Tell Dr. Siddhika: She‘ll have to go
The Director General of the Sri Lanka Standards Institute ( SLSI) was plunged into hot water and left to drown this week when a choice remark casually made to a television reporter over the current ‘ toxic coconut oil’ scare, placed the trust, credibility and future usefulness of one of Lanka’s top consumer watchdogs at stake.
An angry public outcry erupted in disbelief and shock when the nation heard SLSI Chief Dr. Siddhika Senaratne reveal to a television interviewer not only of the detection of imported coconut oil with thrice the permitted toxic level but also the widespread ava i l ability of poisonous, cancer causing food stuff in the market.
In the shocking interview aired last Saturday, the interviewer asks Dr. Siddhika Senaratne: ‘Apart from detecting aflatoxins in chilli consignments, what are the other food stuff found that contained this cancer causing substance?’
Dr. Siddhika’s reply: ‘It’s like this. Many of these things I cannot say because after I say it many of the local produces can collapse. So even though the media may think they have a right to ask, we have a responsibility to protect local produces. Instead what we do is we tell the Consumer Authority and together we all engage these businesses in discussion and we encourage them to desist from introducing such poisonous food stuff to the market and mend their ways.’
The interviewer asks: ‘ Do you have any prohibition placed on you not to reveal these to the media? Why can’t you tell the public?’
She replies: ‘ No, there is no prohibition of that sort. But if we tell the public these local businesses will totally collapse. So we do not.’
When the interviewer interrupted and asked: ‘So while they mend their ways, the people have to eat poison? Is that okay’
Driving the last nail into her own career at SLSI, she replied blithely: ‘Well, it’s only for a short time. We have to first correct these producers, no, and see that these companies mend their ways and do not have to close down.’
Her outrageous claim that food containing cancer causing poisonous substances was quite all right for human consumption for a short time since it kept food companies in good business health, naturally provoked an avalanche of protests and led many to bray for her blood.
The Government Medical Officers Association ( GMOA) sprang into action on Monday by lodging a complaint against Dr. Siddhika, urging the Inspector General of Police to immediately investigate her claim that she was aware of the fact that certain food items sold in the market contains substances unfit for human consumption.
The Government, too, washed its hands of Dr. Siddhika’s controversial comments. Cabinet spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the Government does not approve Dr. Siddhika’s remarks that exposing local businesses whose products are found to contain toxins could lead to their collapse. The Government has now launched an investigation into her statement.
So who is this Dr. Siddhika, supposed to be the guardian deity of the nation’s food consumption but who has since revealed even divinity errs?
Undoubtedly, she is eminently qualified academically for the job, having a PhD in Biochemistry from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, UK in 2002 followed by two Post- doctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, USA.
Pity, all those qualifications and recognition, but not the foggiest as to what her job as Director General of SLSI entails?
The SLSI has been the accepted final arbiter on what is fit for human consumption. Its decisions have been accepted without question or pause. The organisation was established in 1964 to protect the rights of consumers and to protect u n e t h i c a l bu s i n e s s trade malpractices.
The Director General’s first duty is to the public. In determining whether any food is fit for human consumption or not, it is not her duty to take external factors into consideration.
But Dr. Siddhika h a s, unfortunately, based her decision whether or not to ban food containing cancer causing substances not on how it will affect the health of humans but on how adversely it will affect the pockets of local businesses. She has allowed the unsuspecting public to consume toxic-hit food to give a helping hand to errant businesses peddling poison in the market with the full knowledge of the SLSI.
And, as a result the trust and credibility once unquestioningly reposed in the SLSI, now lie shattered and will continue to lie in fragments until the Government axe poised over Dr. Siddhika’s job is let to fall.
Else, it will be the continuing case of the watchdog not raising the alarm barking when thieves burgle the master’s home because it does not wish to disturb the master’s peaceful slumber.