Financial Times

Improving signs for business
Separate meetings this week between the Joint Business Forum (J-Biz) and President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have shown signs that both leaders are expressing confidence in reaching a power-sharing deal.

This augurs well for a business community that has virtually been in the dumps, along with the rest of the country, when Kumaratunga pulled the rug under Wickremesinghe's feet while the latter was abroad. For a couple of days there was absolute chaos with government leaders, politicians, businessmen and the general public gingerly finding their way through the maze.

The Colombo bourse sank with a few powerful players however making some real bucks in the confusion. So much for governance and responsible leadership in the private sector!

Since then pressure has been mounting from all quarters including the business community on Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe to forget their differences and work towards a common goal of reaching a political settlement with Tamil Tiger rebels that would be mutually beneficial to all communities in Sri Lanka.

According to our report, the J-Biz meetings with the two leaders have shown a realization by Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe for a bipartisan approach to the peace process and both leaders have prevailed upon the business community that they wouldn't want to jeopardize the process by revealing too much details of the process underway.

In a way that's understandable given the hammer-and-tong attacks by both the People's Alliance and the United National Party in the past and the need to maintain a level of confidentially until a deal that will benefit this country is signed, sealed and delivered.

While the two leaders seem to be approaching the process in a responsible and no-bitter-attacks-against-each other manner, their spokespersons (Prof. G. L. Peiris and Dr. Sarath Amunugama) are also showing remarkable composure at regular press conferences in expressing solidarity behind the PA-UNP negotiations.

The attacks have stopped and both politicians stress that efforts to bring peace between the two parties must be given a chance. Whether it's a plea from the heart or an order from the respective leaders remains to be seen. Still these efforts from Sri Lankan politicians at this stage should be applauded.

Trade and commerce sectors in this country have been pleading for some sanity in the political arena to see Sri Lanka reach that level of growth on par with the Asian Tigers. A higher level of growth has eluded this country for decades not because we lack resources and skills (which we have aplenty) but due to vituperative politics which has led to the brutalisation of society.

The business community must share the blame, as we have said over and over again, with other sections of civil society for allowing this to happen. "The inactivity (the middle class elite's laid back passive non-committal stand is what has brought us to this crisis and will bring us to the many others that will come) is what needs to be addressed. I believe that the business sector only responds to anything when they see that they are losing money," was the apt comment from our RAM columnist.

Very true! Take the case of Sri Lanka First, the business peace lobby. What's happened to it? It emerged when the chips were done for Sri Lankan business in 2000/01 during a recession in the US that hurt garment imports from here and the subsequent, devastating LTTE attack on the Katunayake airport.

The organisation's holding-hands demonstration for peace was a huge success, receiving the entire support of the business community. But there is concern that Sri Lanka First has shifted gear and is working like any other NGO reliant on donor funds - not driven by the funding, support and dedication of the business sector.

With the private sector being the engine of growth and the main drivers of the economy, it is incumbent on the business community to make sure the country's leaders act in line with the people's wishes - not their own. But for that to happen, business leaders must come out of the closet and express support for the efforts by the two leaders.

They can speak in one voice - J-Biz - or individually. Business leaders must join the chorus of opinion across the country for a PA-UNP joint effort to end this war. They must do it not for business gain but as leaders of civil society and for the sake of generations to come.

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