The Medical Faculty Students’ Association of the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka has expressed strong opposition to the participation of Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya in the ceremony to officially hand over the faculty’s new complex to students.
In a media statement, the Students’ Association said the long-delayed medical faculty was the result of years of student struggle and sacrifice rather than the commitment of successive governments.
The association noted that although the medical faculty was proposed in 2007 and the first batch of students was expected to be admitted in 2010, the project had been delayed for years due to what it described as the inaction of successive administrations.
It further stated that the medical faculty was officially established on January 5, 2019, following sustained student activism and nationwide protests against the former South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM).
The statement also claimed that students continued to campaign even after the faculty was established because of the lack of basic facilities.
Rejecting what it described as the involvement of political figures in the opening of a facility achieved through the “tears, blood and sacrifices” of students, the Medical Faculty Students’ Association said it strongly opposed the Prime Minister’s participation in the inauguration ceremony.
