Dive into an archive of over 5,000+ published articles…
Archives: Articles
වැරදුණු කුරුමානම
Victor Ivan
Ravaya
Ivan argues that the government's rushed new constitution was a cover for entrenching the executive presidency and a mixed electoral system of 298 members. The plan was to win minority parties with the ethnic settlement, buy about nine to sixteen UNP MPs, and rely on a Supreme Court under Sarath
Ivan argues that peace in a long war fuelled by mutual hatred requires a serious, systematic effort, while politicians talk of peace mainly to please donors. Playing with the problem can make it worse, as the collapse of the Indo-Lanka Accord and the southern bloodshed showed. Before talks, the government
The editorial argues that Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva is serving the President's political aims, as seen in government-related cases and the proposed 17th Amendment to change the electoral system. Unlike earlier amendments heard by the most senior judges, this bench excluded the four seniors and constitutional experts Mark Fernando,
An independent judiciary is a precondition for the survival of a democracy. Sovereign power lies with the people, and it is the courts' responsibility not to permit laws that reduce it. The test applied here is how the bench was constituted to examine the Seventeenth Amendment.
The editorial describes how the 209-page draft constitution was printed on 30 July, approved unread by the cabinet on 31 July and sent to the Supreme Court as an urgent bill without gazetting or public comment. A constitution is a social contract, it argues, not an emergency law like that
Ivan compares the government's rush to enlarge Parliament to 281 seats with 168 elected by first-past-the-post, avoiding a referendum through a court ruling, with J.R. Jayewardene's attempt to keep Abeyratne Pilapitiya in Parliament after losing the Kalawana election petition. Then the Supreme Court ruled that adding even one seat required
The printing of the draft constitution finished on Sunday 30 July and it went to the cabinet on the 31st. Every minister approved a 209-page document none of them had read, because there had been no time to read it. On 2 August it went to the Chief Justice.
Marking forty years since Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world's first woman prime minister, the editorial honours her but questions her holding office at 84 when her health prevents her from performing the duties of a post that, though diminished, still answers to Parliament and acts for the President. Citing Roosevelt
Ivan explains the government's plan to switch to a first-past-the-post system by using the urgent-bill procedure to obtain a Supreme Court ruling that no referendum is needed. He argues the court cannot allow a change to the constitution's foundations without one, recalls the distortions of the 1970 and 1977 results
Ivan recalls that J.R. Jayewardene's 1978 constitution concentrated power in an executive president, subordinating Parliament, the courts and the public service, and that Sirimavo Bandaranaike vowed to fight any resulting dictatorship. Quoting the People's Alliance 1994 manifesto and Chandrika Kumaratunga's January 1995 address pledging abolition, he notes that she now
Ivan calculates that even repeating its presidential vote would give the People's Alliance and allies only about 115 of 225 seats under district proportional representation, and 103 if its vote fell ten percent. Intra-party preference contests make rigging harder, hence the push for a mixed system, which needs a two-thirds
The editorial points out that candidates at every level must declare their own, their spouses' and children's assets and liabilities to the Elections Commissioner, as must party office-bearers, yet the law has not been enforced since 1994. It attributes this to fear of politicians and urges the Commissioner to demand
The average number of votes a candidate needed to become an MP was 35,305 in 1994 and 32,492 in 1999. From that arithmetic the column works forward to the impasse the government has built for itself, and to what the courts could and could not do about extending a parliament.
With six weeks left in Parliament's term, the editorial finds the government's rush to amend the constitution suspicious and says any PA–UNP reform draft should be tabled as a white paper and left to the new Parliament. It calls for an independent elections commission and domestic and foreign observers as
Ivan describes a meeting he, Lasantha Wickrematunge, Varuna Karunatilake and Ravaya's Chapa Bandara had with CID director Bandula 'Shaw' Wickramasinghe over the Rohana Kumara murder. The talk ended when they showed that suspect Thara Ajith was arrested at the home of Presidential Security Division man Beddagane Sanjeewa. Ivan argues the
India says it has a package to end the war based on an undivided Sri Lanka and a fair settlement of Tamil grievances. The editorial welcomes any Indian solution acceptable to both sides, since mutual hatred rules out an internal settlement, and sets out the cost of the war: defence
On the eve of a general election the government has cut the price of flour by three rupees, raised pensions by 300 and public service salaries by 600. More significant politically is the increase in the Samurdhi allowance — and the machine that distributes it.
Ivan examines the dismissal of all petitions on the 1999 North Western provincial election at the preliminary objection stage for failing to show specific effects on the petitioners. He notes that K.N. Choksy and H.L. de Silva argued the reverse positions from the 1988 presidential petition, argues that the court
The editorial objects to Harry Jayawardena using banks and companies he controls to buy a controlling stake in Sampath Bank, against banking ethics and with the Central Bank silent. It describes him as a close Bandaranaike family friend and PA campaign financier shielded from customs cases, appointed to the Securities
With Parliament's term ending on 24 August, Ivan weighs the government's options. Extending the term would unite the UNP, JVP and Sihala Urumaya; under proportional representation even 4.3 million votes would give the alliance only about 115 seats. He explains the proposed mixed system of 260 members designed to curb
