After the cabinet spokesman hinted at the election date, Ivan examines the constitutional timetable and the clash with the Pope's January visit, which the Catholic Church had asked to keep apart from politics, and the astrologer's role. He then discusses a European court ruling of 16 October 2014 on the
Ivan argues that the Eighteenth Amendment, poorly drafted, did not remove the two-term bar in a way that clearly lets the President stand again, and that a law-abiding leader would seek the Supreme Court's opinion rather than rely on a friendly ruling. He criticises plans to time the election by
Ivan assesses the campaign led by the Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha to abolish the executive presidency through a common candidate. He cites two indicators of institutional collapse, a former Chief Justice's estimate and the substandard-cement case, and sets out six reservations: it seeks limited amendment rather than a full new constitution,
Contrasting the prosecution of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa with the removal of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, Ivan compares India, whose leaders built a nation and a democracy, with Sri Lanka, where independence brought ethnic, religious and caste conflict. With a presidential election near, he weighs the idea of a
Part II recounts how an informant inside Sucharitha, Premadasa's residence, telephoned Ivan at night; how the informant's warnings proved true, including of a planned explosion at the UNP May Day rally that Ivan tried to expose in Ravaya; Mohideen's revelations; the threats that followed; Bradman Weerakoon's view of the Premadasa
Ivan analyses the Uva provincial council result of September 2014, comparing it with the 2004 and 2009 provincial polls and the 2005 and 2010 presidential results in Badulla and Monaragala. The ruling alliance's share has fallen sharply in what was its strongest province, the UNP has recovered, and he argues
Replying to President's Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, who told Mawbima and Ceylon Today that Ivan had hated Premadasa and set out to show that Premadasa, not the LTTE, killed Lalith Athulathmudali, Ivan recalls that Warnakulasuriya had defended Magistrate Lenin Ratnayake, whose rape case Ravaya exposed in August 1997. He restates his
With the Uva provincial election showing the government's abuse of state resources, from Divi Neguma handouts to Samurdhi officers campaigning, Ivan compares campaign-finance rules in the United States, France and India with Sri Lanka, where spending limits vanished after 1978. He asks whether the Commissioner of Elections has the power
Following up the previous column, Ivan tests Sarath Silva's argument against the constitution. Transitional provisions in Chapter XXI of the 1978 constitution, including Article 160, show how J.R. Jayewardene was specially made eligible, and the Eighteenth Amendment, rushed through on the wave of war victory, has a technical flaw that
Ivan, no admirer of Sarath N. Silva, nevertheless takes seriously the former Chief Justice's argument that Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot contest a third term. Silva's thesis, set out in nine points, is that the Eighteenth Amendment, passed in 2010 after Rajapaksa had already been sworn in for his second term, cannot
With the UN human rights investigation under way, Ivan warns that the government is ignoring the danger of sanctions, which no country has escaped unharmed. A small country's foreign policy should seek safety, not confrontation with the United States and Europe. He criticises the government's false show of innocence over
Ivan answers two attacks in the JVP paper Lanka by a writer calling himself 'Kasakaraya' (the flogger), who branded him a fraud and accused him of preparing the ground for Ranil Wickremesinghe as he had for Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1994. Calmly, he replies that he began writing books in prison
Quoting Mao that falling into a pit teaches the mind, Ivan asks whether Sri Lankan society learns from its disasters. After defeating Wijeweera's rising and then Prabhakaran, the country had a chance for an Asoka-like turn from war to reconciliation, but the victor was blinded by triumph. The crisis has
The death of a village teacher, a neighbour and relative, from cancer, and the difficulty of recovering her body, lead Ivan to examine the state of cancer care and medical ethics in Sri Lanka. Drawing on a conversation with his daughter, a professor's account of radiation equipment, his family's own
On 15 July 2014 the President appointed foreign experts, including Sir Desmond de Silva, Sir Geoffrey Nice and David Crane, to advise the Paranagama commission, a sudden reversal of the government's stand against foreign involvement. Ivan asks what the move is for, given the Defence Secretary's long hostility, and argues
A reply to C.A. Dissanayake's Ravaya article defending limited constitutional reform, which Ivan links to Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne's thinking. He questions who 'Dissanayake' really is, rebuts his account of J.R. Jayewardene's Second Amendment to the 1972 constitution, which created the presidency, and argues that the executive presidency changed the whole
Starting from Gandhi's view of struggle, Ivan examines the militarisation of Sri Lanka since 1971: by global indices it is among the most militarised countries in South Asia, and the forces grew hugely for the final war. He asks who is responsible for the rebellions, citing Bertrand Russell on the
Ivan argues that Sri Lanka failed to meet two historical conditions for building a nation. The Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim leaders of the independence era were limited in outlook; liberal ideas came mainly through educated Burghers, while revivalists such as Migettuwatte Gunananda took another path. The left movement and the
Ivan credits Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa with driving the war to a conclusion, but argues that he failed at what must follow the defeat of an internal rebellion: the humane rehabilitation of the defeated, as after 1971 and 1989, and letting a people mourn its dead. His gravest wrongs, Ivan
Ivan warns that a handful of extremist groups acting in the name of Buddhism, apparently with state protection, are pushing the country towards bloodshed again. Black July 1983 internationalised the Tamil question and fed the northern insurgency; turning on the Muslims now would isolate Sri Lanka in a world with
