Professionals, bankers, hypocrites and double standards

Tuesday, 7 April 2015 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Almost eight years ago when the then Governor of the Central Bank Sunil Mendis, a respected former Chairman of Hayleys, a gentleman par excellence, was unceremoniously removed to pave the way for a new political appointee, nobody cried foul. Not just directors like today, but the Governor of the Central Bank himself was removed two years before his six-year term, when he can only be removed by Parliament. Today, a number of directors of private commercial banks who were literally in bed with the previous regime and the previous Governor of the Central Bank, and who even openly politically campaigned for the previous regime and were servile and subservient mice in the last nine years, are now breathing fire like Chinese dragons after the new Government called their bluff despite their lobbying to stay put. When the Government changed, they tried to distance themselves from the previous Governor’s ‘list,’ which they not so long ago loved to belong to. They became critical of him, carried tales about him, and wished to continue under the new regime, so they could enjoy the positions. This was not

to be. Now their servility of the previous regime has suddenly changed to hostility to the new Government, with some even publicly insulting the new Ministers and even shamelessly sending their resumes to say they were ‘fit and proper’. They would never have done this under the white van regime. But this is the ‘Yahapalanaya’. Freedom of criticism of the wild bootlicker. The new Government is making way for a future where private commercial banks will revert to the freedom to appoint their boards and their chairmen. The ‘Chinthana Rats,’ who were campaigning for continuity and stability before, have now suddenly woken up and become vampires. They fail to recognise that they remained silent when not simply directors of commercial banks were removed but Governor Mendis was asked to step down! Yes, the Governor himself. This, sir, is a land like no other. A professional business and civil society like no other. A South Asian miracle. A miracle in a millennium. We need a ‘Suba Anagathayak’. A ‘Saba Wenasak’. ‘Yahapalanayak’! After all this land is our land. The political leaders are only temporary trustees. They should not have used our monies to manoeuvre their men into commercial banks. Enough is enough! A retired Banker who was unceremoniously kicked out by the previous regime