Doc cum scribe fighting for better health and environmental and social justice

An interview with Dr. Prasanna Cooray-July 26, 2020, 12:00 pm

By Udara Karunaratne

Dr. Prasanna Cooray is a social health expert with postgraduate qualifications in Public Health, Sociology and Economics. He has compiled the "Health & Society" and "Environment & Society" for the last 20 years and was adjudged the Best Environmental Journalist in 2017 and the Best Investigative Journalist in 2008 by the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka. In 2018, his contribution to the protection of Sri Lankan forests was acknowledged by the London-based Earth Journalism Network and awarded a fellowship to research and write a series of articles on Sinharaja rainforest covering many aspects.

A social and environmental activist for over 20 years, Dr. Cooray is contesting the upcoming general election from the Jathika Sanvardana Peramuna in the Colombo District. He intends to take his campaign for better health for all and environmental protection to the next level, if elected.

Q - You were a journalist for 20 year besides being a medical doctor. What made you enter politics?

A- I was also a social and environmental activist for over 20 years. I was the founding general secretary of the Green Party of Sri Lanka. In the past I have believed in other people to deliver "good" that I aspired for the people and the country. I backed Mahinda Rajapaksa twice in his presidential candidacy. Then Mr. Maithriplala Sirisena, thinking he would usher in "yahaplana" and bring the rogues of the previous regime to book. All that had, by and large, gone waste. I don’t believe in others anymore. I only believe in myself, and my own honesty. And that’s why I joined the race this time.

Q – But now you are with Dr. Rohan Pallewatte?

A – Yes, we joined hands with Dr. Pallewatte’s party at the last presidential election. That was a collective decision of my group, the Democratic Social Alliance. But we were not card-carrying members of his party. By then we knew he was not a wining horse. But we supported him on principles. For the principles and the brand of politics his party stood for – social democracy. And the economic blueprint his party had for the country. We believe that is far superior to what any other party had. I think that is now becoming evident in the local political scene than ever before. All what they were grappling with in the past – the "billas" and fear psychosis syndrome – all that were just deceptions from the main problem, which is economic. We believe the economic problem of this country will be best tackled by Rohan and his team, ably led by Prof. Krishan Deheragoda, the party president.

Q – What is the programme you offer to people as a candidate from Colombo?

A – First of all, we tell people we are there not to form a government, but to constitute a strong opposition. We contest in eight districts and have put forward some good candidates people can trust.

Also, we need to be cognizant of the primary rolls of a parliamentarian, which are law making and matters related to regulating public finances. Further, these need to be discussed and debated, both in and outside the parliament. Sadly, today both these happen very minimally, and that is why a big gap exists between people’s aspirations and what they get. Unless people are cognizant of these facts, and consider them when electing their representatives, we will never be able to change this corrupt system. After all, you get what you deserve.

With regard to specificities, all what we are to offer to the people are there in our policy document, which is accessible at sdpsl.lk. We have looked at things at macro and micro levels. Also from a top down approach and a bottom up. Further, our policy document remains one and the same for the past four years. It is not something that emerges and disappears "peri-electionally" (in and around elections) like with many other parties.

Q – You have been an ardent writer on health and environment for years. You have fought many battles on both these fronts. How do you expect to further this in politics?

A- On health and environment both our party and I have studied deeply all the core issues and have come out with remedies.

With regard to health, I say three fundamental areas need due attention. One is we have to understand this big myth behind "free" health in Sri Lanka. There’s no more free health in Sri Lanka. Now people have to spend much more than what the government spend on health. As per the grand statistic, out of the total health expenditure of the country the government’s share is only 44%, when people spend 56% out of pocket or through insurance etc. This means today people are made to bare a good part of their health costs, and this could be colossal at times. This even plunge people into poverty. Thus, today we talk of "catastrophic health expenditure" and "impoverishing health costs".

The second, which is actually the root cause of the first, is that today’s governments spend very little on health. Very much less than what they ought to, considering the growing demands in the field of modern medicine. This figure in the past decades had been on average around 1.5% of the GDP. This is highly insufficient. We propose this to be raised urgently to at least 2.5% over three years.

