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ව්යවස්ථා සභාව කොයිබට ද?
Victor Ivan
Ravaya
Long after its appointment, the Constitutional Council has not set up a single independent commission. The editorial criticises its demand for immunity from fundamental rights suits, reminds it that it is publicly funded and exists to make key institutions independent, and says members should give up political roles, including acting
Ivan welcomes talk of cohabitation between the President and the Prime Minister but says it must rest on principles. The 1978 Constitution breeds conflict when power is divided, the President has refused to respect the new mandate, and the UNP still covets the presidency. He rejects the idea of forgetting
The government thinks it can find the votes to curb the President's power to dissolve Parliament, but Ivan notes she controls the urgent-bill route and the Chief Justice decides constitutionality. Sarath N. Silva may protect her as before or switch to the new rulers, and either choice harms the country;
The editorial says the JVP aims to ally with favoured SLFP figures, derail the peace process with the President's help and use the resulting disorder to form a government it can steer, much as Sirimavo Bandaranaike and N.M. Perera did in 1964, with Mangala Samaraweera as go-between. It argues the
A statement from the President's spokesman said she had answered questions on the armoured vehicles and that no one may investigate her. Ivan replies that only a dictatorship works this way: used vehicles were bought at new prices and nearly Rs 2,500 million spent against a Rs 68 million allocation
Ivan argues that Ranil Wickremesinghe wasted his mandate at its peak by not negotiating terms of cohabitation, letting the President keep her choice of IGP, ambassadors, governors and service chiefs. Now she asserts that no one may investigate her or dissolve Parliament but herself. He says the government cannot pursue
Ivan traces the clash between the President and the UNF government to the 1978 Constitution, which J.R. Jayewardene modelled on de Gaulle's while ignoring the need for power to alternate. Comparing the American, Indian and Swiss constitutions with Sri Lanka's three in fifty years, he recounts how crisis was postponed
The editorial argues that the 1978 Constitution breeds endless crises because it ignores the possibility of the presidency and Parliament being held by different parties. Two decades of experience show that the presidency must be amended or abolished, including the arbitrary powers of dissolution and over the cabinet. An election
In a formal complaint dated 30 July 2002, Ivan asks the Bribery Commission to investigate magistrate Lenin Ratnayake for concealing his dismissal from the Insurance Corporation for claims fraud when becoming a lawyer and magistrate, and Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva for abusing office to protect his relative: misleading the
A young monk who led the Motherland Protection Movement was reportedly abducted, beaten and dumped in a village near Hungama. The editorial says only the government or those it protects could do this, and insists that however mistaken the movement's views, it must be free to protest within a democratic
An interview with Ravaya editor Victor Ivan on media reform: the campaign to abolish criminal defamation, the proposed Freedom of Information Act, plans for a Media Training Institute, and his argument that Sri Lankan journalism has acted as a creator of disputes rather than an arbitrator of them.
Ivan explains that the 1978 Constitution assumed one party would hold both presidency and Parliament, and recalls how France and D.B. Wijetunga avoided conflict under cohabitation. Chandrika Kumaratunga could have conceded power or resigned after 2001 but chose confrontation, while the Prime Minister's investigations of her corruption and crimes now
Government and opposition are now filing rival corruption complaints with the Bribery Commission, which the editorial sees as a chance to force it to look at the top of the power pyramid. It urges commissioners to publish their own asset declarations, to treat the editorial itself as a complaint and
As right-to-information legislation is due before Parliament, the editorial says existing rights must also work in practice. The public may obtain the asset declarations of anyone covered by the assets and liabilities law, but few know it and no system issues certified copies. Publishing all declarations on a website, it
Ivan likens Ranil Wickremesinghe to a snake charmer handling cobras whose fangs he has not drawn: pursuing the President and her associates slowly through inquiries while they still hold key posts. Further sections note that the committee under retired judge Ranjith Dheerasekera on local election malpractice has been starved of
The editorial says a peaceful settlement of the ethnic conflict is essential to the survival of all communities. As a deal with the Tamil rebels takes shape, eastern Muslims fear becoming a minority under Tamil dominance. It urges Tamil leaders to allay that fear, Muslim leaders to act with patience,
Ivan explains the 1994 laws that created the Bribery Commission and the offence of corruption, and why they failed: the President appointed commissioners freely and was excluded from the definition of public servant, as the 48 security vehicles bought in 2000, 13 missing, show. He criticises the Commission's handling of
Ivan says the Chief Justice heard Karu Jayasuriya's petition over biased state broadcasting despite Mary Robinson's advice that he stand aside, then delayed it until after the election, likening this to the fabled King Kekille's justice. Other sections mock the President's claim of humane rule, criticise a JVP no-confidence motion
Taking up Lasantha Wickrematunge's criticism of editors for hiding wrongdoing by the powerful, Ivan welcomes the repeal of criminal defamation and planned media reforms but says freedom means little without responsibility. He recounts how most papers protected magistrate Lenin Ratnayake and Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, and faults the Editors'
The editorial says no plan has yet emerged to rescue a country bankrupted by mismanagement and corruption. It proposes caps on the price and minimum service life of state vehicles, noting the President alone spent Rs 2,400 million in a year with 13 vehicles missing; full enforcement of the assets
