Opinion
Peniya exposes crooked politicisation

The Health Minister promoting spurious syrups (S-R-D Peniyas) is a rare exposure of the direct consequence of ‘politicisation’ and the undermining of science by the politicians. COVID-19 has a natural death rate of 4% whether you treat it or not. What ‘Peniya’ is trying to do is to give it to 100 people and claim benefit for curing or preventing 96 from dying. Science does exactly the opposite. Science wants to see clear evidence of any intervention that would prevent or curtail the four deaths.
The recent sacking of members of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) is another consequence of attempts at politicisation. The function of the SLMC is completely apolitical, and its core duty is to ensure that the medical profession is disciplined to maintain the benchmarks and standards, not just of academia or competence, but also the behaviour. The ultimate tool they use to regulate is the ‘registration to practice’ medicine in Sri Lanka. They are expected to ensure training programmes are fit for the purpose and criminals have no access to patients, as doctors.
What politicians want to do is bring politics into this, and create a pathway for their stooges to jump the queues or access facilities in demand at the expense of another citizen’s right. To do that they need a handle, at least to be able to threaten the doctors who do not comply with the erasure of their registration to practice. If they succeed, a day will come where the politicians decide who should not be given access to services, such as intensive care or cardiac services. That would mark the day of the demise of professionalism in our medical practice. If the public is happy to be tolerant of these practices, not just in medicine but in other professional services, too, that needs to maintain quality and discipline independently, that would be the beginning of the end of the ‘pearl’ of this Indian ocean.
CHULA GOONASEKERA
Medical academic
Opinion
Haphazard demolition in Nugegoda and deathtraps

The proposed expansion of the Kelani Valley railway line has prompted the squatters to demolish the buildings and the above photograph depicts the ad-hoc manner in which a building in the heart of Nugegoda town (No 39 Poorwarama Road) has been haphazardly demolished posing a risk to the general public. Residents say that the live electric wire has not been disconnected and the half-demolished structure is on the verge of collapse, causing inevitable fatal damages.
Over to the Railway Department, Kotte Municipality Ceylon Electricity Board and the Nugegoda Police.
Athula Ranasinghe,
Nugegoda.
Opinion
Aviation and doctors on Strike

On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 departed Denver, Colorado for Chicago, Illinois. The forecast weather was fine. Unfortunately, engine no. 2 – the middle engine in the tail of the three-engined McDonnell Douglas DC 10 – suffered an explosive failure of the fan disk, resulting in all three hydraulic system lines to the aircraft’s control surfaces being severed. This rendered the DC-10 uncontrollable except by the highly unorthodox use of differential thrust on the remaining two serviceable engines mounted on the wings.
Consequently, the aircraft was forced to divert to Sioux City, Iowa to attempt an emergency crash landing. But the crew lost control at the last moment and the airplane crashed. Out of a total of 296 passengers and crew, 185 survived.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) declared after an investigation that besides the skill of the operating crew, one significant factor in the survival rate was that hospitals in proximity to the airport were experiencing a change of shifts and therefore able to co-opt the outgoing and incoming shift workers to take over the additional workload of attending to crash victims.
One wonders what would have happened if an overflying aircraft diverted to MRIA-Mattala, BIA-Colombo, Colombo International Airport Ratmalana (CIAR) or Palaly Airport, KKS during the doctors’ strike in the 24 hours starting March 12, 2025? Would the authorities have been able to cope? International airlines (over a hundred a day) are paying in dollars to overfly and file Sri Lankan airports as en route alternates (diversion airports).
Doctors in hospitals in the vicinity of the above-named international airports cannot be allowed to go on strike, and their services deemed essential. Even scheduled flights to those airports could be involved in an accident, with injured passengers at risk of not receiving prompt medical attention.
The civil aviation regulator in this country seems to be sitting fat, dumb, and happy, as we say in aviation.
Guwan Seeya
Opinion
HW Cave saw Nanu Oya – Nuwara rail track as “exquisite”

Plans to resurrect the Nanu Oya – Nuwara Eliya rail track are welcome. The magnificent views from the train have been described by H W Cave in his book The Ceylon Government Railway (1910):
‘The pass by which Nuwara Eliya is reached is one of the most exquisite things in Ceylon. In traversing its length, the line makes a further ascent of one thousand feet in six miles. The curves and windings necessary to accomplish this are the most intricate on the whole railway and frequently have a radius of only eighty feet. On the right side of the deep mountain gorge we ascend amongst the tea bushes of the Edinburgh estate, and at length emerge upon a road, which the line shares with the cart traffic for about a mile. In the depths of the defile flows the Nanuoya river, foaming amongst huge boulders of rock that have descended from the sides of the mountains, and bordered by tree ferns, innumerable and brilliant trees of the primeval forest which clothe the face of the heights. In this land of no seasons their stages of growth are denoted by the varying tints of scarlet, gold, crimson, sallow green, and most strikingly of all, a rich claret colour, the chief glory of the Keena tree’.
However, as in colonial times, the railway should be available for both tourists and locals so that splendid vista can be enjoyed by all.
Dr R P Fernando
Epsom,
UK
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