Opinion

Shortage of medicines: Senaka Bibile Policy is the solution

Published

1 month ago

2025/02/13

Prof. Bibile

The Senaka Bibile Medicinal Drug Policy is the answer to the present severe shortage of medicines in the government hospitals. As a result, most patients have to purchase their medicines from private pharmacies. The price of these medicines has soared to such an extent that the poor are unable to afford them. This is particularly the case for those with chronic conditions such as diabetes where they need to take medicines daily. This leads to a flaring up of these severe illnesses resulting in premature death. Sri Lanka is going back towards the situation that existed before the 1970s, when Senaka introduced his policy. Then the Drug Companies controlled the global and local markets and the Health Department had to abide by their terms. The majority of the patients suffered as a result.

How did Senaka change that situation through his Policy? He found that various the Drug Companies were purchasing from the few producers of the Generic drugs at a low price and making a huge profit by giving them a brand name and capturing the market. Let me give you an example. The widely used generic product Paracetamol is sold under various Brand names by the different Drug Companies at a huge profit. Senaka set up the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) with the support of the Finance Minister, Dr N.M Perera, and Minister T. B. Subasinghe. The SPC used the List of Essential Drugs, about 233 (at that time) which had been prepared by Senaka, out of about 1,000 or more available in the market. They obtained the Government health sector requirement from the Medical Supplies Department (MSD). In addition, Senaka made an estimate of the requirement of the Private Health Sector and this was added to the State Sector requirement. Then the SPC called world-wide tenders for the total requirement of essential generic drugs, like paracetamol, for the coming year for Sri Lanka as a whole. Because this was a large amount Senaka was able to get at a very low -price good quality generic medicines for all the people in Sri Lanka. The State Health Sector requirement was given to the MSD. For the Private Sector Senaka set up the Osu Sala at Lipton Circus, Colombo. To reach the people in the rest of the country he chose reliable private pharmacies to whom the Osu Sala out sourced the SPC medicines as its agent. This acted as a pressure on the other private pharmacies to bring down the price of Drug Company products like Panadol, Panadeine etc.

Senaka was keen on developing countries like Sri Lanka not having to depend on imports from abroad and mooted the idea of manufacturing the medicines. For this he set up a State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC). This was able to produce about 43 drugs due to the efforts of Dr. Gladys Jayawardena, who as DDGLS in the Health Ministry stepped in to carry his work forward. Senaka was also very keen as Professor of Pharmacology to ensure that medical students would practice good medicine when they passed out as doctors. So, he set up a Formulary Committee that produced an excellent Hospitals Formulary as a proper guide in clinical pharmacology. Senaka was an excellent teacher and he never brought any notes into the class room but he was ensuring that the students got his message, by repetition or expanding his message. Senaka shifted to Peradeniya University when it was establishing the Medical Faculty and became the first Professor of Pharmacology. He was an educationist and introduced many new teaching methods.

Senaka was born in remote Bibile. His father was a Rate Mahattaya. He obtained a scholarship to enable him to study at Trinity College, Kandy. Once he became a doctor the first thing, he did was to repay his scholarship so that a poor student could get the chance that he obtained. It was at Trinity that he got interested in social service and upliftment of the poor. He was attracted to the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and its struggle against British Imperialist rule. He joined the LSSP while at University and made an excellent study of Marxism/Leninism. As a medical student I formed a Socialist Society and used to take a group of interested students to his house in Rajagiriya on bicycles. He gave us some good talks on socialism and encouraged us to be critical before accepting his ideas. In the LSSP he took to active politics and became the Treasurer of the Youth Congress. When racial attacks against the LSSP were at its worst during the anti-Tamil Language riots he volunteered to contest a bye-election for the Kuppiawatte Ward in the Colombo Municipal Council. When we went canvassing for him, we were abused as supporters of Tamil also being made an official language with Sinhala. But he did not give in and stood up for the correct policy of the LSSP, knowing that he would lose. My admiration for Senaka soared. But the acceptance by WHO of his Medicinal Drug Policy and sending him to various poor countries to start the process gave him greatest satisfaction. I remember the time when he was to make what turned out to be his final visit abroad to the Caribbean countries and South America. My wife Kamini and I went to his house for dinner with him and his wife Leela. He gave his jovial laugh and said, “Tissa sees how the drug company lobby is trying to frighten me to give up my mission. I have got several calls warning me not to go tomorrow as there is a plot to kill me.” I told him that he should remember that they will not be happy to lose their profits and he should be careful. He left the next day on his mission. It was in Guiana that they killed him by giving him a chemical at a dinner which led to a very rapid heartbeat. With his previous history of ischemic heart disease this could have a fatal outcome. There was some delay in getting him to hospital, and even there he was kept on the trolley for a long time without being seen by a doctor, despite all Leela’s appeals. Kamini and I went to Katunayake to receive Leela with Senaka’s ashes. One of the saddest days in my life. Senaka was only 54 years old when he was killed. He had a lot more energy in him to serve the people and fight for a socialist future for mankind. On this 13th of February we thank him for what he did for the poor people of the world. It will never be forgotten.

