Can we stand on our own? And are we together?

By Athula Jayasekera 

Sri Lanka, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, has been experiencing what is said to be the worst economic, political and social crisis since Independence from the second quarter of the last calendar year 2022. The country and the countrymen were being hit from all corners. Yet the Lankans have an inborn trait to face the worst of situations and overcome it. 

According to the recorded history, the country had faced many difficult situations due to Chola, Pandyan and Western invasions. Yet the Lankans with their power of resilience overcame all those calamities. The country showed its resilience even during the civil disturbances in the late 1950s, insurgencies in 1971 and the late 1980s, and a civil war during the early 80s to the end of the first decade of the third millennium. The power of resilience of the countrymen is proven by the fact that the country came back to normal each time after facing and overcoming all these disturbances as fast as possible. This power of resilience of the people is not recognised by the powers at the helm governing the country. All these crises mentioned were man made and were all internal. 

We have had very few or no entrepreneurs emerging in the recent past, but during the 40s, 50s, 60,s and 70s there had been a flood of migrants from north and south looking for opportunities landing in various parts of the island specially in Colombo. Most of them became very dynamic entrepreneurs and contributed to the country’s GDP and generated employment opportunities for thousands of people especially the youth of this country. They had their own styles of management and were philanthropic in their own way. Some brought youth from their hometowns, provided them with food, lodging and employment at their places of business and gave them rigorous training before helping them to start their own ventures. ‘Panchikawatte’ was such a business cartel. 

Bakery and confectionary industries were also breeding grounds for such migrants. They went through many hardships, faced ups and downs and finally succeeded, some not only reaching national levels but international levels too. They built their enterprises, and conglomerates using their hard-earned money. They grew their own enterprises and hardly found them bidding for someone else’s business ventures.  

These entrepreneurs had some common traits. They never believed in easy money, they knew that they had to “labour” to earn good money. Credibility was something that they valued most. They had an excellent knowledge of the products they sold, the market and its dynamics and customer preferences. All that was learned the hard way through years of trying. They followed a code of ethics of their own. In times of crisis these entrepreneurs showed their determination and courage and with persistence they overcame such difficult situations. A classic case of entrepreneurial leadership. They had excellent foresight. These resilient, philanthropic business entrepreneurs became a dying breed during the recent past paving the way for a different ‘money at any cost’ type businessmen to emerge. Today the values and ethics of those entrepreneurs of yesteryear have faded away and are hardly in practice. 

For Lanka to come back strong and be resilient it needs a complete overhauling of the value system. The selfishness of the majority, ‘acquiring as much as one can attitude’, and using unethical methods for wealth generation, resorting to unacceptable business practices needs to be totally stopped. Corporate business ventures should set an example. The ‘how much can I get’ should be replaced with ‘how much value can I add’ – not only economic value but social and spiritual values too. 

 I vs. We 

 Lanka is full of ‘I Specialists’, and some of the so-called present-day business leaders think they are larger than the organisations they represent. Organisations survive and grow only if they have proper systems, procedures, processes and controls. This is the system change that is required in business organisations or for that matter in any organisation. The legacy of a business enterprise can continue if they have systems to take control rather than the individuals taking control of it. 

Rebounding of the economy cannot happen overnight, the fundamentals have to be in place. The basic learning of income expenditure management needs to be given to all and sundry. The crisis will run its own course unless someone applies breaks and turns it around. A concerted effort needs to be taken by the entire populace with determination and courage to overcome this in the shortest possible time. As Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go waste”. Why not we Lankans take this opportunity to be more productive, more focused and the most difficult thing – to be united. Certainly, we have not only once but many times overcome many economic, social and also some political crises previously. So, we are experienced in overcoming crisis situations and have proven ourselves resilient than many other countries. We need to learn from other countries, especially from a country like Japan, where the respect for human beings is at its highest. This attitude gives the Japanese the advantage over the others as their objective always is to be together.

Lanka is a land like no other, has remarkable ethnic, religious and biodiversity. It has a well-practiced interculturalism and cultural interactions, history of which can go back to one or two millennia. It binds the people together as one community. This can be a definite advantage to a country which is on course to a rapid economic recovery. Together we can achieve more.

Can Lanka bounce back, certainly yes if we can shed our differences and start working together with one common objective – ‘the country first’. Who should take the lead? We citizens of this paradise island, should do our part to the utmost best. Let’s start with respecting each other. We will stop making undue profits by exploiting fellow countrymen. We will do whatever we do to the best of our ability. Let’s not waste a single moment and commit more hours to work with the sole objective of bringing the country out of this mess. Can we? Yes, we can!

 

(The writer is a past President of the Board of Management of TMC and the first Chairman of TMC Colombo.)