පොලිස් මිනීමැරුම් ද?
In recent weeks many underworld figures have been shot by police ‘while trying to escape’ or ‘attacking officers’. The piece notes the distress of the politicians who hired such men, explains why suspects first run to their patrons, and argues that killing them in custody destroys both the rule of law and the chance to expose those behind them.
විපතේ විශාලත්වය හා පක්ෂවල පුංචිකම
Nearly 50,000 dead and close to a million displaced in under an hour: Ivan argues that a disaster of this scale should make the parties see that none of them can solve it alone. Events are defying everyone’s calculations and leave no room for heroes; only a joint national programme can overcome the disaster and prevent a ‘political tsunami’.
ජනතාවගේ ජීවිත සමග සෙල්ලම් නො කළ යුතු ය
Instead of using the tsunami to rebuild, the country is doubling the damage. The editorial attacks the coastal buffer zone that bars survivors from returning to their land, points out that most were freehold owners, not squatters, and argues that those able to rebuild on their own land should be helped to do so.
රට ගොඩනගන ආණ්ඩුවේ සැලසුම
The National Planning Department’s reconstruction plan puts the cost at US$1.5 billion (Rs 145.5 billion). The piece sets out the plan’s figures by sector and district and argues that the challenge can be met only by a national programme that unites the country’s strength and knowledge.
ඛේදවාචකය හා රාජ්යය
The tsunami took some 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands. Ivan sees a silver lining in the way it let people look past their divisions, but argues that it struck a state already collapsing into farce, and finds the Rs 100 million set aside for emergency relief smaller than the budget for restoring tanks.
අනුරගේ අපහාසය
Contempt complaints are becoming fashionable: UNP MP Johnston Fernando has petitioned the Supreme Court over Anura Bandaranaike’s remarks on the S.B. Dissanayake case. The note points out that the UNP leader decries contempt prosecutions while his own MP files one.
එස්.බී.ට ඇණ ගැසීම
The opposition condemns the Supreme Court’s judgment against S.B. Dissanayake with one voice and the government party praises it with one voice, while the JVP claims to be different. The editorial traces S.B.’s journey from PA ‘hero’ to UNP ‘traitor’ and insists that the public has the right to criticise a court that acts as a political instrument.
වංචාවක් සිදුවීද?
The biggest question raised by the judgment that sent S.B. Dissanayake to prison is whether the Chief Justice deceived him: the evidence suggests S.B. dropped his legal challenge on a promise he never doubted. If so, the editorial asks, how should such a deception be dealt with, and did the other judges know?
අපරාධය හා දඬුවම
S.B. Dissanayake went to court on the 14th expecting a suspended sentence and went to prison. Ivan recalls meeting him with Nihal Jayawickrama in November and warning him that, compared with Rauff Hakeem or the Hela Urumaya monks, he mattered little to the Chief Justice, and describes how S.B. walked into the trap of his own accord.
“දි කිරට කියන බළල් සාක්ෂියක්”: අගවිනිසුරු සහ “දිවයින”
The Sunday Divaina ran a full-page interview with the Chief Justice, conducted by a writer who had earlier defended the Public Trustee. The piece asks why the interview appeared while an estate case involving the paper’s owners was pending before a bench on which the Chief Justice always sat, and whether a judge may use a litigant’s newspaper as his shield.