Dear All,
The editor of this blog does not wish to bear any responsibility on the contents of this letter.
You are going to witness the Hallucinatory and grandiose nature of a psychologically unstable person's thinking pattern who made the above comments on various individuals who have made certain contributions in the history of GMOA.
You may ask yourself the following questions at the end of reading this long letter
Who is this man...?
What has he done for the membership.?
Is the GMOA ,this person's private property?
-Editor
My Dear Dr. Padeniya
I never wanted to write a letter like this and you know I am not good in writing letters like you. But I am compelled to write this letter due to few reasons. Mainly there is unwanted situation prevailing in the GMOA at the present. Other reason is You and few other people( Chandrika, Upul & sankalpa) have mentioned my name as a responsible person for this situation.
So let me put the facts to express my feelings.
History
As I have identified you as a genuine union leader, I started giving my support to you from the very beginning in the faculty period though I was not an ardent supporter of the Moderate group. After the college, we were supposed to deal with GMOA. Because my unpleasant experience I had with GMOA as a preintern, I was totally disgusted with GMOA hierarchy. The way myself and gominda were treated by Dr. Ananda samarasekara and Dr. lakkumar when we went to discuss medical ordinance with regard to act 16, I decided we have to bring professionalism to the GMOA if we wanted to create a good GMOA. Dr. Ananda Samarasekara has shown his poor quality when he sent a letter to GMOA asking membership support for SLMC election recently. He has mentioned he was the key figure to make act 16 compulsory in Sri lanka. What a joke that is
So when you decided to work in the GMOA, I was highly thrilled and started giving you the maximum support whenever possible. I expected two things from you.
1. To win our demands through professional and diplomatic means & to make GMOA more pleasant place (??Democratic) for doctors
2. To minimize number of strikes- I generally don't like strikes as we are keeping ill people for ransom. Other reason is when we don’t do strikes, other unions in the health sector scared to go for strike actions.
But initially you couldn't do much even as the secretary of GMOA, as you was very junior and not able to influence senior people. It is a natural phenomenon in our culture. Other important thing is that you have never shown results on your own. You need the close support of at least one other capable person to show any positive results.
Things started changing, when first dispute started between Panditharatne and Wimaljayantha. Anyway we should never appoint administrators as powerful exco members because they are under influence of politicians. I was delighted with that dispute and wholeheartedly supported your group. That was the first instance word "pa group" came into picture. Unfortunately Rohitha and mahesh didn't support you and they never supported wimaljayantha also. Inability to get the support of Rohitha and mahesh and introducing people like Bellana to GMOA gave the first evidence of your inherent weakness of managing people.
Any way we had to face an election following that episode, our main opponent was dr. Ekanayke who had a reputed character in the profession. But luckily other group members were notorious for various bad things. All ended up in courts making GMOA defunct union. Here I supported the idea of interim council mooted mainly by Drs. Wijewickrama and Mahesh though Panditharatne fully opposed to it.
My main reasons were
1. To come out of this standstill position as early as possible (interim council was established with fairly independent people)
2. To prevent Padeniya being labelled as a greedy person for GMOA posts
Retrospectively I think we took a correct decision, I was able to get Padeniya's consent for this irrespective of Panditharatne's Resistance.
The only thing I personally opposed was to pay Rs. seven lacks from GMOA funds for the court cases filled by Dr. Ekanake and group against the GMOA.
After the interim period, Pa under Dr. Weerasekara's leadership was able to establish a new EXCO in GMOA. For this I gave my support without any hesitation though I had some different opinion about Panditharatne.
I think this was the begining of GOLDEN ERA of GMOA. This exco was able to achieve lot of things for the doctors. My main objectives were achieved by this exco. If you analyze past strikes of GMOA, more than 90% were totally unnecessary.
Main achievement was the salary structure for public service. This was due to hard work of Pandiatharnte and Padeniya. Pandi is a really talented guy with lateral thinking. Pandi should be appreciated for this effort without any hesitation.
Other issue is reversal of court order of RMP issue. This was also due to hard work of Pa, pandi and Siva. Siva did a real good job. On one occasion, we were about to lose Siva, again due to Pa’s inherent weakness of managing people.
As far as I can remember, during this period 1/20 and Increased OT were achieved.
For the first time, this exco was able to establish prescribe standards for medical education in SLMC. For years we didn't have this regulation. This is also result of hard work of Pandi and Siva under Pa’s leadership.
