COPE chairman bags LMD's 'Sri Lankan of the Year' Award

In a glittering dinner-theatre event that was graced by the who's who in business circles last Sunday, a leading business magazine said that its 2007 'Sri Lankan Of The Year' is the Chairman of COPE Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.

The controversial MP follows in Jayantha Dhanapala's footsteps, who won the accolade last year for running an ethical campaign for the UN's top job and did the country proud in the process. Other 'Sri Lankans Of The Year' included Lakshman Kadirgamar, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dr. Lalith Kotelawala, Ken Balendra and Chandra Jayaratne.

In a no-holds-barred interviews with LMD's Suresh Ginige, in LMD's December issue which was released soon after the announcement was made at the Trans Asia, the President's Counsel laments that "corruption is the very root of many evils in this country".

In an exclusive encounter with the pioneering magazine, he blows the lid off Sri Lanka's worst-kept public secret... that many of the country's state enterprises are, as LMD contends, "as crooked as a corkscrew".

Rajapakshe said that as the citizens of this country, all its people play an active role in this destruction - perhaps unknowingly, in some cases.

He said: "Even when a person is branded as corrupt or involved in criminal activities, the people return that MP to Parliament - sometimes with the highest preferential votes in a district!". "So, the people must point the finger at themselves."

Doing his part by exposing high-level corruption and bringing it into public domain, Rajapakshe points out that "corruption is simply a deviation from good governance", and it is in the hands of the citizens of the country to ensure that the governing bodies that are elected by them - in accordance with our democratic administrative system - are capable of handling such issues.

"They must have the wisdom to choose the right representatives," he said.