Thuggery, intimidation and larceny have hallmarked the conduct of the branches of our government at their most civilized level for generations now. But it may be pertinently asked, how much more civilized have the habits of our private sector been?

A picture is clearly emerging of a private sector accustomed to ways of doing things that can be best described as crudely pragmatic, cynical and brutish. A case in point is the example set by the eminent men of business who make up the membership of the executive council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in a recent adjudication involving JKH and its possible violation of CCC’s code of ethics.

The very presence of JKH directors, independent and otherwise, at the adjudication and the failure of the other executive council members to raise objections to their presence, speak to an ethical laxity of the order which even a man of corrupt moral parentage would have been aware of. The failure to raise objection might be excused on the grounds of cowardliness.

After all, the virtue of courage calls for profound moral training. But only a man bred entirely of cynicism and corruption could be indifferent to the fact that his action might have a prejudicial effect on a proceeding involving the adjudication on ethics.
A reader writing to the letters section of this paper last week said, “the country has become the home for the depraved.” There is indeed an obvious nexus between eminence and depravity in this country.

Nimal Seneviratne
Dehiwela