It appears state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have risen in salience in Sri Lanka recently. I am giving a keynote address on this topic at the launch of the Advocata Institute. The slideset that I will be using is here.
The day before yesterday, I was debating on a TV talk show what should be done with the least defensible of the SOEs, the renationalized SriLankan Airlines and the misbegotten Mihin Lanka. It is interesting that the successful reform that I was associated with, telecom, keeps coming up in these discussions.
On May 17th, the Colombo University MBA Alumni Association has pulled together a panel to discuss the topic. I’ll be speaking at that too.
Hopefully, we will push thinking in the right direction through these discussions. At the talk show I think I was able to get the participating politicians, at least, to look beyond things like national pride and job security for the employees, at issues such as the logic of investing public money and imposing political decision making on inherently risk-laden activities such as running airlines. Facts such as the inefficiency of SriLankan with 333 employees per aircraft (behind only Syrian Air and Pakistan International Airlines) appeared to make an impact on at least those who do not buy into the labor theory of value (according to that politician, it is essential to have more employees to exploit, otherwise no value can be generated!). Accordingly, Syrian Air, with 400 employees per aircraft is the one to emulate.
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Rohan Samarajiva
The Colombo University MBA Association unilaterally changed the schedule making it impossible for me to participate. So that one is off.
Instead I will be debating three politicians on at 2130 Tuesday (17th May) on Sirasa’s Satana, perhaps the highest rated political talk show in Sri Lanka.
Rohan Samarajiva
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wgDNHFwUtA is the link to the full panel discussion at the Advocata Launch on May 6th.
Workshop: Digital Tools for Strengthening Public Discourse
Today, LIRNEasia hosted a workshop to launch digital tools created by Watchdog Sri Lanka, funded by GIZ’s Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme. Researchers, practitioners, activists and journalists attended to learn about these tools, and how they can potentially help them in their own lines of work.
Election Misinformation in Sri Lanka: Report Summary
Election misinformation poses a credible threat to Sri Lanka’s democracy. While it is expected that any electorate hardly operates with perfect information, our research finds that the presence of an election misinformation industry in Sri Lanka producing and disseminating viral false assertions has the potential to distort constituents’ information diets and sway their electoral choices.
Election Misinformation in South and South-East Asia: Report Summary
A powerful weapon in a time of global democratic backsliding, election misinformation may undermine democracy via a range of mechanisms. Election misinformation may influence an electorate to cast their ballots for candidates they otherwise might not have on the basis of incorrect information about a country’s economy, the candidates, or some other phenomenon.
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