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THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED PROFESSIONAL MANAGERS OF SRI LANKA
JANUARY 2021

divisions within our society along ethnic and religious lines. and religions and blur those lines. Those who preach racism
The distrust, suspicion, disrespect, intolerance among must be marginalized. Sri Lankans have to realize that our
ethnic groups and religions manifesting from time to time in differences are our strength and that if we pull together we
violence, disruption, boycott etc. has been a major drawback will all win. It is not a zero-sum game.
to our progress as a nation and this prejudice and bigotry
continues to hold us back. While the Sinhala Buddhist So in summary, my appeal to all Sri Lankans is to change
majority have a deplorable record of violence against the our mindset to be a disciplined society, to embrace and live
minorities through a series of ethnic and religious riots, by strong values and ethics and to come together as Sri
the Tamil and Muslim minorities have played their part Lankans casting aside all religious and ethnic differences. It’s
to escalate and aggravate the issue. The ruthless Tamil a monumental goal but not impossible to achieve.
separatists took violence and disruption to another level for
30 long years. The 2019 Easter Sunday attacks by a group of
Islamic fanatics, dealt a severe blow to a fledgling economy
just beginning to pick up after the end of the conflict with the
LTTE.
Here again we tend to blame our politicians for the
tension between our communities. But the hard truth is
that politicians merely use an underlying tension to their
advantage. The divisions go deep and are hardwired. Racism
and intolerance are reinforced by opinion leaders within
each community. Adults pass their beliefs to their children.
And we have a vicious cycle of distrust and disengagement.
This last aspect is possibly the most difficult and challenging
malady to fix. But a journey of a thousand miles begins with Jayanthi Dharmasena
FCMA CGMA
one single step. We have to heal as a society. Each of us have Managing Director
to resolve to reach out to others from different ethnic groups HAYLEYS AGRICULTURE HOLDINGS LTD
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