Tissa Vitarana

General Secretary of the LSSP

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Opinion

LG polls, what a waste of money!

Published

3 days ago

2025/03/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

If the people of this country were asked whether they want elections to the local government, majority of them would say no! How many years have elapsed since the local councils became defunct? And did not the country function without these councils that were labelled as ‘white elephants’?

If the present government’s wish is to do the will of the people, they should reconsider having local government elections. This way the government will not only save a considerable amount of money on holding elections, but also save even a greater amount by not having to maintain these local councils, which have become a bane on the country’s economy.

One would hope that the country will be able to get rid of these local councils and revert back to the days of having competent Government Agents and a team of dedicated government officials been tasked with the responsibility of attending to the needs of the people in those areas.

M. Joseph A. Nihal Perera

Opinion

What not to do

Published

4 days ago

2025/03/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

Trump and Zelensky arguing in the White House

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

It is immaterial whether you like him or not but one thing is crystal clear; Donald Trump has shown, very clearly, who is the boss. Surely, presidents of two countries are equal; perhaps, that is the impression Volodymyr Zelensky had when he went to the White House to meet Trump but the hard reality, otherwise, would have dawned on him with his inglorious exit! True, the behaviour of President Trump and VP Vance were hardly praiseworthy but Zelensky did what exactly he should not do. Afterall, he was on a begging mission and beggars cannot be choosers! He behaved like professional beggars in Colombo who throw money back when you give a small amount!!

Despite the risk of belonging to the minority, perhaps of non-Americans, I must say that I quite like Trump and admire him as a straight-talking politician. He keeps to his words; however atrocious they sound! Unfortunately, most critics overlook the fact that what Trump is doing is exactly what he pledged during his election campaign and that the American voters elected him decisively. When he lost to Biden, all political commentators wrote him off, more so because of his refusal to admit defeat and non-condemnation of his supporters who rioted. When he announced his intention to contest, it only evoked pundits’ laughter as they concluded that the Republican Party would never nominate him. Undaunted, Trump got the party to rally round him and won a non-consecutive second term; a feat achieved only once before, by Grover Cleveland around the end of the nineteenth century. His victory, against all predictions, was more decisive as he got more collegiate votes and, even though it does not matter, won the popular vote too which he did not get when he got elected the first term. Even his bitterest critics should accept this fact.

Zelensky was elected the president of Ukraine after the elected pro-Soviet president was deposed by a ‘peoples revolution’ engineered by the EU with the support of USA. After this, the EU attempted to bring Ukraine to NATO, disregarding the Munich agreement which precipitated the Russian invasion. He should have realised that, if not for the air-defence system which Trump authorised for Ukraine during his first term, Russian invasion would have been complete. It may well be that he was not aware as when this happened Zelensky may still have been the comedian acting the part of the president! Very likely, Trump was referring to this when he accused Zelensky of being ungrateful.

Zelensky also should have remembered that he disregarded requests from Trump, after his defeat by Biden, to implicate Biden’s son in some shady deals in Ukraine and that one of the last acts of Biden was to pardon his son and grant immunity to cover the alleged period. Perhaps, actions of the European leaders who embrace him every time they see him, as a long-lost brother, and invitations to address their parliaments has induced an element of the superiority complex in Zelensky that he behaved so combative.

Trump wanted to be the mediator to stop the war and spoke to Putin first. Instead of waiting for Trump to speak to him, egged on by EU leaders Zelensky started criticising Trump for not involving him in the talks. His remark “He should be on our side” demonstrated clearly that Zelensky had not understood the role of a mediator. His lack of political experience was the major reason for the fiasco in the White House and the subsequent actions of Trump clearly showed Zelensky where he stands! PM Starmer and President Macron seem to have given some sensible advice and he seems to be eating humble pie. In the process Trump has ensured that the European nations pay for their defence than piggy-backing on the US, which I am sure would please the American voter. By the way, though Macron talks big about defence France spends less than 2% of GDP. Trump seems vindicated. Of course, Trump could be blamed for being undiplomatic but he can afford to be as he has the upper hand!

