GMOA, a trade union or political outfit? | Daily News

GMOA, a trade union or political outfit?

There is no knowing to what lengths the GMOA, or a cabal within it, would go to bring the Rajapaksas back to power. The SAITM issue was milked dry by the Government doctors to cause maximum difficulty for the Yahapalanaya Government and to portray it in poor light before the public. Work stoppages were called at the drop of a hat in an attempt to bring the Government to its knees with a view to make it amenable to the GMOA's demands vis-a-vis SAITM. Even young school children who had no inkling as to what it was all about were drawn into the protest campaigns by the GMOA membership who were meek as mice when Gotabaya Rajapaksa converted the Kotalawala Defence Academy to a private medical college in the heyday of Rajapaksa rule.

Not only that, the GMOA dropped all pretenses of being an apolitical trade union when its President was seen at the Viyath Maga events held to promote the candidacy of Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the Presidency and disported himself as unbecoming of a respected member of the medical profession by addressing a protest rally opposite the Fort Railway station where he berated two Yahapalanaya Ministers and worse, cast aspersions on the courts for which he is being hauled up for contempt.

The GMOA has now gone one better and has even dragged in the Head of State in its campaign to restore Rajapaksa rule. Health and Indigenous Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne has accused the GMOA of lying to the media by stating that President Maithripala Sirisena had promised it to appoint a Special Presidential Commission to probe corruption under the Health Ministry. When he (Senaratne) had met the President and inquired about this the latter had flatly denied the GMOA statement, quite rightly indicating that a Presidential Commission can only be appointed in respect of a Government and not a ministry. The minister said he would take legal and administrative action against the GMOA since it has even deigned to involve the President in its malicious campaign against him.”The GMOA is not a trade union that serves the profession or the patients but a political outfit that promotes hatred and conflict”, he told a media briefing at Temple Trees on Wednesday.

The minister is not far off the mark. The GMOA who was busy attacking the Yahapalanaya Government, holding media conferences almost on a daily basis to pinpoint issues that had nothing to do with the medical profession, suddenly fell silent following the October 26 power-grab. Not only that, it got directly involved in the Joint Opposition campaign against the Western Embassies which were critical of the coup and went to the extent of writing to these Embassies to accept the ‘new Government’, perhaps the first time in this country, or, anywhere, for that matter, where a trade union lobbied foreign embassies to recognize an illegal government.

Of course this is quite in line with the GMOA's practice of meddling in affairs outside their jurisdiction, so to speak. It has been agitating on issues that had nothing to do with the welfare of the members of the medical profession nor the patients, for that matter. Instead, the Government doctors have been intruding into subjects such as international trade agreements, the type of foreign investments acceptable to the country and even paying homage to the Most Ven. Mahanayake Theras, a practice largely the preserve of politicians. The GMOA has also engaged in work-stoppages in solidarity with striking anti-Government trade unions outside the health sector endangering the lives of the patients whose interest the doctors always claim to have at heart. It has also been on a collision course with the health minister from the very outset, demonstrating an attitude of non-cooperation at every turn.

It is time this political mafia operating in the guise of a doctors’ trade union is brought to heel and the true motives of their members exposed to the public. Perhaps the legal action contemplated by the minister would reveal much of the behind the scenes doings of the cabal in the GMOA. A doctors’ trade union should only confine its activities to matters concerning the medical profession and the patients. It has no license to dictate to the Government on trade policy or on the type of trade agreements the government should enter into and with whom. Minister Senaratne has accused the GMOA membership of behaving like a gang of thugs and taking the law into their hands whenever there is a threat to their influence and interests. He also goes onto add that all the acts of the GMOA are aimed at bringing its President to Parliament on the National List of the pohottuwa. If that be the case, it is better for the outfit to disband itself as a trade union and for its members to actively get involved in the politics of the Rajapaksas instead of hiding behind the GMOA label. In the alternative, it should form itself into a Trade Union affiliated to a political party (in their case the pohottuwa) like certain other trade unions in the public and private sector.


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