In the letter in The Sunday Times FT on March 15 on this issue, Mr Chandra Jayaratne, instead of answering the questions that I raised on 8th March, has attempted to pull the wool over our eyes with further prevarications.
The implication of Mr Jayaratne’s explanation for his earlier claim that he “brought in” the Code of Ethics of the Chamber is that the Code that was adopted by the Chamber in 1982 was revised during his time and his revised version was adopted by the Chamber and its membership as its Code of Ethics.
Unfortunately this is not true. Every new member who joins the Chamber even today accepts as binding on him the Code of Ethics that was printed in 1982. There has been no substantive change to that Code which is the same one that JKH was alleged recently to have violated.
Mr Jayaratne has wittingly or unwittingly attempted to mislead all of us into thinking that the “Charter” that he helped to create in 2002 has replaced the original Code of Ethics. It very definitely has not and his attempt at prevarification has only further damaged his credibility.
There is a world of difference between a Code of Ethics (that a member would violate at his peril) and a Private Sector Charter. In future when Mr Jayaratne asserts, as he has frequently done in the past at seminars, that the private sector is seriously flawed despite his lone, continuous, courageous efforts to reform it, his claims will be taken with a pinch of salt.
Charitha P de Silva
Colombo |