challenge to the government, and what is more, an incitement (of the student community) to violence, an offence that could see the good doctor draw a long stretch behind bars.

There have been many calls for the arrest of the GMOA Secretary, not just from government politicians, but also other parties. The latest to add his voice to the chorus is Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya who has called on the IGP to arrest Dr. Herath since his statement amounted to inciting youth to take up arms against the state. He said the statement which says that undergraduates would take up arms as the next step in their agitation against SAITM should not be treated lightly and was a threat to national security and peace.

The authorities have so far failed to move in the matter, which, indeed, is surprising. Dr. Hearth, though, not explicitly calling upon the youth to take to arms had nevertheless planted the idea in the minds of a band of undergraduates with a propensity to violence. The statement could also have a domino effect, with the very real possibility of militant youth in the universities, and otherwise, taking to arms, plunging the country into a state of anarchy. With the doctors threatening another round of strikes amidst the current stalemate the law enforcement should be fully beefed up to tackle any eventuality that may arise as a result of Dr. Herath’s incendiary statement.

The latest move by the government doctors to co-opt the parents of the medical students into the agitation campaign is clearly intended to make the anti-SAITM campaign snowball into an all out anti- government protest. The claim made by Dr. Neville Fernando that the university students who have been remanded were receiving Rs. 10 million should also be investigated. From the very inception of the protests we have been urging the government to unearth the nexus between the agitation and the political hand guiding it. We also said that there are all indications that big money was being pumped into the whole affair. The revelation made by Dr. Fernando therefore should provide food for thought to the government and compel it to unravel the subterranean plot that is obviously at work.

It is hardly a secret that the VVIPs of the former regime command unlimited financial resources that are now being put to “good use”. Had it not been the case they would not have been able to muster the massive crowds that almost filled Galle Face at the May Day. It is obvious that more of the same is today being channeled into mobilising university students to create chaos and disorder under the guise of an anti- SAITM offensive. The protests, naturally, are going to pick up as the days go by and reach a crescendo as the Provincial Council elections, due for September, draw near. This, coupled with the spate of doctors’ strikes that are bound to intensify in the coming days are craftily planned to obtain the maximum political advantage to the benefactors of the whole agitation campaign.

The government should be up to the task in countering this obvious conspiracy. The plan, it is clear, is to plunge the country’s hospitals into a major crisis, what with the dengue epidemic now spiralling out of control. Patients dying in hospitals, sans treatment, is a surefire way to rouse the anger of the general public against the government, which will be squarely held responsible for the crisis. It (government) should consider alternative options. It cannot allow this problem to continue indefinitely. Neither should it cave into threats and blackmail. As Dr. Neville Fernando recalled, a similar doctors’ strike was successfully dealt with by the then Minister Felix Dias Bandaranaike in his typically authoritarian manner. One also recalls the prolonged strike of all state banks during the tenure of Dr. N.M. Perera as Finance Minister. The government did not budge and many bank employees lost their jobs when new hands were recruited. Neither did JRJ cave in to the July strikers (Had he done so the wrong message would have been sent to foreign investors and the FTZ would never have come into being). Similarly, a firm hand is called for by the present government, Yahapalanaya notwithstanding.

Controversial lawyer and President’s Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya has suggested that the government get down doctors from India if the GMOA continues to dig in its heels. What has to be given thought to, no doubt is the lives, of the patients. That should be the bottom line. The cost, no doubt, would be prohibitive. It would be ironic, indeed, if the government is compelled to hire foreign doctors, at considerably cost, when the local doctors who had the privilege of free education, curtsy the state, had turned their backs on the patients. 


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