Mean time I told Padeniya on several occasions, still I have reservation about Pandi and have to be careful. It is better to get work done by devil but you have to keep the devil under tight control. When Padeniya was concentrating on his exam even Herath tried to go beyond his limits. I warned Padeniya about Herath’s behaviour.
Ultimately Padeniya was attacked openly by Pandi and Herath. It became a big drama. I had to support Padeniya for the sake of GOMA and as an admirer of Pa. By now Pa has become the best union leader ever produced by GMOA.
But this incident is another evidence of inherent weakness of managing people by Pa.
I was chased out from GC meeting because I attacked Herath to protect GMOA. Still I feel we could have managed Herath better way if not for Padeniya's weakness. We pushed Herath completely to other side. Herath became a total political henchman of NS. As a result of this dispute we got a bad permit when compared to previous ones.
Because of Pandi's action, Most of the consultants who were used to come to GC meetings later stopped visiting GMOA. Still we have a problem of getting consultants for GMOA work. As a result we had to go for a Consultant subcommittee. This was main reason some consultants supported AMS which was formed by few disgruntled consultants (luckily).
Other hilarious drama was GMOA had a hardcore JVPer( Dammika pathirana) as a exco member for years. Whose fault??
I strongly believe dispute between Pa and Pandi(& Herath) was mainly articulated by JVP with the help of Dammika Pathirana. JVP has been eyeing for GMOA for a long period. They wanted to chase Pa out of the GMOA while pushing Pandi & Herath towards NS. What they wanted was to destroy the image of GMOA and grab the power of GMOA.
Luckily So far Senaratne (UNP agent) factor didn't get a chance to play havoc in the exco.
We have a GMOA member who is extremely loyal( = real gotta-good heart but no brain)to Padeniya. His name is Chandrika Epitakaduwa. He is identified as an extremely good hearted person by his close associates but only problem is he rarely uses his brain. According to One of his friends who has been very close to Chandrika for last 15years, chandrika is extremely good friend, but last person, he will ask for an advice. Other similar gotta is Clement Perera(I really respect this good hearted and dedicated guy), But good thing is Pa never takes him seriously. So there is no harm from Clement. This Epitakaduwa is very much similar to the person who accidentally killed his king when he was trying to kill a fly. But that king was dead on the spot as he used the correct side of the sword. But our Epitakaduwa is using the otherside(bluntside) of the sword(epitakaduwa) to kill the fly(no brain at all). Result will be severe blunt trauma to his head and Pa will have to suffer for long period in very low GCS without having on the spot death.
Usually Pa never discuss matters regarding GMOA with me when Pa was having a good time in GMOA, That is real Pa. So nobody can make allegation against me that I am interfering day to day activities of the GMOA. I have never participated in Exco meeting and never been a exco member. But when there is dispute and when he is in trouble always get my opinion and help. I always give my maximum help because I strongly believe He is the best union leader we have.
During a peaceful period, Pa entrusted chandrika to make the nomination list and He brought two people to GMOA exco. Those were Upul Gunasekara(one year earlier) and Sankalpa marasinghe(one year later). Upul was a very active GMOA member but politically SB type character. I warned Padeniya not to take Upul to exco without any experience and ask him to stay as GC member for few years. But as usual, when he is in victorious mood, he never listens to me. On top of that he was promoted as media spokesperson of GMOA on the advice of very loyal Gotta Chandrika Epitakaduwa. Upul was the worst media spokesperson ever we had. GMOA was given cheap third class publicity by this man. Several times he lied in front of media. There was a strong allegation like SB was “in action” in sports, this man was “in action” in media using GMOA good name.
Always we have to keep in mind that 14000 GMOA members are represented by this 14 member exco. Any word they utter, any actions they do in public represent all 14000 members. Though Most of our members are silent, they want a union that maintain their dignity.
So exco members should be very mature enough to handle matters professionally and diplomatically. We don't need all 14 exco members very active and super capable. Usually 3-4 exco members are only active most of the time. That is well enough to run an effective exco.
After Pandi/Herath/JVP fiasco, Pa group had to face GMOA election. Because pa was in trouble I had to give my maximum support to organize the campaign. But main issue was finding a Senior Consultant for the post of president. Most of the senior consultants declined to come forward. There was a strong belief that it was very difficult to work with Pa unless you became a gotta to padeniya. Ultimately we were able to take the consent from Dr. Vajira Senaratne. Though he was very reluctant initially, he gave the consent because of personal influence by his three of his close friends ( Dr. Kamaladasa, Sumith Ananda, Amal Harsha). He gave the consent for the post of vice-president. But Pa took the signature on a blank application and later filled for the president post without telling him.
