Do We Ever Learn?
By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
Automated Hospital Laundry
(pic credit: Ceylon Newspapers Ltd)
Politicians
in this land have done it in the past, they are repeating the same at present,
and they will continue to do the same in the future too! There have been a lot
of hue and cry about the presence of foreign workers in Sri Lanka, in
connection with Chinese projects that are taking place in this country, from
road building to harbour development et al.
Recently a
batch of school children on an educational tour, accompanied by their teaching
staff, to Magampura Airport, was denied entry by the current Chinese Management,
who have taken over the airport on a lease from the Yahapalanaya regime. This
appeared to be one of the most recent, disgusting and despicable scenes Sri
Lankan TV viewers had to stomach, when the security guard was seen lamenting to
the TV cameraman saying: ‘what can we do, we have to follow orders from the
Chinese’!
Prior to this
incident too, a hullabaloo erupted when the Chinese declined to hoist the Sri
Lankan National flag, or rather removed it after hoisting the National flag after
the inauguration ceremony of the Chinese-built port terminal during the
Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, leaving only the Chinese flag to fly.
Discrimination
Why are foreigners
allowed to dictate terms to the natives of this land, especially to a batch of school
children, as mentioned above, accompanied by the teaching staff on an
educational tour? The public naturally will point an accusing finger at the
idiotic politicians in this land, who had taken brainless and spineless decisions and acting the fool all the time.
Authorities in this country say the influx of
foreign manual workers swamping this little island is due to acute shortage of
labour in Sri Lanka! In April 2017, Megapolis and Western Development Minister
Patali Champika Ranawaka was quoted as saying, “200,000 foreigners were working
in Sri Lanka with or without work permits” - from India, Bangladesh, Maldives and China. Although
the Minister suggested that the Government should adopt sterner immigration
regulations to curb the invasion of such foreign workers, it appears, like
anything else, that the grandiloquence has been confined to meaningless
waffling only, by the politicians. The Board of Investment statistics have placed the figure of 8000
applications they had received seeking work permits (visas). Press reports revealed
that some of these manual workers, who were already in this country, had to put
up with extremely rough working conditions, and also having to work on long
12-hour shifts, on a compulsory seven days a week, without any leave sanctions whatsoever.
Survival
Naturally any immigrant worker would be eager to earn to
capacity. Towards this end, he will tolerate any arduous working condition to satisfy
his employer and to earn his money. It is the same with Sri Lankan workers
working abroad, who have to stoop to menial levels and persecution, especially the
housemaids who work hard for both tears and sweat for their mere survival in order
to remit money to their families at home. Foreign worker contribution in terms
of foreign exchange to the country have reached a prime peak currently,
equivalent to commodities such as tea,
rubber and coconut that were the chief
commodities once before, that earned the foreign exchange.
The labour shortage, as some government ministers portray,
is due to the non existence of a proper labour policy. This has given rise to
the ‘three wheeler culture’ where anyone, who is able to obtain a driving
licence by hook or by crook, is tempted to buy a three wheeler on a lease to
earn his living. Recently State Minister Palitha Range
Bandara disclosed about a plan to be introduced where minimum age level for driving a three- wheelers would be mature drivers of 40 year of age. This is
due to the fact that millions of three wheelers in this country contribute
towards a larger percentage of road accidents and deaths!
Three wheeler drivers are quite
complacent with their income where they could service their lease installments out of their income, while enjoying the
freedom to work at their own thrall. Had there been an effective labour policy,
then, there would not have been so many road accidents and deaths involving
three wheelers, as we read on newspapers on a daily basis, instead government
could have created many technicians and craftsmen out of accelerated youth
training programs, which would automatically have curbed foreigners swamping
the country and Sri Lankan mothers seeking
menial jobs in foreign countries for their family’s sheer survival. The horror
struck quite recently about a Sri Lankan mother being shot to death by a Saudi
Arabian employer’s son. This incident like any other, appears to have forgotten
by everyone, except the bereaved family, like any other trivial incident in
life! Many mothers do leave their families and seek foreign jobs, with perhaps
the know of what lies ahead of them, but purely as no other alternative to support
their families financially and the fact that they cannot find suitable
comparative employment with tractive salaries. This is the price many mothers
of Sri Lanka having to pay doing ‘ slavery’ to foreigners, thanks to our
ingenuous political leaders.
Foreign
Staff at Apollo Hospital
When
a world famous Indian group of hospitals opened their branch in Colombo, during
Rajapaksa regime, it was evidently clear that the Government only concentrated
on the foreign investment factor, otherwise would any sensible Minister of
Health have sanctioned to employ 200 Indian nurses, who were unable to
communicate with the local patients, either in Sinhala or English? The motivation
behind employing all Indian nurses, according an Indian Director and
Cardiologist at the time, was that they could not find a single Sri Lankan
nurse, but all the applicants were retired nurses from government hospitals.
Surely,
shouldn’t the retired nurses from government hospitals, with bags of
experience, better than any Indians, who could not converse in English or
Sinhala? Neville Fernando teaching
hospital, prior to its take over by the ‘government,’ did not make any
discrimination on that basis and absorbed a lot of retired nurses from
government hospitals. Obviously, their policy worked to the hospital’s
advantage; regrettably, many had to leave their jobs when it became government
controlled hospital with the government’s retirement policy affecting them to
the disadvantage of the suffering patients!
The
Indian private hospital hoped to set up their own training courses for nurses at
a charge of Rs. 10,000 per annum, whereas the Sri Lankan Government Institute provided
free training. When their exorbitant hospital charges were criticised, an
Indian director was quoted as saying that it was akin to ‘Chennai charges’! A pandemonium
erupted after three by-pass patients died out of the first 100 operations, when
30 Indian specialists worked at this hospital initially. The Hospital became
subjected to further criticism when a gall-bladder patient was operated for
appendectomy! Excuses given by the Indians at the time was, that their CEO was Indian, and even after
thrice advertising in the local press to appoint a local medical director was
unsuccessful
Outsourcing Laundry Service to Indians
The
latest move by the Yahapalanaya Administration is said to be to outsource the laundry service of local hospitals to an Indian company for a sum
of US$7.5 million, denying the job opportunities for hundreds of Sri Lankans,
even prior to the signing of the ETCA agreement. However, according to the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine,
‘the project for laundering the clothes were based on modern technology to kill
germs in discarded clothes by patients and the staff during surgical procedures
in Western Province hospitals. He was quoted as saying that the latest project bore
no relevance at all to the proposed Economic and technology Partnership
Agreement (ETCA) with India’.
The crux of the matter is that we live in a world of modern technology where
Sri Lankans have proven their mettle and ability stand equal to any
international genii. The two Sri Lankan inventors who developed the path
breaking remotely operated underwater vehicle, along with the high pixel video
camera fixed to the ROV that relayed continuous video to the ground, exposed in
a Sunday National paper, clearly proves Sri Lankans talent and ability without
having to depend on foreign brains. After all, how did the Western province
hospitals manage to kill germs in discarded clothes by
patients and the staff during surgical procedures all these years. What a load
of codswallop?
tilakfernando@gmail.com