The third is the step motherly treatment the ayurvedic and traditional systems of medicine continue to receive. Out of the total government health expenditure, this is only a meager 1.5%. This is not only insufficient, unjust as well. Because there are many people who have faith on and seek treatment from this system of medicine, especially for chronic diseases and orthopedic conditions etc. What we propose is that there should be equal allocation of increased governmental spending on health sharing between western and traditional system of healthcare. 50-50 distribution. Of this too, we propose 25% be dedicated to research and development (R & D) of both systems.

To address immediate problems affecting our health system we propose three urgent remedies.

One, to bring the different health systems under a regulatory authority to address the pressing issues urgently. Two, bring private hospitals under regulatory bodies to strike a balance between cost and quality service. Three, to introduce affordable insurance schemes for those who are willing to pay to ease off government health costs to some degree.

Q – What about pressing environmental issues?

A – Yes, environment is one of the worst affected today. Look at some of the things that happened in the last seven months since coming to power of this government. Withdrawal of sand and clay permits, aloe vera project in Wilpattu buffer zone, apple farm project in Pidurutalagala reserve, kaleido beach project in Mount Lavinia and now possible cancellation of 5/2001 circular on other forest lands and to bring them under district secretaries, all these we see as ominous signals of a possible bad time ahead. Not many people understand the gravity of this even if they comprehend the ongoing onslaught on country’s environment. This we have to see in the light of global climate change.

Sri Lanka is one of the worst hit by the global climate change, and this has been shown by many top scientific researches. This we experience on a daily basis with increase in mean temperature, rains not falling on proper time, long continuing draughts, short bouts of torrential rains ending in deluge, loss of important ecosystems, extinction of indigenous species etc. Therefore, turning this tide is very important.

I have made five proposals to be considered on an urgent basis.

1. To bring all the environment related institutions under the environment ministry. Today most of these institutions are dispersed across a wide array of ministries. This has made coordination of these institutions difficult.

2. To assess the forest cover of Sri Lanka by re-surveying. Although government claims the country’s forest cover as 24% of the total land area, this is highly disputed. Some claim it to be around 16%. Whatever it is, there are definite impacts of reduction of forest cover evident by increase in mean temperature, human-elephant conflict, various ill effects faced by wildlife which trespass into human habitations etc. This could only be resolved by scientific reassessment of the country’s forest cover. Even as a party we endorse that the country’s forest cover should at least be 30%.

3. Human-elephant conflict has become a serious issue today. Annually there are about 225 elephant and 80 human deaths that take place in the country. Loss of habitation of elephants is a major reason for this. This has to be addressed urgently through proper scientific approaches.

4. To impose an "environmental tax" on all environmentally harmful products and services, and thereby to discourage their use.

5. To introduce an incentive scheme for environment friendly products and services and to promote them.

Q – What are the social justice issues that you intend to take up on an urgent basis?

With regard to social justice we believe establishing a "Sri Lankan" identity among various ethnic groups in the country as a priority issue. People belonging to all ethnicities and religions should have an environment to live peacefully and without fear. In this regard a proposal against hate speech on social media is one I am campaigning for. The communication norms of a civilized society should be applied to the social media as well.

And also we place special emphasis on the "informal sector" living in the Colombo district. This is a large segment of the population both in Colombo district and elsewhere. They contribute immensely through whatever they do to the local economy and this should be duly recognized. We have already developed a set of proposals in conjunction with some three-wheeler associations in order to establish dignity to their profession enabling them to offer better service safeguarding the interests of both them and the public. Just one line about the magnitude of the hiring three wheelers in the country – there are over 800,000, and if you consider a family of five is maintained by each of these, that means 20% of the country’s population today live on a "three-wheeler economy".

Q - What would happen to your journalism career if you are elected to parliament?

A- Writing is in my blood. I cannot resist writing. I will keep on writing and would create a bigger platform for the people to engage in governance, policy issues and bring their concerns to the fore. In fact I have already started that through my FB page named Dr. Prasanna Cooray. I’m a strong believer of participatory democracy. I think this age of IT has created the opportunity for that.