A political firestorm has erupted inside the ranks of the National People’s Power (NPP), triggering an abrupt reversal of a highly contentious decision to admit private students to the Kotelawala Defence University’s (KDU) medical faculty.
Sources from Parliament reveal that fierce opposition came not from rival parties, but from within the NPP’s own medical professionals in Parliament. The group strongly protested the move, which would have opened the doors to local private students who could afford to pay nearly two million rupees for a medical degree—an idea they branded as a betrayal of the party’s long-standing stance against the privatization of medical education.
The issue came to a head on May 22, just a day after KDU publicly advertised openings for its medical program. The medical professionals within the NPP swiftly confronted party leadership, decrying the announcement as a dangerous step backward. They argued it would undo years of hard-fought progress, including their role in the shutdown of the controversial SAITM medical university in Malabe.
The backlash worked. By the same day, the administration made a dramatic pivot: only cadet officers and international students would be admitted to the KDU medical faculty moving forward.
Deputy Minister of Defence Aruna Jayasekara wasted no time in announcing this reversal to Parliament, confirming that the initial plan had been scrapped to quell the internal dissent.
Adding fuel to the fire, members of the NPP’s medical wing revealed that the decision to admit fee-paying private students had reportedly been made without the knowledge—or approval—of the top brass in government. According to one insider, both the Health Ministry and KDU’s own administration had unilaterally pushed forward the plan during the absence of Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, who was overseas at the time.
With pressure now mounting, the protesting MPs say they plan to hold direct talks with Minister Jayatissa upon his return, seeking full clarification on how such a move was greenlit under a government that has vowed not to commercialize public health or higher education.
This internal revolt lays bare the growing tensions within the NPP coalition—tensions that could prove pivotal as the party grapples with maintaining ideological integrity while navigating the complex realities of governance.
