Presidential pardon to Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake.

War redefined the world from time to time. It brought absolute misery into human lives and communities. Wounded communities of the war healed over the years. People reconciled at times. 

After over a decade following the end of civil war in Sri Lanka, I am still yearning to see reconciliation in every sense of the word. Having said that, it continues to be a dream.

My first gateway to the North was my batchmates in the University (years before I got to visit North and North-East). Having lived with a bunch of people from various cultural backgrounds and belief systems across the island nation, needless to say, I am absolutely shocked from what I see/ hear today on this topic. Yes, I am referring to the responses of majority Sinhalese on presidential pardon to Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake.

[Warning: This content shall be toxic to you if you are a person who can’t make a point or finish a sentence without swearing. Specifically, if you’re a life member of the Sinhalese nationalist Rajapaksa base].

I honestly don’t want to waste time expressing and explaining myself, but leaving loose ends every nook and corner among circles of friends and acquaintances may make a few innocent unspoiled souls subscribe in to the thinking of the extremists and racists.

There are two schools of thought in this scenario: legal stance and moral values. From what I understand, the legal stance here is twofold: what is the basis of the presidential pardon to reverse the verdict of a 13-year trial from Nov 2002 to Jul 2015? And, did the president adhere to the constitutional procedures when making this decision?

Let’s break this down slowly. First of all, let’s talk about the legal stance: the basis for the presidential pardon. This soldier was sentenced to death in 2015 after a 13-year trial. He was found guilty of 15 charges including illegal arrest, torture, murder and the burial of the bodies in a mass grave. The highlights of this trial can be found in the illustration below (courtesy Verité Law). If not satisfied with this minute explanation you can always spend a day during the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown reading the trial, at least the Supreme Court trail: Sunil Ratnayake vs Hon Attorney General. It is a fascinating read. In short, to me, scientifically speaking, SR vs AG is a much solid verdict compared to the uncertainties seen in the Court of Appeal trial of Don Jude Anthony Jayamaha vs Hon Attorney General which was also a highly questionable case of presidential pardon given to a convicted criminal who was found guilty for brutally murdering a Swedish Sri Lankan teenager. On a separate note, what is wrong with this country? 

In a nutshell, there were no significant uncertainties pertaining to the evidence related to the court trial of Sunil Ratnayake and three Supreme Court judges had unanimously given the verdict beyond reasonable doubt. For some reason, there was no public justification issued by the President’s Secretariat to understand his reasons behind the Presidential pardon. 

Second of all, let’s take a look at the legal aspects of the procedures followed by the President. According to article 34 of the constitution the presidential pardon needs to be run by a few people before reaching a decision. According to article 34 the President should request a report by the judge, followed by AG’s advice and the recommendation given by the Minister of Justice. It’d be interesting to see what these parties said and their stance. Because if neither the president went through the proper channels nor he considered the recommendations this decision shall be unconstitutional. Period.

Now, let's consider some of the counter arguments against this Supreme Court trial. Here are a few common arguments favouring President’s decision. 

1.          How credible is Maheshwaran’s statement? 

2.          Maheshwaran was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

3.          LTTE did much worse than this during the civil war. 

4.          LTTE leaders who committed tens of hundreds of crimes are free and in politics. 

5.          It was a war. They did what they had to do! 

Let’s dissect this one by one:

1. Credibility of Maheshwaran’s statement. 

It was contended by the Presidential Counsel on behalf of the Accused-Appellant. Overwhelming tangible evidence to correlate his story to actual events and minimal discrepancies seen during the trail made his statement viable and credible. Even the minor discrepancies seen during the trial were attributed to the translational bias, bias of learning new events over the course of the trial and psychology behind the turmoil faced by Maheshwaran. 

The 342 of the penal code defines assault as “whoever makes any gestures por any preparation, intending or knowing is to be likely that such gesture or preparation is about to use criminal force to that person, is said to commit “an assault”. 

2. A member of the LTTE

There has been no evidence to prove this claim.

