News/Comment

14th October 2001

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State to import low cost drugs

Faced with an ever-escalating drug bill for imported drugs, the Ministry of Health has finally taken a decision to adopt a scheme of parallel imports, Health Services Chief Dr. A. M. S. Beligaswatte announced.

A special committee appointed by the Technical Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health examined the views presented by the trade and the profession for and against parallel imports, he said in a media communiqué coinciding with a campaign to provide safe, effective and good quality medicinal drugs to the people at the lowest possible prices.

This committee consisted of the following: Prof. Tuley de Silva - Chairman, Dr. N. Amarasekera - Consultant to the DRA, Prof. K. Weerasuriya - Professor of Pharmacology, Dr. D. Aloysius - College of General Practitioners, U. Pandithara-tne - President/SLCPI, C.S. Edwards - Secretary to the Sub-Committee and President/SLPMA.

It concluded that legal and logistic impediments could be overcome and a scheme of parallel imports adopt-ed for the benefit of the people of Sri Lanka, the communiqué said.

The Ministry of Health has now given the green light to the State Pharmaceutical Corporation to go ahead with the scheme. A special committee under the Chairmanship of Prof. Colvin Goonaratne will decide on the logistics of imports selection, assurance of quality control etc., and make its recommendations to the Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA). The DRA, after studying the requests on a case by case basis, is expected to issue instructions to enable the SPC to process the imports.

The responsibility about the quality of the imported product, conformation to relevant pharmacopoeia etc., would lie with the SPC which will also have to effect appropriate pre and post marketing surveillance of the product, the health chief said.

If properly implemented the scheme would be specially useful for drugs which show a substantial price difference between the manufacturers' price in the country of origin and the sale price in the importing country. It is hoped that once teething problems of implementation are overcome this scheme will allow a substantial reduction of the prices of selected imported drugs, the communiqué said.


Kantale health crisis deepens

The State Sector Health Services Trade Union Joint Council is threatening to take trade union action if the Health Ministry fails to remove the DMO of the Kantale Base Hospital in the Trincomalee district.

The union staged a token strike last Monday in the Trincomalee district and threatened that if the Health Ministry failed to resolve the issue within a week other districts in the North and East would join the strike.

Union spokesman Dr. Rukshan Bellana said the trade union action would be first extended to Ampara and Mannar and then to other parts of the North and East.

The Sunday Times last week inadvertently reported that there was agitation to remove the Trincomalee DMO. However, it is not the Trincomalee DMO, but the DMO of the Kantale Base Hospital. The Sunday Times regrets the error.

The union claimed that the Kantale Base Hospital DMO misused his authority with alleged political backing.

A preliminary inquiry has been conducted by the Health Ministry and forwarded to the Public Service Commission(PSC), Dr. Bellana said.

However, he alleged that the PSC was delaying the process.


Nimalarajan lecture in London

A commemorative lecture to mark the first death anniversary of the slain Jaffna journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan will be held on Friday at Headland House in London, the Nimalarajan Foundation in London said.

The chief speakers will be Senior BBC Journalist and BBC Breakfast Presenter Jeremy Bowen, Political Commentator and Writer Mark Thomas, and UK representative of Reporteurs Sans Frontiers Veronica Forwood.

The event will be chaired by Priyath Liyanage, editor of BBC's Sinhala Service 'Sandeshaya'.


Green or blue that's what political friends are for!

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti, Our Lobby Correspondent

William Randolph Hearst may never have known Sri Lankan legislators during his lifetime, but when he said that a politician was likely to do anything to keep his job including becoming a patriot, we can't help but feel he had an inkling of what was in store for this country after independence.

Politics here more often than not demonstrates the abuse of public sentiment by their elected representatives, and the high and long jumps undertaken by nine PA dissidents led by former Samurdhi minister S.B. Diss-anayake did nothing to add a semblance of decency to the spectacle of switching sides. It simply gave credence to the old cliche that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics.

There was an air of expectancy and uncertainty, regarding the destiny of the PA government as the legislature prepared for the show of shows.

