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විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
Victor Ivan
Ravaya
Ivan argues that Sri Lanka stands on the brink of the collapse of its political system, as N.M. Perera predicted of J.R. Jayewardene's 1977 constitution. He cautions the new opposition Movement Against Lawlessness against idealising the 17th Amendment, since the constitution lets the president stand above the law as a
Continuing his series on family life, Ivan turns to marriage. He recalls the baker in the house where he boarded as a boy in Katugastota, whose 'theory' was that what cannot be seen does no harm, and the romance of the baker's son that the family tried to break. He
Prompted by the response to his column on retirement, Ivan writes about raising children. Gandhi, his hero, was in his view a failed father, and he describes how he kept his own weekends for his family. He argues that mothers should stay with young children through the long human childhood,
Ivan argues that Sri Lankan society has become spiritually rotten after thirty years of violence within and between communities, which left widows, orphans and a population traumatised by fear, and armed criminals serving both rebels and the state. The war was won but the great transformation that should have followed
Writing as he prepares to retire, Ivan offers readers near retirement age his thoughts on planning the years ahead. He contrasts a retired acquaintance who kept working for the sake of purpose with J.R. Jayewardene, who had nothing to do after leaving office, and recalls how books and routine carried
Ivan argues that the political system is collapsing so fast that an explosion may be near. He cites some 600,000 people wanted on warrants, about 11 in every 100 adults, a conviction rate of around 4% against 70% in India, and extortion from private buses running to hundreds of millions
Ivan warns that Sri Lanka is again drifting into conflict with India, repeating J.R. Jayewardene's mistake of the 1980s, when the Vadamarachchi operation led to Indian intervention. The Rajapaksa government, he argues, rightly won the war but had no vision for peace: it failed to account for the losses of
Ivan defends Sunday Leader editor Frederica Jansz, whose paper published her telephone conversation with Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa about a puppy flown from Zurich on SriLankan Airlines. He describes how the Secretary answered calmly at first, then turned to abuse and threats, using obscene language and calling her a journalist
Ivan welcomes Karu Jayasuriya's call for the fragmented opposition to unite under a common banner to abolish the executive presidency, noting that for the first time Jayasuriya speaks of the political system as a whole. A statement is not enough, he argues, without a working programme, and he sets out
Ivan warns that the post-war building boom, from highways and ports to houses for the displaced, is using cement that does not meet legal standards. After the Standards Institution suspended certification for a Lucky cement consignment from Pakistan in 2011, the Auditor-General found that imported cement had failed all 47
Ivan criticises the absorption of 810 people without the required qualifications into the Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service at a time when 20,000 candidates sat an examination for 410 posts. He argues that such political favours degrade the service that runs the school system, and links the decision to wider
Ivan replies to Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri's critique (17 June) of his column 'Is the Thirteenth Amendment the Best Solution?'. Listing his earlier Ravaya pieces on the national question from 2006 onwards and his debate with Kumar David, he rejects the charge that he has turned against devolution, and cites the
Ivan's submission to the parliamentary select committee on the conduct and discipline of MPs. He cites a survey in which only 12% of people trusted Parliament, and traces the decline through land grabs and permits, thugs and private militias, and black money in elections, contrasting today's spending with the limits
Following his column on the homeland concept, Ivan examines the Tamil leaders' charge that dry-zone colonisation schemes were designed to change the ethnic make-up of the North-East. He traces the real causes: malaria's depopulation of the ancient heartland; the Crown Lands Encroachment Ordinance of 1840, which let the state sell
Ivan announces that he has stepped down as editor of Ravaya, which he had led since its founding, and that K.W. Janaranjana, lawyer, cartoonist and acting editor since Thimbiriyagama Bandara left the deputy editorship, has succeeded him. Having long criticised people who cling to office until death, he planned his
Marking N.M. Perera's 106th birth anniversary, Ivan rejects the view — shared by the Frontline Socialists about the JVP — that the Left failed by abandoning class struggle for coalition politics. The old Left's leaders were middle-class intellectuals of great learning, as Mick Moore described, and able administrators: Anil Moonesinghe
Unable to attend Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero's 70th birthday, Ivan honours him as one of the few learned people who never stayed silent in the face of wrongdoing. He recalls telling two vice-chancellors, G.L. Peiris and Arjuna Aluwihare, after the second JVP revolt that intellectuals' silence was the cause of youth
Had the country reorganised itself after the war, Ivan argues, it would have satisfied its people and reduced foreign pressure. Three insurrections have cost over 100,000 lives and many of the best leaders — a foreign scholar told a friend that no comparable country had lost so many — yet
Answering lawyer Sudarshana Gunawardana of Rights Now and the Platform for Freedom, who wrote in Samabima that Ivan merely preaches to the ruler, Ivan says he never believed sermons to leaders could change the system. Rejecting violent revolution, he sees two peaceful routes — persuading lawmakers, the quicker one, or
The President's decision to release General Sarath Fonseka, whatever its motives, signals willingness to move towards a softer government and reform, Ivan writes. The prosecution looked to fair-minded people like the victor's revenge, displeasing even those who voted against Fonseka. He traces the rift between Fonseka, the President and the