3. LTTE did worse.

Yes. LTTE certainly did worse creating horror and agony across the country over decades. Suicide attacks, assassinations, Human Rights violations and many more. But, the fact that LTTE did worse than Sri Lanka Army (SL Army) would not absolve an army officer to repeat a similar act, because it’s for God’s sake a legal army force, whereas LTTE was deemed terrorist organisation even though for the most unfortunate reason they were considered the sole representatives of Tamils in Sri Lanka. LTTE was labelled as a terrorist organisation not only in Sri Lanka but also internationally in over 30 countries around the globe.  

After all, what did we as a nation, do so wrong for LTTE to become the sole representative of the rights of some Tamils in Sri Lanka? Something to think about during the lockdown.

If you are still not satisfied with these explanations, think why there is a Military Police? Why there is a Military Court or Court Martials in Sri Lanka? Why the SL Army did not employ certain tactics of the LTTE such as suicide bombs? Do you think that they could not brain wash Sinhalese boys/ girls to commit suicide for “the common good” or “notoriety”? 

4. LTTE members are now in democratic politics 

President Sirisena pardoned Sea Tigress Murugesu Bahirathi in 2015 and Kumaran Pathmanathan was set free as there was no evidence to convict. To make things worse Karuna Amman who killed scores of civilians and over 700 surrendered police personnel was never produced in a Court of Law. In other words, people argue why there are step mother treatments to Sinhalese soldiers. 

These are quite valid statements. Incident of Murugesu Bahirathi and Kumaran Pathmanathan took place during Marithripala’s time which certainly calls for re-evaluations. The case of Karuna Amman was a result of political meddling and in my opinion, it was possible as a result of the broken legal system in this country. Those people who are connected, affluent are given a different treatment. Do you think that the solution lies in the release of a convicted criminal? Two wrongs do not make a right.

Nobody needs justice or right words in the eyes of NGOs or so called “international pressure”. Because these individuals/ representatives most often don’t have the moral high ground to standby their creed as a result of what happened in their own countries/ territories. There are plenty of examples with the British, Americans, Australians and the French if you bother to look up. Think about a hypothetical reparation lawsuit against the United Kingdom for thousands of Human Rights violations committed in Sri Lanka. But this doesn’t give the right to Sri Lanka to violate the rights of their own people.

5. It was a war!

Let’s take a look at the moral aspect of this story. If none of the arguments make sense to you so far, ask yourself the question, what if this happens to my family? Will I let the culprit free just because of whatever the circumstances he was facing as a soldier? Always remember, two wrongs don’t make a right! 

These questionable decisions of presidential pardon; including the Maithripala Sirisena's scandal, send a chilling message to the public that irrespective of the gravity of the offence, offenders, including the ones from the security forces will not be punished even if convicted by Law and that any crime or violence committed against the ethnic communities will go unpunished.

  

Let me share this with you. I respect Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake for coming fourth to battle a losing war in the year 2000 (even though there are hundreds of unanswered questions about this war), which I could not do. Remember, The Rule of Law! Be you never so high, the Law is above you! 

I am deeply saddened by these events and I hope that someday Sri Lanka shall consider reconciliation a priority. I hope that resolve and tolerance would get us there someday. It will certainly be an imperfect journey; likely to be slow, but hopefully steady.

Samandika Saparamadu

6 April 2020

Parliamentary Pension Scheme - Sri Lanka

Parliamentary pension scheme was introduced in 1977 by the then National State Assembly (NSA) which retroactively included every member of the State Council of Ceylon and NSA since July 1931. Under a special provision of the constitution, all executive presidents including JR were also given a pension scheme, which is equal to the last payroll; better than 1/3 of the salary for 5 years of “service” or 2/3 for 15 years (this is what MPs get) indeed!