The first round of artillery was not fired by S.B. Dissanayake as expected, but from unsuspected quarters – MEP's Bandula Gunaw-ardena. The laid back UNP seemed jubilant with opposition legislators engaged in frenzied scuttling and faces washed with eager anticipation as the sessions began on Tuesday to debate an amendment to the Bail Act

Trouble began when Sihala Urumaya's sole representative Cha-mpika Ranawaka queried whether the government had entered an agreement with the ADB to handover management and administration of Sri Lanka's forest land to the US government with several UNPers getting up in protest and urging a full debate.

Next it was time for MEP's Bandula Gunawardena to give a personal explanation. An arch critic of the UNP's economic policies and the style of governance, he began by heaping blame on the state media for pushing him towards 'extreme action'.

In a moving delivery, Mr. Gunawardena said he had imparted knowledge to over 200,000 students and that he had never accepted bar permits, acquired illegal wealth, accepted commissions or traded his conscience for a mess of pottage.

" We toiled to create a PA administration by defeating the oppressive UNP. The government was created by our sweat and blood and we considered it our duty to protect and defend it. It was not created to enter cheap probationary agreements with the JVP or to act unscrupulously. As I cross the isle today, I don't wish to be forgiven by anyone except by my revered leader, Dinesh Gunawardena," he said emotionally.

Angrily, he noted that the president was being misled by a group of people who were doing the biggest disservice to the PA. "I refuse to fall at the feet of anyone and seek no place among those conspirators, tail carriers and traitors to the people ," he thundered and marched over to the opposition, with Gamini Jayawickreme Perera happily offering his front row seat to the defector.

October 10, Wednesday was a significant day for the ruling PA for many reasons. It completed its first year in its second term and marked the first death anniversary of former premier Sirimavo Bandaranaike. With the President acquiring the constitutional right to dissolve a crisis-ridden House, it also was the day that PA defectors decided to break the administration.

The question of political credibility, trading of conscience and a short memory notwithstanding, the UNP had obviously played a shrewd game of political manipulation with great aplomb. The 'Operation Thunderbolt- Phase 2' began with another Bandula Gunaw-ardhena, a fresh face from Kalutara.

His explanations were abandoned in mid air with Mervyn Silva, Jayatissa Ranaweera and Chandana Kathr-iarachchi menacingly advancing towards him shouting abuse. Papers flew about and abuse was liberally piled on the MP as he was physically pushed toward the centre isle. Catcalls and shouting continued while opposition members rushed to defend the political prodigal from coming to physical harm with Mervyn Silva calling him a traitor, quite forgetting that he evoked similar feelings when he somersaulted to the PA last year. In the middle stood opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe attempting to quieten his ranks and pushing them to their seats while cheeky Johnston Fernando escorted Mr. Gunawardhena to the safety of UNP ranks.

At 11.20 am came the real spectacle, when the defectors trooped in like a tidal wave. While government members sat in stony silence, UNP assistant leader Gamini Atukorale, shedding political differences ushered in a smiling S.B. Dissa-nayake who was followed by Wijeyapala Mendis, Prof. G.L. Peiris, Mahinda Wije-sekera, Ediriweera Premaratne Jayasundara Wijekoon and Ananda Moonesinghe.

The opposition members beamed and the House reverberated with thunderous applause as the dissidents occupied front and second row seats, unseating some of the backbenchers who happily offered their seats. Excitement swelled as some UNPers rushed to hug and kiss those they loved to hate when they crossed the divide.

For those like Wijeyapala Mendis and Ediriweera Premaratne, it was a homecoming. For others, a thorny political bed perhaps until they find their bearings in a party they loved to castigate. Athauda Seneviratne's shrieks about the 'dhanap-athiyanta pakshaya pava dunna' lacked effect amidst opposition jubilation until dissident leader S.B. Dissanayake himself stood up.

Mr. Dissanayake's voice shook with emotion as he first responded to the catcalls that greeted him, stating that his former party should not treat him, in such a manner

" I stand here today with a heavy heart, and my love for the SLFP would never die. It has remained an integral part of my being. This unfortunate day would not have dawned if our leader had lent an ear, to our grievances. When we were critical of certain things, while remaining within the ranks, we were branded as traitors. We collectively fought to achieve a political dream, and the sad truth is that we have failed to deliver. It left us with no choice but to undertake a risky journey and tread a path strewn with obstacles," he said.

The opposition swe-lled in numbers with even the CWC joining the bandwagon at the last minute, and bringing together politicians with irreconcilable differences and headline grabbing track records to sit together and forget the diatribe of yore.



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