President on receiving 'Leader with Sri Lankan Values' award says :

Professional organisations like SLIM can contribute towards 'creating' good leaders

by Ranil Wijayapala

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday said that she was determined to make a difference in the country's leadership in the next several years by putting a stop to the nation having to cope with the 'least talented and most dishonest people' specially as national leaders and in Government.

Addressing a distinguished gathering at the President's House where she was awarded the 'Leader with Sri Lankan Values' award at the specially organised National Icons of the year 2005 awards ceremony by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing to present the trophy to her, President Kumaratunga pointed out that Sri Lanka lacks honest leaders and added that institutes like the SLIM and other professional organisations can contribute towards 'creating' good leaders in every sector of the country.

"We need them mostly, at this moment, in the political field. It was in that area where true leadership is totally lacking," the President added.

"In governing a country, we need political leaders as well as leaders of administration. Something went wrong somewhere, some decades ago. We have been coping with the least talented and the most dishonest people in this country. This is common to the position of the leadership of the country especially in Government," the President added.

"This has to be stopped. I am determined to make a difference at least in the next few years in which I have the authority to do so" a determined President added. She said although the modern world likes us to believe that systems and organisations are more powerful than individuals, it appears that personalities are extremely important for the efficient and effective functioning of an institution. The President said political leaders should know the reactions of the people adding that she too attempted to know the public opinion through researches conducted by independent pollsters.

"At the beginning I was influenced by the so-called free media. But for the past several years I was totally indifferent to what the so-called free media says about me or the policies of the Government. Because, I know it is not free, it is the most unfree, the most bound to one political party, the country has had", the President added.

"For persons who want an honest opinion from the people, it is important to have more and more independent persons as pollsters" the President asserted.

Nalin Attygalle, Chairman National Icon Awards 2005 and the immediate past President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing presented the trophy for the Leader with Sri Lankan Values to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at this ceremony. The President thanked the SLIM for making her star attraction of the night.