Beneficiaries were added to the act with the 3rd amendment in 1990: her/ his child will become a beneficiary provided she/ he is legally handicapped (mentally/ physically), following the spouse. I’m quite certain that Daham, Chi Chi and many more will be benefitted by this amendment. #ifyougetwhatImean

When you compare it to the welfare state system of the UK you realise that it’s also related to the length of service (not the penis). Having said that it’s now regulated by an independent committee. Currently it’s a fairly complex deal with the introduction of CARE. Prior to this, for each year of service, a pension accrued at 1/40th of the member’s total annual remuneration, but was “not payable until age 65, nor can they draw their pensions until they cease to be MPs”.

At every debate on Sri Lankan MPs’ pension scheme, they seem to always argue that its worthless and so tiny that there’s nothing they can do with 1/3 of the salary (which is less than LKR 20000). The same bunch is now requesting to tweak eligibility criteria to 4 years of service (because 62 young boys and girls aren’t eligible to enjoy the pension this year).

I’m so worried about them and anxious that they may not be able to pass this amendment.

The Tale of Two Polyps!

Well, this is not a story of two polyps, but the title is just so and taken from ‘Unaccountable’ by Dr Marty Makary, to pay tribute to his most authentic work done for the sake of patients and mankind, which gave me motivation to complete this article that I started drafting on a note file more than a month ago.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this article is not to promote punitive/ retributive justice, but at least to highlight the importance of right to information, transparency, impartial investigations, and to encourage a medical society that is at least inclined to learn from fatal errors (disciplinary actions to be taken where its necessary) while taking swift and efficient steps to mitigate its burden and to stop recurrence, systematically. 

It was just less than one year into medical school, and we had a lecture by the then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo and he said something interesting; “We are demigods, we have to keep that in mind” [I have not taken his permission to quote him]. This statement changed my life and my perception of medical culture forever which was already tarnished by then. It gave me a lot of things to think overnight and over-days. I spoke to some of my colleagues, some people found it arrogant and repulsive but the majority did not see it that way. I was even more shocked. 

However, I moved to Singapore after clearing my final exam and it was at a time when I was on the verge of giving up my medical career. Singapore became a blessing in disguise. I learnt that a lot of text book teachings are actually possible in real life, including a lot of ethical dilemmas that I always had in mind. Truth be told, Singapore isn’t an open society. The entire political menace has encroached on routine lives of Singaporeans and transparency has become a privilege that is determined and titrated by the governance. So as Singapore Medical System, where transparency is limited and mishaps take place on a regular basis but in contrast to common Asian attitudes they take the trouble to bring defendant to justice in most occasions (not always!), which is commendable. However, Singapore Medial Council and the Court system do a tremendous job, to an extent that I feel that it is probably overly sensitive, which however deserves an applause for the progressive movement that it has represented and established over years.

Today’s topic is Sri Lanka. Its quite well-known among medicos of the region as a country that boast about a committed medical fraternity, proven track records to have the best maternal, child mortality rates and vaccination coverage (almost 100%) among all developing south Asian countries. Well, that is all true, Sri Lanka has performed really well given no pretty penny to fund this humongous healthcare system looking after over two million people. But, its important to remind ourselves that just because we have a fairly well performing health care system neither its perfect, nor the best. Contrary to popular belief of best healthcare systems, I believe that no healthcare system is perfect (or the best), every system has its own serious flaws and merits (May be someday we can create an ideal healthcare system - someday!)

Sri Lankan doctors’ society strictly follows one rule for certain; and that is ‘code of silence’, and they probably take it more seriously than hippocratic oath. I can go on for days about code of silence, but I choose not to, as its already 1.45 AM on a Friday, so I will cut to the chase.  

Here are three stories from the year 2014, when my parallel batch-mates were doing their horsemanship. All three events took place at Colombo National Hospital. I am keeping these incidents anonymous mainly for two reasons: First, these cases have never been convicted and would never have any opportunity (mot-likely) to be convicted either - in the eyes of the law as all evidence has been destroyed. Second, lack of evidence could make me liable unnecessarily. 

