May 13, 2013, 8:12 pm

I was sad to read your news item [in the online edition] on May 10th under the caption, ‘GMOA warns against granting RMPs Rs. 4,000 phone allowance’. My late father was a Registered Medical Officer (RMO) and my mother is a graduate medical doctor in retirement.

GMOA media spokesman Dr. Navin de Soysa claims in your news item that RMOs were first recruited as dispensers on estates. Nothing is further from the truth. Not even apothecaries, let alone AMOs and RMOs, worked as dispensers. I challenge him to prove his claim with facts, if possible. This is something your reporter should have done before rushing into print.

My father attended the same school as my mother and got a few marks lower than her at the GCE A/L examination and could not enter university to study medicine. His dream thus shattered, he did not want to read for a science degree. He worked in the private sector for a while to support his family which was affluent and later became an RMO (RMP at that time) after following a course conducted by a national university and practised medicine for several years before going overseas with my mother for good.

My mother’s professional colleagues accepted my father into their circles without any discrimination though he did not have a degree. They were gentlemen and gentlewomen practising medicine. They fought for their rights short of striking work and never did they try to suppress the rights of others. That was because of their upbringing. Professional jealousies were unknown to them and they enjoyed life and were at peace with the world as well as themselves. As for insecurities they had absolutely none. They had greatness thrust upon them. Their lives were not devastated by private practice and ruthless competition which has robbed the present-day doctors of happiness in life.

I used to enjoy arguments my parents used to have at home on subjects pertaining to medicine. It was not occasionally that my mother gave in or at least I thought so. That kind of home environment may have inspired my sisters to study medicine. I was a different kettle of fish interested in literature and technology—a strange combination in my parents’ opinion.

I do not want to comment on the communication allowance, which is the bone of contention. Maybe the RMOs deserve it or maybe they don’t. But, I urge the GMOA officials not to ridicule other professions, be they RMOs, nurses or paramedics. They all have self-dignity which should be respected. One’s upbringing is reflected in the way one treats others.

N. K. W. Fernando

USA

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