📈 Colombo Courtier: How Corporate Sycophancy Drives Sri Lankan Political Power

• Corporate Strategy & Access: Private sector leaders, including CEOs, conglomerates, and industry lobbyists, frequently use calculated flattery and uncritical endorsements as a core business strategy to secure state contracts, monopolies, tax holidays, and regulatory carve-outs. • Post-Election Pivot: Following leadership changes, business tycoons rapidly shift public loyalty to newly elected administrations at the Presidential Secretariat or Temple Trees to protect investments, maintain state patronage, and secure advisory or board roles. • Economic Blind Spots & Impact: Transactional silence and public praise from corporate chambers—such as endorsing the 2019 tax cuts prior to the 2022 economic crisis—create political echo chambers. This dynamic stifles market competition, hurts SMEs and poorer demographics, and undermines macroeconomic policy integrity.