හදිසි මැතිවරණයක
As the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE nears its first anniversary, the seizure of a boat carrying anti-aircraft weapons shows the LTTE is ready for war, unsettled by talk of a snap dissolution and the President’s pact with the JVP. The editorial warns that an election under cohabitation would be a violent contest, and lists eight points the parties should agree, including electoral reform, restoring the independent commissions, a neutral caretaker government and a five-year national government.
වඳින්න ගිය දේවාලය හිසේ කඩා වැටීම
The editorial protests that the Supreme Court sentenced a fundamental rights petitioner, an English teacher with a heart condition, to a year in prison for contempt without charge, legal advice or a chance to defend himself, on a bench that included the Chief Justice, a respondent in the case. It condemns the silence of the media, human rights groups and the legal community while international bodies react with shock.
බන්ධනාගාර වර්ජනයේ අරමුණ කුමක් ද?
The government has left Emmanuel Fernando in prison despite international calls for his release, though the Cabinet could ask the President to pardon him. The editorial suggests the Welikada jailers’ strike over the remand of two officers accused of beating him was instigated from above, notes his account of being assaulted by a plain-clothes officer and medical evidence of injury, and warns that ignoring problems centred on the Chief Justice will cost the government dearly.
නිදහස හා ජාතික ඒකාග්රතාව
With national unity as the theme of the coming Independence Day celebrations, the editorial argues that rivalry between the two main southern parties blocks a settlement. Citing South Africa, it proposes agreeing basic constitutional principles in all-party talks including the LTTE, holding an election under a changed electoral system, and then forming a national government of all elected parties to draft a new constitution.
අධිකරණය කොයිබටද?
The editorial says the judiciary now produces the kind of horror stories once heard from the underworld: death threats against the two district judges who petitioned against the Chief Justice and against Desmond Fernando, posters against the judges on Supreme Court premises, and a petitioner jailed and beaten. Police have named Rohana Kumara, a notorious criminal and associate of the Chief Justice, as behind the threats, and a former prisons commissioner as among those behind the posters, while lawyers, rights groups and the government stay silent.
සටන් විරාම ගිවිසුමට වසරකි
Marking the first anniversary of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the LTTE on 22 February, the editorial notes that the PA and JVP condemn it as a betrayal while the government hails it as its greatest achievement, both treating it as a tool in the southern power struggle. It argues that a true assessment must start from the relief the agreement brought to the long-suffering people of the North and East, which a numbed majority mentality and majority-dominated media ignore.
හදිසි ආණ්ඩු පෙරළියකට තිබෙන ඉඩ
With Parliament a year old, the editorial weighs the President’s options. Anura Bandaranaike says she can dissolve it once a pact with the JVP is reached, but an election soon after the last one could anger voters and the JVP is a poor partner in government. Counting seats, it shows the People’s Alliance and allies cannot reach 113 without UNP defectors, and argues that a coup would anger the international community and not serve her aim of amending the constitution to stay in politics.
ස්වාධීනත්වයට දක්වන බිය
The editorial notes that the fight for judicial independence since Sarath N. Silva’s appointment as Chief Justice has come from outside the judiciary, and that a Bar Association committee report by K. Narendra Kumar endorsing the International Bar Association’s findings was suppressed. It reports that the Judicial Service Officers’ Association has now made judicial independence the theme of its 60th anniversary, and that the Chief Justice tried to wreck the event by withholding funds and leave and calling a compulsory paid seminar on the same day.
සාමය ජයගැනීම සරල නැත
The editorial rejects criticism of the LTTE’s participation in the Oslo aid conference, arguing that both parties jointly seeking reconstruction aid is positive. It notes Anton Balasingham’s measured reply to the US Deputy Secretary of State, the LTTE’s shift from a separate state to internal self-rule and Prabhakaran’s conciliatory Heroes’ Day speech. On LTTE police stations and courts, it argues regional policing is part of devolution and that successive governments’ failure to provide Tamil-language police and courts is partly to blame.
ගොයම කන්නේ වැටත් නියරත් නම් කළ හැක්කේ කුමක් ද?
Almost a month after the Constitutional Council sent the President its list of nominees for the independent commissions, she has not approved it, leaving the system in disarray. The editorial recalls that the 17th Amendment came from civil-society pressure and was distorted and rushed through in a day, but insists the President is constitutionally bound to approve the list promptly. It says Parliament must resolve the crisis, if necessary with enabling legislation.