Parents of Medical Faculty Students & GMOA Organize Protest Campaigns

Medical Faculty Students’ Parents’ Union (MFSPU) and the Government Medical Officers Association have been organizing a massive wave of protests, marches, rallies, and sathyagrahas in the near future. All above protest campaigns against the Government’s decision to create two entities under the Sri Lanka Institute of Information

Technology (SLIIT) after abolishing the Medical faculty of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) will commence after 20 th January. Medical Faculty Students’ Parents’Union (MFSPU) Chairman, Dr. Nimal Karunasiri confirmed it.

After the MFSPU Executive Committee Meeting held yesterday (7), Dr. Karunasiri noted that they cannot accept the Government’s proposals of establishing two entities called ‘Sunset’ and ‘Sunrise’ under SLIIT because that move is nothing but pure deception.

Furthermore, he said that when the parents commenced their hunger strike last year, the Government promised to abolish the SAITM. He questioned, They never mentioned anything about establishing new entities under the SLIIT. If they start the same fraud under a different name, what is the point of abolishing SAITM? he questioned. To register our protest over the Government trying to mislead us, we decided to recommence our battle. After 20 January we, with the collaboration of all the anti-SAITM parties including the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), will start another wave of protests and rallies. If the Government cannot give us a fair solution even after that, we will go for a continuous hunger strike, Dr. Karunasiri said. The Government on 4 January said that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the SAITM and the SLIIT on 30 December to create two separate not-for- profit entities called ‘Sunset’ and ‘Sunrise’ under the SLIIT.