Accountability..... New word for Sri Lankan politicians
This post is also related to SAITM issue.
In the society, if a person is going to buy a phone, the buyer will ask several questions about its quality, price, warrantee, and ask from several different people about their opinion about the phone. Then only the person will make up his mind to buy the phone. So, lets see what happened with SAITM. First the advertised they are accepted by SLMC, GMC of UK, UGC of Ministry of Higher Education, affiliated to some Russian Institute, and have twinning programme with final years in Russia. All of this without having a teaching hospital of its own. Within 1 week of this advertisement, SLMC advertised in all the newspapers that it does not recognize the MBBS degree offered by SAITM. Yet the students joined the institute and the government allowed the recruitment to take place.
Nowhere in the world such a thing would take place. A higher education institute not approved by the state being allowed to recruit students. Usual and the logical process in establishing a higher institute should be first it should have the physical resources and then the man power and should have the coursework for the degrees proposed by it and then it has to be submitted to the responsible authority and should be reviewed. After the review the institute would get approved if there are no shortcomings. But in the case of SAITM, no state approval was taken and students were recruited. Now the students of SAITM are requesting the state to intervene and solve their issue. But how can state involve in that matter, if it was not approved by it.
So, what are the approval obtained by SAITM? First they only had approval from Board of Investment. Even that approval was with the condition that approval from Ministry of Health, SLMC, and UGC should be obtained before commencing the programme in MBBS degree. But Dr. Neville Fernando disregarded that condition saying that he has sent letters to the respective organizations and has not heard from them, and started enrolling students in the year 2009. Then they obtained the approval from UGC and Ministry of Higher Education in the year 2011 when S.B. Dissanayake was the Minister of Higher Education. This approval was provided when SAITM did not have a teaching hospital of its own and the institutional review by the Ministry of Higher Education identified several short comings including that students who have failed in A/Ls being enrolled for Medicine course. The approval by UGC was nothing legal but a political intervention by S.B. Dissanayake. No one knows how much bribe was given. This approval by UGC which they obtained illegally by bribes and politics, has given SAITM a state recognition. Only thing they now lack is the SLMC recognition. But unfortunately for them and fortunately for the people in this country, SLMC is not corrupt or politicized or can be bought with money.
So, coming to the mindset of the parents and the students who joined SAITM knowing that it was not recognized by SLMC. What were they thinking? Were they defrauded by Dr. Neville Fernando or were they hoping that through political influence and the influence of money, they can get the approval of SLMC and the state. If they were defrauded, by now they would have taken action against Dr. Neville Fernando. But they have not done that yet. That makes them complicit in using political connections and money to get the SLMC approval. But these activities will not be investigated by the police or the good governance. S.B. Dissanayake will not be held accountable for granting approval contrary to the evidence provided to him. We need a political system in which every decision taken by politicians will be held accountable and citizens can challenge them in proper judiciary and the politicians will be held accountable for their lifetime unlike what is happening now. With each change in government or each change in the portfolio of ministers the accountability is lost. Future will seal the fate of this crisis but in the end we want the public to be the winners of our struggle, not the elite or rich subset of the population but the whole country and the future generations.
In the society, if a person is going to buy a phone, the buyer will ask several questions about its quality, price, warrantee, and ask from several different people about their opinion about the phone. Then only the person will make up his mind to buy the phone. So, lets see what happened with SAITM. First the advertised they are accepted by SLMC, GMC of UK, UGC of Ministry of Higher Education, affiliated to some Russian Institute, and have twinning programme with final years in Russia. All of this without having a teaching hospital of its own. Within 1 week of this advertisement, SLMC advertised in all the newspapers that it does not recognize the MBBS degree offered by SAITM. Yet the students joined the institute and the government allowed the recruitment to take place.
Nowhere in the world such a thing would take place. A higher education institute not approved by the state being allowed to recruit students. Usual and the logical process in establishing a higher institute should be first it should have the physical resources and then the man power and should have the coursework for the degrees proposed by it and then it has to be submitted to the responsible authority and should be reviewed. After the review the institute would get approved if there are no shortcomings. But in the case of SAITM, no state approval was taken and students were recruited. Now the students of SAITM are requesting the state to intervene and solve their issue. But how can state involve in that matter, if it was not approved by it.
So, what are the approval obtained by SAITM? First they only had approval from Board of Investment. Even that approval was with the condition that approval from Ministry of Health, SLMC, and UGC should be obtained before commencing the programme in MBBS degree. But Dr. Neville Fernando disregarded that condition saying that he has sent letters to the respective organizations and has not heard from them, and started enrolling students in the year 2009. Then they obtained the approval from UGC and Ministry of Higher Education in the year 2011 when S.B. Dissanayake was the Minister of Higher Education. This approval was provided when SAITM did not have a teaching hospital of its own and the institutional review by the Ministry of Higher Education identified several short comings including that students who have failed in A/Ls being enrolled for Medicine course. The approval by UGC was nothing legal but a political intervention by S.B. Dissanayake. No one knows how much bribe was given. This approval by UGC which they obtained illegally by bribes and politics, has given SAITM a state recognition. Only thing they now lack is the SLMC recognition. But unfortunately for them and fortunately for the people in this country, SLMC is not corrupt or politicized or can be bought with money.
So, coming to the mindset of the parents and the students who joined SAITM knowing that it was not recognized by SLMC. What were they thinking? Were they defrauded by Dr. Neville Fernando or were they hoping that through political influence and the influence of money, they can get the approval of SLMC and the state. If they were defrauded, by now they would have taken action against Dr. Neville Fernando. But they have not done that yet. That makes them complicit in using political connections and money to get the SLMC approval. But these activities will not be investigated by the police or the good governance. S.B. Dissanayake will not be held accountable for granting approval contrary to the evidence provided to him. We need a political system in which every decision taken by politicians will be held accountable and citizens can challenge them in proper judiciary and the politicians will be held accountable for their lifetime unlike what is happening now. With each change in government or each change in the portfolio of ministers the accountability is lost. Future will seal the fate of this crisis but in the end we want the public to be the winners of our struggle, not the elite or rich subset of the population but the whole country and the future generations.
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