More than 75 % of respondents to a Business Times email poll this week agreed that the arrest of Retd. General Sarath Fonseka, defeated candidate at the January 26 presidential election, will dampen business confidence.
Asked by the newspaper whether the arrest under the Army Act of the former army commander and other post-polls developments (changes in the army and the police) would dampen business confidence or not, just 23 % said no while 1% was undecided.
 To a second question whether these developments will affect the stockmarket, a little over half the respondents (58.5 %) said it will while 33.8% said it won’t. More than 7% were undecided as to the impact on the stockmarket which has seen turnovers surge and the All Share Index rise in recent months.
More than 250 business professionals and executives, academics, students, housewives and retired government officials responded to the newspaper’s latest email poll, which has become a popular tool to gauge public opinion on a range of business, economic and social issues.
Several comments were also expressed to the two questions posed.
On Gen. Fonseka’s arrest, one respondent said, “We are a country of insensitive, self centred, hypocrites who go with the flow and don't really care what happens to human beings.”
An NGO worker said these developments will not only dampen the business interest but also play a negative part in obtaining funds for various projects as well as in tourism.
It will be a negative factor in Sri Lanka’s efforts to win back GSP + concessions, said another respondent, adding, “It shows a corrosion of democratic values and norms in the society and formation of a dictatorship which might infringe on businesses at the whims and fancies of the rulers.”
While the business community was upbeat when the President won the recent election by a ‘comfortable’ margin, the developments after that in particular the Elections Commissioner retracting his statements and denying that there was no foul play, has led to a loss in business confidence in the long term political stability in the country. Concerns raised by the Mahanayakes’ over the arrest, detention of a journalist and sealing of an opposition newspaper during the post election period also adds to political instability which will worry investors, a business professional noted.
On the contrary, the head of a Biyagama export company said the victory of the President will result in a surge in business activity despite any fallout from Gen. Fonseka’s arrest.“We are experiencing a surge in our business activities with more orders and inquiries from our global partners who are convinced that the country is more stable for manufacturing activities than ever before,” he said adding that the defeated candidate’s arrest has no impact on the company’s global partners.
“If the media acts with responsibility and avoids spreading stories of gloom like Cassandra the country will surely be poised to achieve high levels of growth in manufacturing and tourism,” he said.
Another, who backed the view that there won’t be an economic fallout as a result of the arrest, said there was more business uncertainty in statements made by the General after the poll.
A Colombo CEO said the post-election situation after the presidential election in 2005 was worst (than now) in terms of business confidence. “The overall peace (situation) will overcome most other sentiments,” another respondent said.
On the question relating to stockmarkets, one respondent said the market will lose confidence in the rule of law while another noted that in the short term there won’t be any repercussions, on the long term this is likely to happen. |
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