PREPAREDNESS IS NECESSARY; OPPORTUNISM IS NOT

Why Sri Lanka must distinguish between strategic preparedness and heartless opportunism in a volatile world

- By Krishantha Prasad Cooray

While governments must remain alert to safeguard national interests during global instability, reducing the Middle East's current agony to a "strategic opportunity" reflects a profound failure of judgment.

True resilience for a nation like Sri Lanka lies in balancing necessary economic preparedness with the decency, character, and wisdom to respect the gravity of another's misfortune.

We have been taught to 'strike while the iron is hot.' It makes sense. One presses one's advantage. This holds for investors, politicians and even those navigating complex strategic situations. If life is a game, if countries and economies are 'at war' with one another, then such truisms can be and are applied.

Then again, we know of 'fishing in troubled waters.' It makes sense too, but in this case, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Somehow, making capital of someone else's misfortune doesn't seem right.

Of course, we don't really live in a world where things such as fair play and justice are celebrated and rewarded. When profits are raked in, it's the bank balances that are scrutinised. 'Ends should not justify means,' we are taught but that adage is affirmed mostly in its reverse. Ends do justify means; the history of the world bears this out.