August 14, 2012
Public interest activist Nihal Sri Ameresekere has written to the Secretary of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Lalith Weeratunga, joining in the chorus in defence of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) and its officials who have come under severe pressure for trying to stamp out illegal market practices in the Colombo Stock Exchange, with the government yet to make public its stance regarding the issue as market manipulators gleefully watch the pendulum swing their way.
Ameresekere’s letter to the President’s Secretary was prompted by attempts made to vilify the SEC and its officials by an influential group of investors who played the stock exchange, as it becomes woefully obvious that the government prefers to pander to the whims and fancies of these investors, which the COPE even called a mafia!, rather than support the SEC.
Ameresekere says the Colombo Stock Exchange is "not of any material significance or a parameter of the country’s economy, since it does not comprise of even a cognizable fraction of the country’s economy and the vast masses. It is more akin to a Casino, patronized by a coterie of affluent, but statutorily regulated".
He also pointed out how a former President did not try to prevent investigations into fraudulent transactions irrespective of who was involved.
"To the credit of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga,..., she did not in any manner, whatsoever, endeavour to stymie the investigations and actions of the PERC (Public Enterprises Reforms Commission) vis-a-vis the privatisations of SLIC (Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation) and the bunkering monopoly LMSL (Lanka Marine Services Ltd), regardless of her associations with the persons involved."
Ameresekere has called on the President’s Secretary to honour the imdependance of the SEC.
The Letter in full: Read More...
