Stock Market Mafia: “It’s A Wild Wild Market” Says Tilak Karunaratne
By Azhar Razak -
Clamour for credit and indirect pressure exerted to stop investigations have been the main demands of the so called ‘stock market mafia’ existent on the Colombo Bourse, says Tilak Karunaratne, who tendered his resignation as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. Reluctantly stepping down barely nine months after taking over the position, the former Chairman said that he had tried to fast track investigations into market malpractices under his tenure so as to bring sanity to what he described as ‘a wild market where some people were shooting from the hip’.
In what could be his first interview with The Nation Gain following his resignation, Karunaratne explains the sequence of events that led him to call it a day and his expressions showed that his main disappointment was that he could not effectively take some of those real perpetrators of the Colombo’s Stock Market to task.
In what could be his first interview with The Nation Gain following his resignation, Karunaratne explains the sequence of events that led him to call it a day and his expressions showed that his main disappointment was that he could not effectively take some of those real perpetrators of the Colombo’s Stock Market to task.
Q: What made you accept the position in the first place?
Well, I’ve known the President for a long long time. We’ve been in the same party for a long time together. We’ve been buddies and in a way that we’ve worked together to strengthen the party when it was in the doldrums and to bring it back to power. But unfortunately, I had to leave when Anura Bandaranaike joined the UNP in 1994. I’m a very close friend of Anura and at that time I thought I shouldn’t let my friend down and crossed over whereas, the President decided to stay on. When you look back, I would say he took the right decision. Anyway, since I rejoined the party, the President had been offering me many posts. Before Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda went to Japan as an Ambassador, he offered me that post. However, I very politely turned down (the offer) saying that I want to be in Sri Lanka and I’ve other involvements. Anyway, I’m no diplomat. You can see from the way I behave. I’m not inclined to satisfy all the parties which is part of the game in diplomacy.
Then after some time, before Harry Jayawardena was appointed Chairman of Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), he offered me that post. Again, I said very politely I don’t want, because petroleum has been a den of thieves and rogues. And I did not want to go and make my henchmen. Then, there was a vacancy in the High Commissioners Post in London and the President offered me that. Again I rejected that offer. So I’ve been constantly saying no to all the offers that came my way.
However, last year, when the President came as the Chief Guest to the 125th Year Anniversary celebrations of Ananda College on my invitation (as I’m the President of the Old Boys Association), he said “Tilak, don’t say no this time. I think this is an ideal opportunity for you. You have been an investor for a long time in the stock market and you know the workings of the stock market, therefore accept the position as SEC Chairman.”
Since, I’ve been saying no to him all this time I was at the time reluctant to say no to him, so I said, give me 48 hours to decide. So I thought about it and consulted my wife and children about it who were not in favour of it at all. But, still I thought about it and I said I will accept it and work purely in an honorary capacity. No job, no car, no chauffeur, no petrol, no mobile phone, nothing….and I also said that I want my independence and I said I would like to do as per the objectives of the SEC Commission’s Act and want to achieve those objectives impartially without fear or favour. So the President said “no issues Tilak, at all. I know the way you conduct yourselves and just sign it”. So on December 7, last year, I assumed duties.
Since, I’ve been saying no to him all this time I was at the time reluctant to say no to him, so I said, give me 48 hours to decide. So I thought about it and consulted my wife and children about it who were not in favour of it at all. But, still I thought about it and I said I will accept it and work purely in an honorary capacity. No job, no car, no chauffeur, no petrol, no mobile phone, nothing….and I also said that I want my independence and I said I would like to do as per the objectives of the SEC Commission’s Act and want to achieve those objectives impartially without fear or favour. So the President said “no issues Tilak, at all. I know the way you conduct yourselves and just sign it”. So on December 7, last year, I assumed duties.
Q: When do you think you faced your first obstacle after you took over?
