Sri Lanka needs rulers who respect law and order: senior executive

Nov 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's private sector should support lawmakers who respect law and order to bring about a free, fair and just society, which is the basis of democracy, a senior private sector executive has said. An attempt to set up independent commissions to create institutions that serve the people without favour has so far been effectively scuttled.

Uprisings

There have been three armed uprisings in the country since independence from colonial rule in 1948.

Two were by the majority Sinhalese community, and one by the Tamil community, where mis-governance created conditions for militants to be able to muster support from people to take up arms against the ruling establishment at the time.

Wijetilleke, a veteran banker with a career spanning several decades was speaking on 'Role of a CEO in post conflict Sri Lanka' at the 29th LBR-LBO CEO forum addressing senior executives in Colombo.

"Today all politicians have taken over statutory powers and they don’t care what they do," Wijetilleke said.

"That is the reason for the breakdown of law and order and we have to solve this."

In Sri Lanka the agenda at elections is largely set by politicians, especially vocal fringe pa