One of my ex-colleagues was covering a surgical ward as part of her horsemanship, she happened to be on-call one night and half-way through the night she decided to go home to rest. Later that night a bleeding patient was admitted directly to the ward with “HO STAT” stamp. This is when the houseman is supposed to go and see the patient within 30 minutes. Nurses tried to get through to her all night long but neither she answered the phone nor she turned up. As you may have already guessed it, the patient "bled to death". The next day morning she turned up for work as usual and by the time the consultant in-charge reached the ward she managed to miraculously jot down everything that “happened” overnight in the patient’s case notes (Bed-head ticket/ BHT). Ward consultant was well aware of the incident and his response was "just a warning" asking her 'to not to come back to his ward as a registrar'. I have no known scale to determine how wrong this sentence sounds, as well his his attitudes and perceptions.

Another day at a professorial unit, one houseman verified crossmatched (grouping and crossmatch) blood that he brought from the blood bank and started transfusion for a patient and the patient died from a transfusion reaction as a result of a ABO mismatch (as a result of wrong verification). This was a colleague from a parallel batch from another university. Final step of verification/ the final gatekeeper is the doctor in this process, of course the swiss cheese model of accident causation has taken place in this scenario but its ultimately physicians responsibility to ensure safety (this may vary from country to country depending on its training and policy) This is a punishable medical misadventure/ offence as per rules/ by-laws of Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC). Put punishments aside, think about having an impartial investigations and looking into the reasons why it happened, and taking corrective measures to prevent it from happening again? No! He was set free. To date there is no investigation whatsoever to the best of my knowledge.

Third story is about the colleague who was involved in the first story. Setting: vascular unit. Designation: houseman. A patient who was admitted for a kidney transplant was found to have hypokalaemia (cause is unknown to the writer) and he has been on oral replacement therapy which has been continued over days/ weeks, until he had a cardiac arrest and died of hyperkalaemia. In this case, its a collective responsibility and has to be shared by all team members as revising/ reviewing the drug chart is a responsibility of all the doctors of the vascular team on a daily basis, and not only of the houseman. And the consultant in-charge should have been held accountable and investigated thoroughly, but as per news sources no action has been taken to date.    

This is just a fraction of the problem. These are  just a few case scenarios from one year, of one batch of doctors, who were working in one General Hospital in Sri Lanka.

Are you astounded? Don't be!

It’s similar to common Sri Lankan attitude of ‘denial’ towards other things in life too, including war and atrocities. I don’t think I have a right to talk about war and implications of war on rural Sri Lankan life compared to someone from a bordering village or a front line soldier. It was a war against terrorism, but human rights violations in war must have been real since war doesn’t know humanity. 

In short, it’s not a surprise that war crimes took place amongst all parties involved during the civil war. But how Sri Lanka was reluctant in taking the initiative of bringing justice to those who were affected and instead going into a state of denial, was well reflected in these scenarios as well. Code of silence at its best! You will never understand this until your loved ones become victims of war/ medical misadventures (I sincerely hope not!).

To be honest, this is probably not a good example and, we cannot compare war to healthcare, because there had been plenty of studies (in the US) to show that the number of people who have died as a result of medical misadventures are significantly higher than the number of war casualties over years. So healthcare in general has been much worse than all the wars in the history.

This is all about people, their lives, their right to know the truth, their right to exercise informed decision making in health, at least the right to know the real cause of death - for God's sake! Its high time Sri Lanka take ethical considerations seriously, take a stance on addressing ethical and medico-legal issues which are unfurled across sundry strata of Sri Lankan medical practice and save the sinking ship.

(Pardon all typos and syntax errors that you may find in this text - its 3.00 AM now!)

Samandika Saparamadu

25/05/2018

Life, Health and Happiness

Scientists, philosophers and religions have tried to define life, happiness and health for years, but still nobody in the world is capable of defining them. Of course, the more you know, the more uncertain you will become. Grant study (one of the longest studies at Harvard) is one fair proof of determinants of happiness, on earth.