Dr. Vajira S. is a close associate of President MR for years.. But He is a senior respectable consultant among the medical profession. So we strongly believed he will not use GMOA for MR’s political games. There is a common belief MR is doctor friendly president in contrast to previous presidents. Actually MR is friendly with anybody till that person goes against him.
Doctors thought through Dr. Vajira GMOA will be able to communicate with president much easily. This team got elected and Pa started good work again with the help of Pushpitha, BT, Athapattu and Siva. Through Dr. Vajira they established good contact with president’s office. But I had reservation about Dr. Balawardana’s appointment as vice president and Upul’s medispokesperson post. I was very happy about Dr. Saman Abewardana’s decision to join this team on invitation. He is a person who should be in the GMOA forever.
Meantime Dr. Padeniya moved to Oxford for his training. Upul has been eying for the Secretary post but due to objections from Pushpitha and Athapattu, ultimately It was given to BT ( good move). My view was to give the post for either BT or Athapattu. By this time, Pushpitha was established as the main strategist in the GMOA in the absence of Pa.
New Development
a. In the absence of Pa
GMOA team effectively run the administration without any problems and they handled so many issues very cleverly.
As a result same team had the resounding victory in the first election. That is the first certificate of competency they got from members.
I am really happy that GMOA helped Dr. Ananda Hapugoda to get elected to SLMC.
In Dr. Ananda Samaraekara’s issue, I agreed with Dr. Saman Abewardana’s opinion that we should not letdown senior professionals in the GMOA.
But I was having two serious issues
1. He had been in GMOA for long period. Was there any positive outcome( forget about the 7 allegations made by Dr. Harischandra)
2. He had been in SLMC for long period. Was there any positive outcome. ?prescribe standards, ?specialist registry, ?RMP issue ?illegal medical practitioners(Quacks)
But he supported private medical bill( Pa had a narrow escape from his influence) and tried to implement revalidation without any basis.
But we should not have gone for a vote on this issue in the GC. Members should have been given the power to decide on the candidate without any decision making in the GC. I feel Dr. Abewardena did a mistake by asking for vote. Other thing is we should not have allowed attacking Dr. Samarasekara in the GC by people who had personal grudge with Dr. Samarasekra .
Dr. Samarasekara lost credibility further, when he supported the JVP candidate for the SLMC and by the decision to join AMS.
I was really disheartened when I heard Dr. Saman Abewaradana resigned from GMOA as a result of above issue. I strongly believe Dr. Abewardana is one of the few people who should be in GMOA exco for ever.
Anyway my strongest feeling is Bimantha Gunasekara is the best Secretary GMOA has ever produced. Unfortunately I can’t consider Pa as the best secretary though I strongly believe Pa is the best union leader ever GMOA has produced.
Meantime , there were some problems emerging in the exco. Though Upul had a very close relationship with BT, He had problems with Pushpitha and Athapattu mainly due to their objection when new secretary was appointed. Upul was supported by Sankalpa and Candrika. Chandrika started a campaign that present exco is useless and doing nothing on the advice of Sankalpa. Though chadrika is seemed to be the gotta to padeniya, His main guru is Sankalpa Marasinghe.(Master manipulator=invisible JVP hand=so called GMOA catalyst{??caterpillar=maggot})
I strongly feel due to (un)known reasons, pa knowingly or unknowingly promoted chandrika to go ahead with this campaign.
Upul fiasco
Upul had to leave the country for his wife’s training. When he was about to get the approval for nopay leave, NS wanted to have an inquiry against Upul and NS didn’t approve the leave. By this time BT has helped Upul in “several ways” to make other arrangement for his trip.(even financially)
Inquiry became a big issue (this is regarding some facts about the scanners at BIA. Actually, as usual, Upul has lied in the media conference to get cheap publicity). But it has to be a big issue as it is against the media spokesperson of the GMOA.
Dr. Vajira S. personally assured Upul this is not going to happen and he will be able to go abroad without any problems. BT/pushpitha/athapattu got activated and communicated with Secretary of Herath and got an assurance this is not going to happen. Initially Upul was happy about the things happening.
All of sudden, upul changed completely and started attacking exco that they were not doing anything to safeguard him. By using this incident, political plot started against the present exco. It was mainly manipulated by Chandrika, Sankalpa(invisible JVP hand) & Nalin(visible JVP hand).
For his mental satisfaction and fear of instability of his position in GMOA in future (actually there was no basis for this fear), Pa supported this group to carry out this malicious campaign. But he was very careful not to allow other members to feel that he was supporting this disgruntle group.
