Financial Times

Wanted: A new leader to guide Sri Lanka
By a group of concerned business professionals
Let us for a few minutes, leave our present personal perceptions and alliances apart and examine, with open eyes, ears and mind, linked by a common thread that we are all Sri Lankans, despite what our respective race, religion or political alliances;

* Where Sri Lanka was in the recent past (All you need is to look at the Foreign news for what is now happening in the Middle East and the Western World)

*What Sri Lanka would have become, if we traversed the path we were on, without a paradigm shift to seek the prosperity for all Sri Lankans in the longer term (We can bench mark our thoughts on the state of hopelessness in the future, presently a prevailing reality in some nations of Africa and Asia)

*Our vision and dream for all Sri Lankans (Articulated as the most admired, peaceful and economically advanced nation in the third world, with the people of Sri Lanka enjoying a standard of living consistent with the more advanced economies of Asia, with an ever reducing relative income disparities amongst the members of society)

*Our more recent high hopes of realizing the dream (built on the prospects for peace, harmony and economic development throughout Sri Lanka)

*Yesterdays chaos (Described in an analysis by a foreign journalist in a news flash as " Sri Lanka's uncertain future " )

* Today's reality of dark clouds engulfing the nation (The withdrawal of the Peace Facilitators)

* Tomorrow’s reality (The three separate keys held by the President, the government and the LTTE, are needed in unity to open the safe where the promised $ 4.5 billion aid package commitment is stored to invest it efficiently and effectively for developmental benefits to be a reality and bring along associated foreign investments that will confer new jobs and better standards of living for all in Sri Lanka, this is the preferred option of all in Sri Lanka without the keys being thrown wide apart for personal gain, due to personal/ past incident related perspectives, personal enmity, ego and a host of other reasons not connected with the longer term welfare and prosperity of all Sri Lankans)

* The future of all Sri Lankans could soon be back to the past and yet again a future of hopelessness and shattered dreams.

Is this journey from the past to the present and the prospective tomorrow, like a set of Ship wrecked Sailors ( Sri Lankans ) abandoning the ship in desperation and swimming from the mid sea in search of land and after many days, with some lives already lost, suddenly seeing land and with great hopes for a new dawn of a new prosperous life, holding hands together, taking a deep breadth together and starting the last lap, determined to get to shore without any further lives being lost, finding a big wave upon which some powerful players are dancing their own separate personal satisfying dances attempting together to break the hands held tight and thus attempting to dash the dreams and hopes of the sailors, to get to their dream of a promised land!

The sailors in desperation, are looking to the Angels and Devas (Religious/Academic/Professional/Business/Society Leaders) for help and salvation and unfortunately they too appear to be too busy with their own dances, looking in to the mirror for any personal gain and engaging in a tug of war or merely looking on and waiting for something or may be anything to happen and sometimes even cheering from their respective own corners of the stage, the menacing dancers on the waves.

Can we together locate a Sri Lankan with national appeal and undisputed acceptance as a leader by most in society, a person who has not entered politics or been tied or biased towards the powerful dancers of the day, who could at this stage rise above all challenges, to encourage, guide and in a non violent and non threatening way to any of the power players and with no personal motives of gain, show the way forward to the sailors.

We cannot wait till a state of hopelessness is reached in this nation of ours and therefore we " the sailors lost at sea" must act now, in three simple ways under the guidance of a chosen leader, to get all Sri Lankans to accept that:

* They and their families and the future generations have yet excellent opportunities to share in a better standard of living for all in Sri Lanka,

* The leaders of the nation must be accountable to all in Sri Lanka to deliver the potential prosperity,

* The leaders in the discharge of their accountability, must be transparent and share with all in Sri Lanka, the rationale for any action and how such action will facilitate in delivering in the future prosperity to all in Sri Lanka,

* The leaders must listen to the voice of the people as they act with accountability and therefore all in Sri Lanka must express their views freely and with the only purpose of holding the leaders accountable for the delivery of the potential prosperity to all in Sri Lanka.

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