Keheliya’s exit and the upcoming budget
Last week’s removal of Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella from his position was not altogether unexpected. True, he had predictably weathered a motion of no confidence in parliament last month after a three-day debate, thanks to the pohottuwa’s voting strength. Although he had the confidence of 113 members of the SLPP and a 40-vote majority, he obviously did not have the confidence of President Ranil Wickremesinghe who replaced him at the health ministry with Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, a qualified though non-practicing doctor. Whether Pathirana gladly accepted the assignment thrust upon him or not, the public will not know. But he seems to have successfully insisted that he remains Minister of Industries, part of his old portfolio, although he has divested himself of plantation industries for which he was previously responsible.
The Ministry of Health and the minister personally had been under sustained attack in the media and on the streets for a variety of reasons for the past several months. Among these was the alleged irresponsible import of substandard medicine and surgical equipment which had weakened the health sector and caused the death of several patients under treatment at state hospitals.
The main opposition alleged that the government continued to bring in low quality medicines and surgical equipment without complying with due procurement and registration processes on the excuse that compulsions of emergency purchases for urgent needs required lowering barriers. Rambukwella’s problems began way back in 2022 when a lot of noise was made about a visit he made to India to inspect a pharmaceutical factory from which Colombo intended to import medicines.
On that occasion, it was alleged that an Indian pharmaceutical company had funded the minister’s visit. He strongly denied these allegations saying a friend paid the expenses as his credit card had reached its weekly spending limit. He had since reimbursed the friend in cash upon landing in India. He told a Colombo news conference at his ministry that he had traveled to 86 countries, the first being to England with his parents an eight-year old, and was now holding his 17th passport.
He claimed he maintained close relations with travel companies as he was a frequent traveller and there were two of three companies that offered him massive discounts. As a cabinet minister, he could have used government funds for the trip but did not do so as the government had advised ministers to be economical in their spending. He also displayed a receipt at the press conference indicating that the payment for his ticket had been made by his friend and not a pharmaceutical company.
Rambukwella countered questions on his expertise on pharmaceuticals and their manufacture saying he took the chief executive officer of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority on this visit for this reason. He was quoted saying that when the country was spending 250 million dollars for purchases of medicine, did he not as health minister have the right to look into these industries, using his own funds? Whether the public, given its wide perceptions of politicians in general, would buy into the argument that they would spend out of pocket on public business, is another question. It will not be difficult to provide a near unanimous answer to that.
However that be, a legitimate question that can be posed to the president is that if Keheliya Rambukwella has proved himself a massive failure, as all the circumstantial evidence surrounding his departure from the health ministry suggests, then how good a job will he do at the environment ministry in which he has been found a comfort zone? The harsh reality is that the president, who to his credit has resisted massive pressure from the SLPP to expand the cabinet, is not strong enough to make a sacrificial lamb of the former health minister and has found him an alternative ministry without banishing him to the back bench.. Rambukwella, swallowing his pride – if he has any – has accepted. But is the overburdened taxpayer, already reeling under the weight of an unbearable cost of living, have any choice but pick up the tab.
President Wickremesinghe a few days ago told the UNP Convention that the presidential election followed by the parliamentary poll will be held the next year and the year after as decreed in the constitution. But the recent appointment of a Presidential Commission to report on prevailing election law and desirable changes have created fears that powers that be may be having some politricks up their sleeve to quote Mr. Neal de Alwis, a well known leftist of yesteryear. There is no doubt that the president has brought a semblance of stability to the country after last year’s chaos. But whether that can be sustained once Sri Lanka resumes paying its debts is an open question.
The Rajapaksas and their fellow travellers are now out of the woodwork. The president took a couple of them to the UN general assembly in September despite ours being a bankrupt nation. Namal Rajapaksa and SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam last week, in effect, took the president to task over the recent cabinet changes. This provoked Nimal Lanza, a pro-Ranil SLPPer to loudly proclaim that Namal and Sagara are free to defeat next month’s budget, if they dare, and force a parliamentary election.
We no doubt live in interesting times. Whatever next month’s budget brings, it will not be sunshine. More hardships are inevitable and concessions to meet mounting demands without money printing will be impossible. The president as finance minister and the government locked into an agreement with the IMF will have to walk an impossible tightrope. Whatever happens, hopefully the next few months will see the election which is the rightful due of the people.
