THE VOICE OF AN INFLUENCER

Yamini Sequeira describes Vijitha Yapa’s impact on the media and political arena in this country

 “If you want to change the world, you have to start with yourself!” These are words of wisdom from Vijitha Yapa – journalist, author and entrepreneur.

His professional career stands as testimony to how Yapa has applied this ethos to all aspects of his life. Donning multiple hats over the decades, his has been an influential voice in the corridors of media and politics.

Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Vijitha Yapa Bookshop, he was also the founder editor of three national newspapers – The Island, The Sunday Island and the Sunday Times – along with being the author of three books.

LMD has been fortunate to have Vijitha Yapa as one of the most high profile book critics in the country. His monthly book review covers the latest fiction and nonfiction works available in Sri Lanka.

Recalling his association with the magazine over the years, he recounts: “My column has been featured in LMD for some three decades. The magazine has had a rich, modern and attractive look from day one. At one time, we were importing about 200 magazines from around the world – and even then, LMD held its own and would stand out against the international publications because of its quality.”

In his words, “LMD has had a sense of purpose, creating captivating content to inspire confidence, which has helped generate business confidence, provide insights into the world of business and create a positive perception about the country.”

Although Yapa believes that LMD is not a political magazine, he’d like to see deep analyses of political issues that impact business so that it helps corporate leaders look ahead.

“I would also like to see investigative journalism as a differentiating factor in the magazine. Sri Lanka is marred by corruption and we see very little commentary on this in the general media. I believe that LMD could occupy that high seat as the moral conscience,” he notes.

He goes on to bemoan that perpetrators of bribery and corruption need to be jailed and brought to book, which unfortunately rarely happens.

Citing the names of bygone stalwarts in investigative journalism, he laments there’s little followup of critical stories in the daily newspapers of blatant corruption, land grabs and so on.

Yapa adds: “Sri Lanka didn’t have trained university qualified journalists per se, and some of the big names who took to journalism such as Gamini Weerakoon and Lasantha Wickrematunge were lawyers. Today however, there are journalism courses and more scope for youth to be formally trained.”

At one time, we were importing about 200 magazines from around the world – and even then, LMD held its own and would stand out against the international publications because of its quality

He believes that the editorial direction laid down by editors is also of crucial importance.

As an influential journalist himself, he was controversial at times. Yapa spent nearly 10 years in jail for publishing former finance minister Ronnie de Mel’s budget proposals the day before he presented them in parliament in the 1980s. He was accused of an offence under the Official Secrets Act.

“How I got out of that is another story!” he exclaims.

Reflecting on his book review column in LMD, Yapa is proud that it’s one of the only publications carrying reviews and laments the decline in reading habits of the younger generation. In his view, the secret to being a good journalist is reading – and plenty of it so as to garner sufficient knowledge to analyse topics.

“At the end of the day, LMD will sustain itself as it stands for the truth – something the country needs. It can stand against threats like the growing popularity of social media and the ability of AI to be misused to manipulate the truth,” he states.

Yapa concludes by offering the following advice: “My recommendation to LMD is a motto articulated by journalist and playwright Peter Howard. To some bishops who asked him ‘what is truth?’, he responded with ‘truth is the right you deny and the wrong you justify’.”