Our leading icon of Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility has been exposed by the Supreme Court as an emperor without clothes. This exposure is perhaps only the tip of the corporate iceberg.

The reaction of the business chambers, magazines, on-line service and commentators who vociferously espouse the cause of commercial morality and probity will be looked forward to with much interest. Or will they as usual close ranks and carry away their wounded? The stand of the much vaunted (and generously remunerated) independent directors, and the corporate watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission will also be keenly awaited, though not with bated breath.

Concerned
shareholder

Dynamism of Keells
Your coverage of the Supreme Court’s damning verdict over LMSL privatization puts needless pressure on Sri Lankan style dynamism emanating from the JKH board. It is absurd to think that any one in his right mind in this country would want to create wealth by producing goods and services, when you can scheme your way into a cosy relationship with a bureaucrat or a politician and create plenty of wealth. All you need to do is replace thought with scheming calculation.

It is even more absurd to think that any producer of goods and services in this country could cream to the top without being highly skilled in the art of monopolistic practices, an art often practiced in full view of lawmakers and law enforcers. Your coverage appeared to suggest that cosy deals and monopolies are somehow wrong, and you want to stop the rot. But neither monopolistic practices nor the cynical art of manipulation is rotten in a desperate society.

That is why also the recent changes at Hayleys make it at last a company dynamic and fully awake to the opportunities which the country presents. The phenomenon you have been witnessing in this country for a long time now is globally known as audacity of mediocrity.

Franklin de Zoysa
Kandy