Dive into an archive of over 5,000+ published articles…
Archives: Articles
රටේ රැජිණ ජනාධිපතිනියයි
Victor Ivan
Ravaya
A satirical piece on the gift of two acres of prime land at Rajagiriya to the President's Australian physiotherapist, likening her to a feudal queen who rewards retainers from the royal domain, along with luxury houses for loyal officials and President's Fund grants to relatives. A second item mocks the
An investigative dossier on the January 2000 killing of Kumar Ponnambalam. It sets out a timeline linking the killing to the President's televised attack on critics, and reports Mrs Ponnambalam's accusation against the government and CID chief Bandula Wickremasinghe's secret report naming Mahen Ratwatte as instigator. It reproduces the President's
A formal complaint to Speaker Joseph Michael Perera asking Parliament to investigate Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva's association with Rohana Kumara, a fraudster and suspect in the Peradeniya gardens murder of Ranjith Bandara Wijekoon. It details Kumara's record, his role at the judges' training institute, minute-by-minute phone records linking him
Ivan describes how in Anamaduwa the violent rule of PA strongman D.M. Dassanayake, known as 'Thalagoya', has been replaced after the election by that of the UNP's Ranga Bandara, a former policeman, with nine killings, 250 injured and over 150 houses burned, while the police and the Prime Minister look
A news report that the killing of Fr Aba Costa of St Joseph's Church, Negombo, is being traced to the gang of Moratuwa Saman, alleged gunman in the Kumar Ponnambalam murder. It notes the confessions of Tinker Sunil, arrested at Kuliyapitiya, Saman's re-arrest, suspicion that businessman James Anthony ordered the
The cabinet has reportedly reversed, at the President's intervention, its decision to cancel all state recruitment made between the dissolution of Parliament and the election. The piece argues that a caretaker government has no right to make such appointments, that correcting them is not revenge, and that in a country
Ivan compares the new Prime Minister with three presidents. J.R. Jayewardene thought big and was democratic with his cabinet though authoritarian towards the country; Premadasa was the reverse; Chandrika Kumaratunga had no national goal and was autocratic towards both. He credits Ranil Wickremesinghe's restraint on the ethnic issue and his
The editorial welcomes Mahinda Rajapaksa's appointment as Leader of the Opposition as a first step in freeing the SLFP from one family's control, noting that Chandrika Kumaratunga conceded it only under pressure from party members. It urges him to modernise the party and to practise an opposition politics that supports
Ivan argues that Anuruddha Ratwatte used army commandos in the election, including the Madawala and Polgolla polling-station attacks and the Udathalawinna massacre, and faults army commander Lionel Balagalle for permitting it. He then examines the Athurugiriya safe-house affair, questioning why an intelligence unit working in Batticaloa kept thermobaric weapons in
An open letter to Kusumsiri Balapatabendi answering his statement that private media were running a campaign linking the President and her security division to murders. Ivan lists attacks on Lasantha Wickrematunge and himself, the President's own claim to have stopped a plot to kill two editors, S.B. Dissanayake's account of
The editorial notes that the new government has still not appointed chairmen and boards to corporations and statutory bodies, paralysing decisions at state banks and the Insurance Corporation. It urges prompt appointments vetted by a parliamentary committee open to public objections, and full enforcement of the assets and liabilities law,
On the 54th Independence Day, Ivan laments that freedom won without struggle left Sri Lanka without the attitudes or institutions to hold its communities together. Contrasting its record with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India, he cites negative growth, 15 per cent inflation, war costs and some 100,000 deaths, and argues
A set of short items. Ivan objects that the President, Prime Minister and Anura Bandaranaike voted at their residences while ordinary voters faced threats. He faults the failure to prosecute election offences, the Bribery Commission's refusal to act on misuse of state resources and its neglect of asset declarations, and
More than five decades have passed since independence, and the fifty-fourth anniversary has to be marked with sadness rather than pleasure. What the country has done with its freedom, measured against the neighbours who started level with it, is the subject.
The new government is moving fast towards an agreement with the LTTE. The country is bankrupt as it has never been and growth has gone negative, and although the fundamental problems are various they are all tied into one another.
The editorial welcomes the reopening of the Vavuniya–Kilinochchi road and urges a Colombo–Jaffna bus service. It describes costly and scarce flights and sea passages, a decade and a half without electricity, and prices three to five times those in the south, and argues that normalising life in the north would
Ivan likens Ranil Wickremesinghe's rapid push for peace to a Lasker-style chess attack that ignores control of the centre, in a game with many live players, from the President and JVP to Prabhakaran, Hakeem and Thondaman. He recalls how Mandela won respect across racial lines, finds international and business conditions
Ivan warns Ranil Wickremesinghe that after crossing the crocodile-infested river of the election he faces mined ground. Chandrika Kumaratunga has ceded defence but keeps appointments of the IGP, service chiefs, governors and ambassadors, an expanding presidential secretariat, the President's Fund and a security force of some 4,000. While she quietly
The editorial says Sri Lanka can recover only by ending the war, and urges all parties not to obstruct the new government's peace effort. It criticises the JVP, itself once outside the democratic mainstream, for opposing the process from the start, arguing that if Sinhala youth could leave armed struggle
The Prime Minister and his retinue have crossed the river full of man-eating crocodiles and reached land. They may think the walk to the oasis is easier than the crossing was. Land looks safe and is full of pits and mirages, and sometimes crossing it is harder than crossing water.