Ranil on Al Jazeera

Zelensky has shown what not to do: instead of being diplomatic being aggressive when you need favours! Meanwhile, Ranil has shown what not to do when it comes to TV interviews. God only knows who advised him, and why, for him to go ‘Head to Head’ with Mehdi Hasan on Al-Jazeera. Perhaps, he wanted to broadcast to the world that he was the saviour of Sri Lanka! The experienced politician he is, one would have expected Ranil to realise that he would be questioned about his role in making Sri Lanka bankrupt as well, in addition to raising other issues.

The interview itself was far from head to head; more likely heads to head! It turned out to be an inquisition by Tiger supporters and the only person who spoke sense being Niraj Deva, who demonstrated his maturity by being involved in British and EU politics. The worst was the compere who seems keen to listen his own voice, reminding me of a Sinhala interviewer on a YouTube channel whose interviews I have stopped watching!

Ranil claims, after the interview was broadcast, that it had been heavily edited reduced from a two-hour recording. Surely, despite whatever reason he agreed to, he should have laid ground rules. He could have insisted on unedited broadcast or his approval before broadcast, if it was edited. It was very naïve of Ranil to have walked in to a trap for no gain. Though his performance was not as bad as widely reported, he should have been more composed at the beginning as he turned out to be later. Overall, he gave another opportunity for the Tiger rump and its supporters to bash Sri Lanka, unfortunately.

Medhi Hasan should watch some of David Frost interviews, especially the one with Richard Nixon, and learn how to elicit crucial information in a gentle exploratory manner than shouting with repeated interruptions. He does not seem to think it is necessary to give time for the interviewee to respond to his questions. I will never watch Al-Jazeera’s “Head to Head” again!

Ranil’s best was his parting shot; when asked by Hasan whether he would contest the next presidential election, he said “No, I will retire and watch Al-Jazeera and hope to see you better mannered”!

Opinion

Ajahn Brahm to visit SL in May 2025

Published

5 days ago

2025/03/11

Sahan Weerasooriya

The Ajahn Brahm Society of Sri Lanka (ABSSL) is pleased to announce that Ajahn Brahm will be visiting Sri Lanka for a short stay in May this year. Many, both Buddhists and non-Buddhists, know him and have listened to his addresses made on earlier visits, including his 2023 public talk at the BMICH, which was attended by over 4,000 people.

Ajahn Brahmavamso, popularly known as Ajahn Brahm, is the Head Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine, Perth. He was a pupil of the famous Thai forest monk Ajahn Chah, considered the best Theravada meditation teacher in the last century. By his own choice, Ajahn Brahmavamso shortened his name and was extra pleased that the initials represent the major religions of the world. He is renowned world-wide as an outstanding meditation bhikkhu, teacher and instructor, guiding thousands of practitioners.

As in previous visits, Ajahn Brahm’s schedule will be packed with addresses, meetings with senior professionals, business leaders, and researchers. This year, a special session has been included for teenagers and young adults.

The agenda planned for him includes:

Public address at the BMICH to all irrespective of religion and age; then to a younger audience.

· Exclusive Leadership Forum for senior professionals and business leaders.

· Forum with academics engaged in research at the Centre for Meditation Research, University of Colombo.

· A week-long meditation retreat for the Ven Sangha and experienced lay meditators.

Public Addresses

The public addresses will be on Sunday, May 18, 2025, from 7:00 am to 11:00 am, at the BMICH Main Hall and Sirimavo Halls; Ajahn Brahm moving from one hall to another so the entire audience sees him. Each hall will be well equipped with audio and video presentation. The first address: The Art of Meaningful Living, is designed for all, age notwithstanding, offering wisdom and practical insights for a fulfilling life. The second: Coping with Life Transitions and Emotional Challenges, is a special session tailored for teens and young adults, addressing key challenges faced by them in today’s fast-paced, competitive world. Both talks will be in English, with concise translation to Sinhala by Ven Damita Thera.

Exclusive Forums

On Saturday, May 17, 2025, two exclusive forums will be held at the BMICH Committee Room, Jasmine Hall. The first such session will be with eighty invited Sri Lankan academics and scientists engaged in research on meditation at the Centre for Meditation Research of the University of Colombo. This will be followed in the evening by an interactive session for a hundred invited senior professionals and business leaders, featuring a talk on leadership followed by a Q&A session.

Meditation Retreat

The most significant item on Ajahn Brahm’s programme will be a week-long meditation retreat at the Barberyn Waves Ayurveda Resort in Weligama. Focus is intended to be on the fifty members of the Ven Sangha. A limited number of experienced lay meditators will also have the opportunity to participate.

Participation & Registration

Those interested in attending the public talks at the BMICH are kindly advised to register at to secure free passes. For further information, please contact the Ajahn Brahm Society of Sri Lanka at .