Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
06 April 2018
Charity
by Sri Lankan Airlines Board?
[“Our prime focus is to restructure the
national carrier and make it profitable within three years,” SriLankan Airlines
Chairman Ranjith Fernando, a veteran ex-banker, along with rest of the Board
members told the media yesterday. “This is a big challenge and we are ready for
it and will need support from all stakeholders,” he emphasised.] – Financial Times article - New SriLankan Board
ready for “challenging” take off to viability
The
new Board of Sri Lanka’s national carrier had the effect of distressing this
owner.
The
Sri Lankan Airlines website presents the new team as follows:
[ A new Board of Directors under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ranjit
Fernando has been appointed at SriLankan Airlines in order to accelerate the
restructuring process and create the enabling environment to proceed with
entering into a Public-Private-Partnership with a strategic investor. Other
Board members appointed include Mr. Mano Tittewella (Ministry of Finance), Dr.
Roshan Perera (Central Bank), Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathi (Air Force
Commander) and Mr. Susantha Katugampala (Lawyer/Barrister).]
Financial Times
article includes the following background information about the new Board:
[Fernando, Tittawella and other co-directors SusanthaKatugampala,
a successful entrepreneur based in Australia, Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathi and
Central Bank Additional Director Dr. Roshan Perera, akin to walking the talk,
have decided not to draw a salary until the airline is made profitable]
I did my Due Diligence
checks on the member who seemed most common with me as Australian and also a
little bit commercial out of the above group. I was disappointed to learn that Mr Susantha Katugampala –
the Australian on the Board was a migration lawyer. This then means that there
is no one on the board through whom we, the Commercial savvy alumni of Airlanka / Sri Lankan Airlines can channel our
Ownership Energy.
As for no-pay basis,
my heart sank even further. When I was invited to a conference at the
University of Jaffna, in 2010, I accepted that invitation stating firmly that
if my services were sought – they were available strictly on Business basis.
That prevented me from becoming politically influenced. Even my service
projects in Northern Sri Lanka, are based on this business basis to suit the
zero base budgeting system that the government said it was moving towards.
If Sri Lankan Airlines
is to move away from welfare mentality the new Board needs a zero base start
and evaluate on merit basis. Otherwise the welfare mentality gets strengthened
and the taxpayer would suffer even more depression than s/he already does
through poor performance by Sri Lankan Airlines.
Even with my own
children who are now parents, my rule is that I would only support them when
they are in dire need or when the system through which they were groomed has
heritage value in their current system developed by them. That’s when we become
‘Common Parents’ and parenting roots become deep in the family – able to
support tall traditional or wide global family trees.
I guess I have to move
away from this part of my Sri Lankan life, as I do with family members who fail
to develop ‘common values’. I resigned
from many work places here in Australia, where I ended up doing charity work
due to relatively lesser pay. Eventually I ended up contributing to National
Policy through my book Naan Australian which does present the book as an
account of racial discrimination in Australian University system. The courts
failed me but the true intellectuals did not. I thus carried the ‘ownership’
value with me into the next stage of my life. It’s that value that is my common-parent
supervisor at the workplace – wherever that may be.
My investment in Air
Lanka is ‘ownership’ Energy which
sustains me in all global activities. I guess I will move on and share my
Energy with other commercial operations of national and global ownership value.
But it is sad that the real owners have
been ignored while the Government is fooling the people whom those real owners
represent – with more and more physical changes to the structure – the latest
including Australian immigration lawyer who lacks big business experience.
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