Carlo Fonseka

Carlo Fonseka
Native name	කාලෝ ෆොන්සේකා
Born	(1933-03-04) 4 March 1933 Colombo, Ceylon
Nationality	Sri Lankan
Alma mater	University of Ceylon University of Edinburgh
Occupation	Academic
Title	President, Sri Lanka Medical Council.
Term	January 2012 - June 2017
Predecessor	Lalitha Mendis
Political party	Lanka Sama Samaja Party

Carlo Fonseka (Sinhalese: කාලෝ ෆොන්සේකා Kālō Fonsēkā; born 4 March 1933) is a Sri Lankan physician, academic and political activist. He is a former dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya and a former president of the Sri Lanka Medical Council.

Early life and family

Fonseka was born on 4 March 1933 in Colombo, Ceylon.^[1] His family were Roman Catholics.^[2][3] He was educated at Maris Stella College, Negombo and St. Joseph's College, Colombo.^[1][4][5] After school he joined the University of Ceylon's Faculty of Medicine in Colombo in 1955, graduating in 1960 with a first class MBBS degree.^[6][7][8]

Career

After graduating Fonseka joined the Colombo General Hospital as an intern under professor K. Rajasuria and senior surgeon Dr. Noel Bartholomeusz.^[7] He then joined the base hospital in Mirigama, near his home village of Divulapitiya, as a medical officer.^[7] In 1962 Fonseka joined the University of Ceylon's Department of Physiology as a lecturer.^[7] He joined the University of Edinburgh's Department of Physiology in 1964 to pursue his doctoral studies, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1966.^[7][8]

Fonseka returned to the University of Ceylon's Department of Physiology in 1967.^[7] He was a professor at the department from 1982 and 1989.^[9] The North Colombo Medical College (NCMC), a private medical school, was nationalised in 1989 and in 1991 became the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya with Fonseka as its first dean.^[6][10] He served as dean until 1997.^[11] He was chairman of the Board of Management of the University of Colombo's Postgraduate Institute of Medicine from 1996 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2001.^[12] The University of Colombo appointed Fonseka as an emeritus professor in July 2000.^[13] He was also appointed emeritus professor by the University of Kelaniya.^[14]

Fonseka was appointed president of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) in January 2012.^[15][16][17] The appointment was opposed by the Sri Lanka Medical Faculty Students' Action Committee alleged that it had been made under political influence.^[18] Fonseka's tenure at the SLMC was to end in December 2016 but the government extended it by six months.^[17][19] Fonseka resigned at the end of June 2017.^[17][19]

Fonseka is a prominent member of the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP).^[20][21] He was a member of the party's central committee and politburo and lead its branch in Kotte.^[22][23][24] Fonseka is a vocal critic of private medical education and campaigned against the NCMC in the early 1980s.^[25] Whilst president of the SLMC he was highly critical of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), a private medical school.^[26][27][28] After leaving the SLMC Fonseka claimed he would work to "topple the government" on the SAITM issue.^[29]

Fonseka received a M.A. degree from the University of Kelaniya in 1999.^[30] He is a fellow of the Ceylon College of Physicians and the Sri Lanka College of General Practitioners.^[31] He has served as president of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka, chairman of the Vijaya Kumaratunga Memorial Hospital, chairman of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol and was a member of the University Grants Commission.^[32][33][34] Fonseka was one of six South-East Asia Region awardees of the World No Tobacco Day 2012 Awards.^[35] He is a lyricist and composer and has produced a number of albums including Carlochita Gee (1992) and Raththaran Duwe (2006).^{[36][37][38][39]}

References