For the sake of GMOA I decided to support present exco without any second thoughts. Finally it was proven that this malicious campaign was carried out without any valid reason but only to fulfil their political ambitions. Upul left the country without any problem. Upul who didn’t have enough money to travel to UK with his family( wife came on scholarship), travelled back to Sri Lanka for a short period with Sujeewa serasinghe’s brother and actively participated in Sujeewa’s UNP political campaign for general election in early 2010. Interesting!
So without Upul(established UNP agent) , present exco carried out their responsibilities very effectively and quite correctly they sidelined Sankalpa(invisible JVP hand). But they didn’t sideline Nalin(visible/established JVP hand) as he has been very loyal to Pa. (Dr. Dammika Pathirana also showed bogus loyality to Padeniya). Upul and Sankalpa criticized Pa very badly when Pa was in Oxford. They never had genuine loyalty to Pa but only concentrated on their political interests.
Ranjane Gamage/Mahepala episode
Most people thought among the medical administrators, most suitable person for the post of secretary in the Health Ministry is Dr. Nihal Jayathilke. But team of doctors (ranjanee gamage, maheepala, Kanishka) who are very loyal to MR, got Dr.Ruberu appointed as secretary and Dr. Jayathilake was replaced with maheepala. There was some belief that Dr. Vajira senaratne was under influence of this political biased team. If this is true it will have bad effects on GMOA. But as far as I know GMOA exco backed Dr. Jayathilake without any division. Pa also wanted the exco to support dr. Jayathilake.
No one should criticize Dr. Vajira Senaratne just for rumours(if well proven beyond any doubts is a different matter). He never wanted to become the president of GMOA. Padeniya made him the president of GMOA even without telling him knowing the fact he is a close friend of MR for years. So his exit from exco should be a graceful exit. BT as the secretary should work with him in harmony and should be loyal to him(not as a gotta-good heart, no brain)
Last GMOA election
As Pa was planning to go back in last july, I thought , it was better if Pa could get one of vice president posts.
Reasons
· To stop any influence on GMOA by Ranjanee gamage group(if there is any)
· Pa should be in GMOA as he is the best union leader
· As he is going to be a consultant, post should suit to his status.(Pa should come out his MO Padeniya mentality and should get used to work as a MO friendly Consultant Padeniya)
· In few years time he should be our president
· Rather than getting involve with day to day functions, he should only concentrate on policy matters.(already he has got a very experience and loyal team to run the GMOA smoothly.)
· He should be able to devolve more time for his clinical career. Pa is a very capable person and he can do a better service as paediatric neurologist than as GMOA activist. (by becoming a well recognised clinician, he can be economically sound also)
· This will prevent him becoming a scapegoat for disgruntled elements Chandrika-good heart, no brain, Upul-SB type politician(UNP), Sankalpa-talented guy brain used in wrong direction(JVP)
When I discussed this with Pa , He agreed to my suggestion though he expressed mild negativity. But this is his usual way of expressing his willingness (I have been associating Pa for last 18years). It is very difficult for Pa to live without GMOA(like fish out of water) and GMOA is also benefitted in big way because of Pa. This is the reason Padenia=GMOA formula is established. But unfortunately pa is in the opinion that without him, GMOA can’t produce any results and worst thing is he likes to see that is happening. (For a political animal in a developing country, this is an accepted phenomenon.) This is the reason he subconsciously supported Chandrika,Upul,& sankalpa to carry out their malicious campaign.
Present Exco proved without any doubt that GMOA is not dependant on any individual personality. Good collective effort is the pillar of success for the betterment of GMOA.
Anyway, with the consent, I discussed with Pushpitha and attapatu and they also agreed for this proposal. Finally, Pa became the vice president of GMOA and I really overjoyed. I requested few things from exco members to make pa more comfortable when he got back to Sri lanka.
· Pa should get a consultant post in Colombo. Some influential people in our profession wanted to send pa to Kandy to keep away from GMOA.(I also wanted to promote multi-consultant centres for Paediatric Subspecialties)
· His children should get a good school in Colombo.(now this is a privilege for GMOA doctors)
For the Second time, present Exco was given a titanic certificate of competency by the GMOA members by selecting them unanimously for another term. Not a single nomination was received by the nomination board. This happened for the first time in the history of GMOA.
