Cleared by the JKH board, Susantha Ratnayake seen here receiving the CCC award in November 2007 when JKH was declared 'Best Corporate Citizen."

The letters and comments over the ‘appalling’ silence of John Keells Holdings in its role over the Lanka Marine Services privatisation has been growing.

JKH stakeholders are shocked by the lack of a statement by the company on ‘what next’ after the judgement, which shareholders in particular should rightfully be briefed. By not doing so, JKH has thrown out of the window – whatever they may say or find excuses – all the grand talk about social responsibility, good business practices, governance and what not. Is it just arrogance, fearful of treading on contempt of court in making a statement or hoping the dust will settle and the media moving on to another story – so that everything is hunky-dory? We hear the board and its directors many of whom are proponents of decent, ethical business practices and international rights covenants have said they are fully backing JKH Chairman Susantha Ratnayake despite all what the Supreme Court judgement says against the chief of the country’s biggest conglomerate chosen by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) interestingly – while the LMSL case was on -- as the ‘Best Corporate Citizen’ for 2007.

JKH and the CCC should be both ashamed. In the new fountain of corporatisation, the buzz is all about doing and being seen as a good corporate which means following decent and ethical behaviour, and sound and transparent practices. In the name of transparency, did anyone – CCC or JKH – say at the time in their ‘glorified’ press releases that the BEST CORPORATE CITIZEN is (By the Way) facing charges in a fradulent privatisation deal? Didn’t the public and those who applied for the same award have a right to this information? Doesn’t it reduce to a joke the whole gamut of CSR and other awards that are provided at grand tamashes where millions of rupees are spent?

White collar crimes is being seriously dealt with in many countries. For example, in January this year the Chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce – a ‘supposedly’ respected figure in Hong Kong business - was charged for fradulent activities by Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), a trailblazer in tackling public and private sector corruption. In the Sri Lanka case, it’s even worse -- a private sector company being found guilty of duping the public.
Instead of our usual editorial this week, we thought of publishing the most signficant letters on the JKH issue and let these letters tell the story of fraud and deception. Let the public speak!

Public officials and accountability
In his letter on ‘Dynamism of Keells’, Franklin de Zoysa incisively analyses the inner workings of the corporate sector in this country, where the audacity of the mediocre sure bears fruit. His analyses meshes well with the Supreme Court judgment which found the senior director of JKH at the time of the LMSL privatization acted in concert with the Chairman PERC, it was indeed an intimate relationship that spawned a “no one else but me” entity violating the bedrock principles of privatization. This scenario contrasts with the off-chanted mantras of corporate good governance, responsible citizenship, etc which generates rounds of loud applause from acolytes and accolades thereafter at well published gala events attended by the captains of industry.

Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara, the public interest activist, recently pointed put that 30% of our national spending is diverted into the pockets of rent takers and their cronies facilitated by Brahmins which is an euphemism for those high officials who do not have to explain their actions to anyone. These public officials indulge on finger pointing at the political establishment when the stench emanating from the mega deals become unbearable, although they are the ones who make the rules, issue the circulars and sit at board deliberations and act as judge and jury.

The sooner legislation against plundering of public money is made a criminal offence where swift indictments and trials take place like in countries much as China, Singapore and Hongkong, the quicker people of this country can look forward to a prosperous future, What is required is the will, which is absent at the moment.

In closing I must refer to the top environmental official in China who pleaded for his life at his trial without success, offering to return the millions of Yuan he had stolen.

S.C. Amarasinghe
Ekala.

Pressure on JKH
Thank you very much for keeping the pressure on John Keells Holdings (JKH), week after week, on the scathing judgement by the Supreme Court in the LMSL privatisation.

That you are doing so through news coverage as well as repeated editorial comment shows deep interest and persistence. Like millions of Sri Lankans, I too was under the impression that JKH was a good corporate citizen that not only returned dividends to ts shareholders, generated lots of employment and paid its taxes to the state, but also engaged in some CSR. All this is true, but the company's underhand, dirty deals - now established beyond any doubt by the highest court of the land - detract very seriously from its reputation. And a good name is as important, if not more valuable, to a company than all other bottomlines combined.

You put the two disgraced officials – P.B.Jayasundara and Susantha Ratnayake -- on the same level and called both of them to resign forthwith. While neither has done so yet, it augurs well for our media that at least there are a few courageous journalists and editors who have the guts not to bow down to possible advertising pressure -- and potential loss of custom from JKH -- in demanding that bluechip companies practise what they preach in terms of good governance. We can only pray: may your tribe increase!

A stockmarket investor
Colombo

JKH’s August resolution
According to a report in The Sunday Times FT, the sole public comment made by the JKH board – on the LMSL judgement -- was that it had “resolved to meet full compliance with the judgement.”
Am I the only reader who is struck by the sinister character of this seemingly juvenile comment?

Here is a company which has been found guilty of acting in contemptuous disregard of the public weal by the land’s highest court. The JKH board might feel the judgement has been either too harsh or altogether unfair. But anyone, in a similar circumstance, whose feeling of reverence for the rule of law springs from a fixed disposition of character would have made it incumbent upon himself to set aside any feeling of personal injury or hurt in order that an apology to the nation may be rendered. No court in the world always rules justly. But no apology was forthcoming from the JKH board, when the land’s highest court had spoken against it. In the place of an apology, there was juvenile talk of full compliance, as if either partial or no compliance was an option, at least until the hopes of revision are realized.

A sense of decency would have prompted the JKH board to say something like this: ‘Despite our relentless efforts in the past to conduct our affairs with utmost propriety, correctitude and legality, we have been found guilty of wrong doing by the country’s highest court. We apologise to the nation and undertake to ensure that nothing we do will ever have any grounds for any suspicion whatsoever.’

Be that as it may, it would not occur to scheming narcissists to look beyond their self-absorption to realize that the truly proud man must be good in the highest degree. With scheming narcissists increasingly occupying positions of leadership in this country, is it any wonder that the country is in the danger of collapsing altogether into a state of barbaric cruelty?

This I read somewhere: “Over the long run, the course of providence is towards justice, but the path is mysterious, so a prudent person is ready for setbacks and ironies.”

Puran de Silva,
Colombo 5.