Times are such that nothing can come before the country’s health situation, and Sri Lanka has experienced more than enough adverse effects of the prevailing pandemic to understand that all acts that even remotely pertain to the people’s health should be seriously assessed and handled carefully.
It is in such a context that the Government decided to go for a Cabinet of Ministers’ reshuffle, which included the appointment of Cabinet Spokesman and former Mass Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella as the new Health Minister, and the appointment of former Health Minister Pavitra Wanniarachchi as the new Transport Minister.
It is too early to assume what the new Health Minister would bring to the table to manage the health crisis the country is in. However, ideally, a change for the better should have been the Government’s objective in changing the Health Minister, and when looking at the qualifications and skills a new Minister should have in order to be able to change the status quo, a question arises as to whether the Government took the right decision, or a “scientific” decision, concerning appointing Ministers, as the Government claimed it would do.
What does the right decision look like? – Well, times have changed, and the appointment of a Health Minister during a disastrous pandemic certainly cannot be limited to political reasons. Sri Lanka needs a Health Minister who has excelled not only as a politician, but also as an expert in health related matters in order for the new Minister to actually bring about the change the people are awaiting. However, appointing a politician who has no health related qualifications, or experiences as the Health Minister on whose shoulders the responsibility of saving the country from the pandemic will be put, when the Government has not one but several senior politicians who are qualified as medical professionals and also pro-Government figures who have an impeccable medical background, begs the question as to whether the Government has fully comprehended the gravity of the situation, or the golden opportunity it received to address the issues in the country’s health sector and the people’s state of health.
The Government appears to have forgotten how during the past few months, particularly after the second and third waves of the pandemic hit the country, it came under fire from the people, medical experts and Opposition parties, for its failure to contain the pandemic. Even now, there are many parties who question the scientific basis of the Government’s Covid-19 management efforts based on valid reasons and allege that the Government does not listen to the health experts both within and outside the Government. Why did the Government fail to give serious attention to the post of the Health Minister, when health remains the most pressing issue the country is dealing with and will have to deal with for the foreseeable future, is a question.
The unfortunate reality is, as has always happened in Sri Lanka’s history, that it is the people who are going to have to suffer the consequences of any Government’s short-sighted, politically-motivated decisions, and the country cannot help but wonder whether this too will be one of those decisions. It is not too complicated to understand that a game changer in the health sector can only come from a person who is experienced in and knowledgeable about that sector.
This is not to cast aspersions on the capabilities of Minister Rambukwella, or prophesise that he will certainly fail at the task of being a pandemic health minister. He may well succeed due to many external factors, or at least in terms of engaging with the media and creating positive PR for the Government, at which he is adept, having been both media minister and Cabinet spokesperson.
However, it must be said that this was a golden opportunity not only for the Government to counter the critics and entrust the all-important health sector to an MP with a background in the health sector, if not for anything else but to show that policy is prioritising science. This could perhaps have rectified what was wrong in the health sector and brought about some kind of stability to the health crisis. Unfortunately, the Government has missed that opportunity.