මහින්ද-වීරවංශ දීගය හරි යයිද?
Back from Japan, the President did not quarrel with Mahinda Rajapaksa but backed his candidacy, leaving herself room for a later return. Mahinda is now in a bind: saying yes to the JVP’s conditions will cost him some of the forces gathering around him.
විශ්රාම යන ජනාධිපතිනිය සහ රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ
Ranil Wickremesinghe has told his MPs he is thinking of how to use the retiring President’s services, and spoke of American provisions for former presidents. The editorial welcomes cooperation between the two main parties but says retiring presidents must also face scrutiny, since immunity shields them while in office.
ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයන්ගේ වගකීම
The presidential race has begun, but on trivia rather than the country’s main problems. Taking public transport and another pressing issue as examples of about a dozen, the editorial says voters should demand to know what solutions the candidates offer.
ජනාධිපතිවරණ ප්රහේළිකාව
The Elections Commissioner has the constitutional power to fix the date and has already decided, but the Supreme Court’s view is unclear. The editorial argues that the oath the President took publicly on 22 December 1999 should be accepted, so that her term ends on 22 December 2005, and notes that the Chief Justice will be the saddest when it does.
රට කොයිබට ද?
The private bus strike of the 9th against new traffic fines brought transport to a halt. The editorial finds public transport in the same chaos as everything else and proposes proper licensing and training for bus crews, paid for by the state while they train.
පිරිවරක් නැති රැජිණට රනිල්ගේ පිහිටයි
Unable to show a winning plan to avoid irrelevance, the President is being deserted; seniors who backed her on the tsunami mechanism are not with her on the candidacy. The editorial suggests she may seek future protection from Ranil Wickremesinghe as J.R. Jayewardene and D.B. Wijetunga once did, and considers Mahinda Rajapaksa’s hardest task: pleasing nationalists and minorities at once.
හතළිස් දහසක් උපාධිධාරින්ට රැකියා ලබාදිම
Giving jobs to 40,000 unemployed graduates was a good step, but the way they were recruited was unfair to graduates who had already won lesser public posts by examination, and posting any graduate as an accountant ignores the need for trained, qualified people.
එස්.බී. නඩුව හා අල්ලස් කොමිසම
The High Court’s acquittal of S.B. Dissanayake on bribery charges is a blow to the Bribery Commission, which has failed to show independence in politically important cases. The editorial argues that a president’s immunity is no reason not to investigate, citing France, and questions a commission made up entirely of retirees.
සුනාමි ආධාර අගමැති හා ජවිපෙ
Mismanaging a disaster that killed nearly 40,000 and displaced close to a million could bring a political tsunami. The Prime Minister’s report to Cabinet puts tsunami aid received at Rs 113,262,539 without saying from whom; the editorial says he, the JVP and every other party that collected aid should account for it.
සුනාමි ආධාරවල පාරදෘශ්යභාවය
A Sunday Leader report that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa transferred part of the tsunami aid in his account to a Hambantota development fund raises a wider problem. The editorial calls on every party and politician who collected foreign aid to disclose what they received and how they spent it, and notes the banners thanking politicians for houses and boats.