It is a 75-year longitudinal study of 268 physically and mentally healthy Harvard college sophomores (Second year university students) from the classes of 1939–1944. It has run in tandem with a study called “The Glueck Study”, which included a second cohort of 456 disadvantaged nondelinquent inner-city youths who grew up in Boston neighborhoods between 1940 and 1945 [Vaillant G. and Mukamal K., 2001] All the research participants were males and of American nationality. They were continued to be studied to this day, using questionnaires, interviews and medical investigations, at least once every two years. 

The study group, particularly the principle investigators wrote many scientific papers and published 3 books over the course of the study. First book was published in 1977 by the principle investigator (then) George Vaillant "Adaptation to life", when the participants of the study were at the age of 47. It followed the second book which was published in 2002, which was titled: "Aging well". Aging well presented data and findings of the study, when the inner city men were at the age of 70. Last but not least "Triumphs of Experience, sharing more findings from the Grant Study" was published in 2012. 

However, the TED talk by Robert Waldinger, the incumbent director of the study at Harvard, in 2015, drew massive international attention to the Grant Study. It was titled "What makes a good life: Lessons from the longest study on happiness". 

Reading these papers and books will give you goosebumps, but it would not help you realise the relevance of findings and it's bearing on real life. The more you run into fake people and cold hearts, the more you realise the biggest fears of life. You understand it better, as you grow old. Aging is a process, just the way, truth is a process. 

George Vaillant once said "Happiness is love. full-stop" and Robert W. concluded his TED speech saying "Good relationships keep us happier and healthier, period". Read more on the findings of the study and here are two links for a succinct account of study results from Huffingtonpost and Businessinsider

You can watch the TED speech of Robert Waldinger here. 

New Horizon

I used to write poems in school (Secondary school) even though I was not good at it, but for the past 10 years I didn't have a reason to write a poem again. Well, probably that's not correct. I wrote a song for my first girlfriend in 2006, if I am not wrong. Ever since this was the first and the best I could do in years and it has an poignant background story which would probably go into the grave with me. 

Its drizzling outside the window pane

I see sprinkled droplets around in pain

dry ground of cracked clay of my ticker 

won’t get healed with misty drop of tear

its groaning and moaning on the inside

thundering and lightening outside 

deaf and numb is the ticker on my side 

I still do hear the agony but I cannot abide 

Rain is ceasing, making the day bright and smile 

rays of hope kissing the ground; making things naive 

my ticker is blooming like a toddler chasing fireflies 

I am listening to Lucas King, and its keeping me alive 

Samandika 

4/9/16

Labour Day, Singapore style!

On the 4th of May, 1886 American workers fought at Haymarket square of "contemporary arts" which was then a poor Armenian-French Colony and riot was aimed at bringing Louis Vuitton and Hermès to capitalise on the left leaned, closed market space of the United States, which resulted in Georges Vuitton exhibiting his array of luxury products in 1893 at "World's Columbian Exposition", Chicago.

Commemorating these historical events, Singapore labourers get discounts up to 30% to buy handbags and other luxury-leatherwear, that are worth a thousand bucks and made of crocodile skin. Go, grab it fellas...

Samandika Saparamadu

02/05/2016

Elephant And The Blind Men

Giving everyone a space to share their opinion is a good move indeed. The internet through social media has created this platform beautifully over the last decade. But there is an issue! and the issue is not with the platform, but with the users. Users need to have a good insight into differentiating between "Freedom of speech" and “Freedom of hate speech”.

This problem could arise even without the users' knowledge, specially when we analyse things that do not fall within our area of expertise. This good old poem written by the American poet John Godfrey (1816-1887) explains it all and the story originally comes all the way from India.

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,

And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a WALL!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried, "Ho, what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a SPEAR!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a SNAKE!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,

And felt about the knee

"What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain," quoth he:

"'Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a TREE!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a FAN!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a ROPE!"

And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!


Samandika Saparamadu
01/04/2016