Financial Times

Of theatrics, resolve and good business sense
By Random Access Memory (RAM)
Well, the 13th Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka elected a speaker with much theatrics and distasteful fanfare.

Those who watched the drama unfold live on television learnt a few good lessons on what not to do in the area of the business of building business and investor confidence. As for the children and students who watched the theatrics, they are sure to have developed a lasting bad taste in their mouths on democracy in Sri Lanka at work.

It was another dose of cheap entertainment, like watching a bad movie with a disgusting story and untrained actors?

Listening to the fiasco on the radio, I was relieved to hear an independent commentator referring to the rationale as to why the so called 'people's representatives' spend so much of their personal resources to get to this 'seat of power'. 'Is it worth for them to have access to this power?' he quipped. The answer was that being an MP gave each a sense of 'acceptance' bestowed by the people, that they are powerful.

It seems that this sense of 'power' is worth a few million rupees each time one seeks to have access to it and the means to recover the millions with more than interest.

Then there are the questions of the rational mind verses the emotional mind which gets to play at instances like this.

The way individuals behave by themselves as against when they are in a mob, or the study of mob psychology, is an interesting phenomenon. Let us at least hope that the new speaker will be able to restore any semblance of dignity that is left of this so called 'seat of power' we call our Parliament.

He is known to have what business pundits call 'emotional intelligence' and full doses of that, is what will be needed in the future to keep the mob mentality at bay, focussing on the simple but profound issues of why are we here, to do what and for whom?.

Emotional Intelligence calls for managing one's emotions to focus on the end objectives. If the need is to build our nation and provide a better life for all Sri Lankans to live in this land with dignity and honour, then we need to focus on how we get there.

Those in the 'seats of power' whether in politics, business or other public pursuits, will do well to reflect on the words of the Buddha in seeking these virtues in themselves.

These were condensed in a book by Karen Stone and Harold Dillehunt (1978, Goodyear Publishing) titled "Self Science: The Subject is Me" and presented as a Self Science Curriculum to follow as:

1. Self-awareness or 'looking in the mirror',

2. Personal decision-making based on a clear understanding of the consequences of one's actions,

3.Managing one's feelings realising what's behind each feeling of anger, anxiety and sadness,

4. Handling stress

5.Developing empathy of others, 6. Effectively communicating one's feelings to build trust, 7. Self-disclosure or being true to one self 8. Having insights on issues and learning from past experience, 9. Self-acceptance in realising one's own strengths and weaknesses and having the ability to laugh at yourself, 10. Taking responsibility for one's own actions, 11. Being assertive at all times and 12. Working to resolve conflicts, understanding the nature of group dynamics and building win-win models by negotiating compromise.

As an optimist, RAM has hopes that we Sri Lankans can build consensus on what we want to be and how we get there. But this Godot will only come, if we can have sound sense prevail at all levels of leadership, taking good re-looks at themselves.

It certainly makes good all round business and common sense. The emphasis is on good common sense and leadership.

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