So what is the reason for Chandrika, Upul(UNP) & sankalpa(JVP)to have a malicious campaign against present exco. This is a clear political conspiracy/plot. This group is supported by few other people. One person is from Ratnapura. This pro-JVP guy(sh) who is having anticonsultant attitudes, doesn’t seem to have any organ (brain or heart). His main aim of being a GMOA member is to have a dispute with a nurse. Poor guy really enjoys it. One other guy from upcountry has got 4F for A/L but managed to get some sort of offshore medical degree. He is one of the union activists in Hill country. Never mind Mervin silva is a cabinet minister in Sri Lanka.
My puzzle is why the hell, now Pa is making an allegation that Pushpitha and Attapattu tried to fix him. This is Pa. He is playing his political cards.
But Pa had been working in GMOA with present exco without any problem until Chandrika and Upul (UNP)got back to Sri Lanka. Everything changed and this team got together with nalin ariyaratne (JVP)and Sanklpa(JVP) started malicious campaign against the present exco. Pa very craftily got these people to criticise the present exco in which he is the vice president.
Here I can say one thing very clearly. Pa is having a different agenda. He is not comfortable in the present exco. Pa is talking about maintaining democracy in the exco but what he wants is democracy in his way. Other people should be gottas to him otherwise he gets very disturbed and uncomfortable. That is why most people don’t like to work with Pa. Pa should be able to work with experienced good quality people. I know BT, Pushpitha, atthapattu and Siva are loyal to Pa. They will never stab his back. But you can’t expect them to become Gottas. Pa should be able to work in the GMOA for 4-5years without having any disputes which inevitably consume most of the good time of GMOA. For this he should have a good quality capable team to work with him. Pa should be able to give the leadership for these people in a more professional and accountable manner. Pa should shed his dogmatic and doctrinaire approach and should choose a pragmatic and down to earth approach when doing GMOA politics. Most important thing is Padeniya has never shown results without the support of capable people. ( Katulanda/Peri (in the medical college), Pandi, Pushpitha,Atthapattu, Sivaprian{in the GMOA}).
The other agenda is a political one and most dangerous plot. JVP and UNP are in a helpless and powerless situation in the political scenario of Sri lanka today. They are not in the position to do any significant campaign against present King Mahendra Regime. I am one of the countrymen who will be overjoyed and thrilled, if people can chase this self claimed King out of power. But saga is JVP and UNP are trying to get their henchmen into GMOA exco to disrupt government through GMOA strikes. So that is what Nalin Ariyaratne and Sankalpa marasinghe on behalf of JVP and Upul Gunasekara (in joint venture with Senaratne) on behalf of UNP are trying their best to creep into the Exco of GMOA from the backdoor by using Padeniya as a tunnel passage. DONKEY Solheim Chandrika Mottakaduwa is being used as the facilitator to get Padeniya’s help. Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya by now has demonstrated and proven without any doubt he has a big weakness in managing people.
AS far as I know Dr. Padeniya is neither interested in party politics nor any affiliations to any political party in Sri lanka. That is the most important reason; members would like to see Pa to be in GMOA forever.
I want Pa to be in the GMOA forever as he is the best union leader and having a non-political personality.
The way Padeniya is behaving now will definitely disqualify him from ascending to the post of President of GMOA in future. Though he has proven he is the best GMOA union leader, yet he has to prove he is a good Manager.
One best example JVP has started influencing GMOA is the PMC issue. As GMOA we have taken a firm decision that we are not against PMC but only we are worried is the quality of education. In this context our objective is to put pressure on Government, UGC and SLMC to maintain the quality of medical education. We don’t need to attack any PMC or any individual on personal basis. This is JVP politics. The emergency GC on PMC issue was mainly organised by Pro-JVP Sanlkalpa and Nalin. Most of the people who attended that meeting are pro JVPers. In another occasion , these pro JVP lot got a resolution passed against Foreign graduates. This is also purely JVP politics. How on earth GMOA can go against foreign graduates.
Unfortunately Dr, Padeniya has very soft corner for JVP ideology-singhala extremism, against privatisation mainly health and education. BUT he has never been Pro JVP.
Finally present exco should explain their position with regard to main allegations by chandrika, Sankalpa, Upul and Nalin. They are salary issue, service minute and the permit. I can’t understand why service minute is an issue all of sudden as it has not been amended for so many years and Pa never showed any interest when he had “so called full power” in GMOA.
So it is high time for Dr. Padeniya to think wisely and act wisely. I don’t plead him to do that. I strongly feel he is mature enough to do what his brain thinks right than what his heart thinks right.
If that happens, we will be lucky to have a GOOD GMOA.
This letter should not have any impact on our strong personal friendship.
Budu Saranai
Dr. Samantha de silva
Paediatric Trainee
London/UK
