The practice of using social media platforms to disseminate information without any restrains or responsibility is ushering in a harmful trend and it will be detrimental to the stability and the movement of the stock exchange activities, said Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe.
Prof. Wickramasinghe made these observations at an event organized to ring the opening bell for trading at Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) to celebrate International Women’s Day 2018.
The event was held in collaboration with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and the Government of Australia.
“Stock exchange depends on stability and today one of the greatest threats to the stock exchange comes from social media. Any individual who possess a laptop or a mobile with an internet connection has the power to receive and disseminate news without any restrains or responsibility.”
Prof. Wickramasinghe also noted it is unfortunate that the law enforcement authorities have not been well equipped with technology or capacity to curtail the impact of fake and hateful contents that harm the mutual trust, diversity and harmony among local communities.
“Sometimes, we do not adequately condemn these activities. There is a need to identify the citizen’s rights and civic responsibilities to prevent commotions and violence of this nature and to prevent any politically heightened differences. Then only, we are able to celebrate diversity, unity and peace.
It is important at this juncture to keep in mind that none of us has a singular or essential identity. We may have an identity as women and men. And also, we may have other identities in terms of profession, sexual orientation, language, class, education, geography, age, politics and so on.”
Commenting on gender equality, Prof. Wickramasinghe also noted that equality involves accepting commonality, considering the common rights of men and women and ensuring equal employments, promotions and opportunities for women.
“Primarily it involves looking at numbers in terms of nomination, domination, representation and participation within the labour force and employment structure, industries and horizontal and vertical work sectors and structures and so on. We need to look at gender equity, as gender equity involves looking at differences between men and women, and more importantly between men and men and women and women.”
Prof. Wickramasinghe also stated that Sri Lanka is still battling for gender sensitive and gender appropriate work spaces, work facilities and work infrastructure.
“Gender equity is presumed to fulfill these gender expectations of women and leads to social justice,” she noted.
Amena Arif - IFC Country Manager for Sri Lanka and the Maldives speaking at the event noted that there is an enhanced amount of compelling evidence for the importance of gender diversity and equality both on board level and in suitable positions.Gender diversity is the right thing to do; not just because it is the right thing to do, because it will immensely contribute towards the growth of the private sector, Arif noted.
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