June 28, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka has tremendous natural advantages to progress but needs human co-existence and better institutions of governance, a business chamber boss has said amidst rising nationalism and deteriorating institutions of liberty. Shah said Sri Lanka also needs to push exports for growth. He replaced Susantha Ratnayake as the head of the Ceylon Chamber.
"Sri Lanka is home to four of the world’s great religions," Suresh Shah, newly elected head of Sri Lanka's Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, representing some of the largest businesses and smaller bodies with links counterparts in many other countries, said in prepared remarks.
"And each one of these teaches us that the path to well-being rests on attaining harmony & co-existence between human beings.
"Yet Sri Lanka is not at peace with herself. Our society is marked by tensions driven by a fear of the other, of those we perceive to be different from our own selves. To truly move forward as a nation, we must celebrate our diversity, not fear it."
Analysts say that Sri Lanka has been infected European style nationalism since the beginning of the last century which is now again intensifying.
Many Sri Lankans are now simply calling it 'hate'.
