Lessons from my career: Synthesising management theory with practice – Part 12

The last episode dealt with my experience as the General Manager of the Cooperative Management Services Centre (CMSC) in rehabilitating Multipurpose Cooperative Societies (MPCSs) and my challenges. Now, I will discuss the other significant events during my stay there.

- BY SUNIL G WIJESINHA

Black July 1984

On 23rd July 1983, several Sinhala soldiers were killed in an ambush in the north. Anti-Tamil riots began in Colombo on the night of 24th July and later spread to other areas. On Monday, the 25th, I went to the office, as did my Chairman and several others. There was tension in the air from morning. Around 10 am, the looting started, and the streets were full of debris because the looters took what they wanted and smashed everything else on the road. The target was all Tamil-owned shops. We were in a quandary of what to do. We had gone in our vehicles, but there was no way that vehicles could go on the road. The Tamil staff members were wise and did not report for work. The Swedish consultants who had recently arrived were in a panic. They had never witnessed anything like this before. The Chairman pacified them by relating the 1958 riots and how they ended and predicted that things would return to normalcy in a couple of days. He was completely wrong because the sentiments were different now. Fortunately, the Swedish experts left the office before the roads became impassable.