A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, July 2, 2017
SAITM Is Not A Private Medical College But A Private Monopoly!
It is true that capitalistic system of economy has been relatively
successful than any system of economy so far. It has uplifted the living
standards of millions and millions of people around the globe even
though it cannot resolve all the economic issues faced by the human
race. Milton Friedman once intimated that an average woman living today
commands many labour hours for her consumption than was commanded by
possibly a Queen in the middle ages of our civilization.
The
foundation of capitalism is the acceptance of free enterprise system
and competition. Both these characters are vital for the efficient
allocation of social resources among various production processes and to
establish a very efficient price mechanism. Monopolies distort these
two efficient mechanisms of the economy and hence the world of free
enterprises out rightly rejects private monopolies – And the SAITM is a monopoly.
The
Minister of Health Dr. Rajitha Senaratne being a former socialist has
come to the realization that free enterprise system is a worldwide
phenomenon now including China and Vietnam. It seems that he has learned
it by observation. It is good but since he is a new convert to
capitalism, I may suggest to him to learn it by theory mentioned above.
If he did, he would not have missed the monopolistic nature of the
SAITM.
The
lack of understanding of any subject may lead to make wrongful
decisions. This lack of understanding in regard to the private medical
education is quiet clear in the thinking of the government as a whole.
This thinking was revealed to the parliament by a recent speech made by
the Minister of Health Dr. Rajitha Senaratne.
Especially this revelation was quite clear from the purported solutions
that are being considered by the government as told by Dr. Senaratne.
First
solution is that the government is considering to take over the
teaching hospital of SAITM and functioning of the medical college would
continue as it is. This is an outright fraud. This would further
strengthen the monopolistic nature of this business. According to Dr.
Senaratne the teaching hospital of the SAITM has been constructed with
having all the necessary medical equipment, amenities and laboratories.
Yet, according to him, there is a problem. This problem is significant.
That problem is that this hospital has no enough patients for clinical
practices of the medical students. It is clear that no good medical
doctor would be produced without proper clinical practices. So, the
solution is fraudulently simple. Nationalize the hospital, so there will
be enough patients for SATM students – And leave the medical school
intact. The profit center of the monopoly will remain as it is. The
nation should reject this fraudulent solution.
The
second solution is to run SAITM as non-profit educational organization.
Before, we consider this proposal we must first look into the ultimate
proposal put forward by the GMOA. They want to nationalize the Malambe
Medical School. This too is not a reasonable proposal because
economically the nationalization would reduce total national proceeds
and reduce capital accumulation in this sector of the economy. If we
left this to happen, the country will only be able to talk about the
past relative glory of our public medical education not about the future
glory. Hence, I think, GMOA must be open to dialogue in this subject
and must do their homework with the support of a few talented economists
before they issue an ultimate solution to the government.
It
is true that even under capitalism the common interests must be
produced by the government. But at the same time a greater prudent
effort must be made to increase the national proceeds from which most of
the capital and consumption money are allocated. Tax money which is the
core income of the government that used to produce common interests is
also a part of the consumption money allocated by enterprises. Without
enterprises there will be no production of common interests by the
government under capitalism.
However,
medical education is not a common interest that should be produced
completely by the government. GMOA has accepted this. Even without
SAITM, in the broader sense the medical education will continue as a
partial common interest produced by the government. That is why Sri
Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) and the GMOA accept the registration of
foreign educated medical students subject to certain parameters. Since, I
do not think that GMOA should be against for the increase of national
proceeds and local capital accumulation of this vital sector. If social
justice is a concern in private medical education then there are
numerous market based solutions with a few macroeconomic adjustments to
resolve such problems. .