On the day of the alliance's first budget, UNP MP Rohitha Bogollagama crossed over and was made a minister. Ivan explains how the law on crossovers is being bent to reach 113 seats, what the government plans for the Speaker and the constitution once it has them, and why the
The JVP now seems ready to go any distance to stop the UNP returning to power, and to change the constitution by a simple majority with the courts' help. Ivan argues that the President and the JVP may fight the UNP within the democratic framework but not outside it, and
Ravaya called the Public Trustee, Sarath Seneviratne, a first-rate crook for more than six years and gave the evidence. Ivan explains why so many who claimed to defend Buddhism shielded him, how politically important cases are steered to hand-picked benches, and closes on a Supreme Court ruling that a monk
Aid pledged at Tokyo depends on peace talks, and the alliance's first budget has been drawn up without the usual IMF support. The editorial warns against playing with the basic law by a bare majority and argues that reform of the executive presidency should come through consensus, which would also
Retired Supreme Court judge C.V. Wigneswaran's analysis of the court under the Chief Justice confirms what Ravaya has said: lawyers at Hulftsdorp can predict a judgment from the nature of the case and the faces on the bench, and without an end to partiality and cliques the court's dignity will
The President herself says the police and the courts are full of corruption, and Transparency International ranks them the most corrupt in the region. The editorial replies that the 'blue' President injected the poison at the head of the judiciary, the 'green' Ranil Wickremesinghe let it spread, and the JVP
Was Chandrika Kumaratunga's second term due to end in December 2005 or December 2006? Victor Ivan works through the constitutional arithmetic. G.L. Peiris holds that the public oath of 22 December 1999 governs, making the election due in 2005; Mangala Samaraweera replies that a two-term president is entitled to twelve
G.L. Peiris told The Hindu that the UNP backs an executive presidency, but a reformed one. Ivan lists the further reforms such a system would need, recounts how a joint reform proposal failed when Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera's signed copy never came back, and closes with sections on 'the Chief Justice
The editorial welcomes the Bar Association's belated awakening over the case of the Wellawaya magistrate, which it says exposes the Chief Justice's partisan handling of the judiciary. It notes the record of the police officer involved and how first the JVP and then the Hela Urumaya fell silent about the
The coming presidential election now steers politics in the South, and the President must complete a change that saves her from irrelevance before August 2005. The editorial warns that entering peace talks with hidden political aims rather than an honest wish to end the conflict could open the road to
Ivan argues that the school system turns the whole country into liars and pushes parents into fraud to win a Grade 1 place. He proposes a reorganised system of primary, secondary and A-level schools with equal facilities, addresses laboratories and maintenance funding, and sets out tables for each level.
The President has promised self-sufficiency in milk powder and sugar within five years. Ivan asks whether the country has the capacity, comparing Sri Lanka with India, which won independence through a movement that united all its groups and could build a national economy afterwards.
The UNP has finally spoken about the President's secret second swearing-in. The editorial asks why Ranil Wickremesinghe never fought the executive presidency when he held a parliamentary majority, and says that backing real reform would be his best answer to the belief that he too is an autocrat.
Children's Day is celebrated across the country, but the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are not upheld. The editorial treats care for children and the elderly as a measure of civilisation and warns that prosecuting abusers achieves little if the children themselves are left worse
Requiring voters to show identity cards is an important step, but the government's haste raises suspicion. The Elections Commissioner's figures, reproduced district by district, show that about 30 per cent of voters, some 3.8 million, have no identity card.
President Kumaratunga presses on with her plan to avoid political irrelevance after her second term: the costly JVP alliance, the defeat of the UNP, and a constitutional change she hopes the Chief Justice will help her through. Ivan argues that growing economic hardship is the chief obstacle to her plan
The yearly, heartless contest for school places is over, with few winners and many losers. The editorial describes how the race begins almost at conception, with certificates manufactured to fit a target school, as a sign of how thoughtless the country's institutions have become.
President Kumaratunga's view of terrorism, given to the UN General Assembly after George W. Bush spoke, is judged sound, and more careful than Ranil Wickremesinghe's earlier speech there. But the editorial reminds her that her government can do nothing without the JVP and cannot move a step without a settlement
The Human Rights Committee has ruled against Sri Lanka again, this time over Nallaratnam Singarasa, jailed for 35 years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, while Tony Fernando's case is pending. Ivan holds President Kumaratunga responsible for appointing Sarath N. Silva as Chief Justice, and Ranil Wickremesinghe for allowing the
Parliament has the final responsibility for the country's course, yet it will not even look at a case in which a citizen who sued the Chief Justice and members of the Judicial Service Commission was tried by a bench that included a respondent. Parliament should not meddle with the courts,
