දේශපාලකයන් සිටිය යුත්තේ නීතියට ඉහළින් ද?
PA MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra held a concert on the Angoda mental hospital grounds in defiance of a court order, and a PA local councillor accused of stripping a woman in the North Western election has evaded arrest, prompting a notice on the Katupotha police chief. The editorial says the President sets the example, citing her failure to implement a court order reinstating Parry Liyanage after his acquittal in the Embilipitiya case.
ජනාධිපති අරමුදල හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told Parliament that the President’s Fund need not table accounts because it receives nothing from the Consolidated Fund. The editorial calls this misleading: the Act subjects the fund to audit and parliamentary scrutiny, it has not been audited since 1995, and it is fed by state lotteries worth perhaps Rs. 10,000 million a year, comparable to Samurdhi or war capital spending. It traces the fund to J.R. Jayewardene and recalls an incomplete list of beneficiaries given to Sarath Kongahage.
රට අල්ලස්ලන්තයක් ද?
The Presidential Secretary called English-press reports on bribery allegations against BOI chairman Thilan Wijesinghe malicious. The editorial notes that Wijesinghe’s petition names Ranjith Atukorale, introduced by Minister Mangala Samaraweera, as seeking a $5 million bribe in the names of the President, Samaraweera and Wijesinghe over a Galle flour mill, that the Bribery Commission finds the charge against Wijesinghe credible, and that the government bears responsibility.
මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයාගේ වගකීම
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Central Provincial Council poll in Ududumbara, Pathadumbara, Hewaheta and Galagedara was grossly corrupt and that the Elections Commissioner violated petitioners’ rights by not cancelling voting at all 23 polling stations, whatever obstruction he faced. The editorial applies the Court’s words, that the law wants a real election, not a sham, to the presidential poll’s alleged forged ballots, on which the Commissioner remains silent.
බල තරගයේ වෛර සාධකය ඉවත් කිරීම
Mutual hatred and fear of reprisal stop parties from agreeing on national problems. The editorial reports the Alliance for Democracy’s all-party meeting in Parliament on its eleven-point reform programme, attended by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Rauff Hakeem, the UNP, JVP, TULF, TELO and Tamil Congress, where all agreed that the presidency should answer to Parliament and the courts, backed independent commissions, and favoured holding presidential and parliamentary elections together.
රාජ්ය පාලකයන්ට රතු සංඥාවක්
During the President’s visit to the Netherlands, a lawyer for Tamil refugees sought a court order for her arrest under the Convention against Torture; the Dutch court rejected it only because it was not properly framed. The editorial draws the lesson that rights violations, attacks on democratic rights and plunder of public money are increasingly treated as international crimes, limiting where rulers can travel or flee.
යුද්ධ ආයුධ මිලදි ගැනීම හා දූෂණ
Justice Minister Batty Weerakoon told Parliament that the Bribery Commission is investigating a top Defence Ministry official over arms deals but refused to name him. The editorial says the official should be suspended by the President, under whom the ministry falls, notes that war spending has risen from Rs. 4,000 million to Rs. 6,000 million and is funded by a 7.5 per cent levy, and argues that secrecy in arms buying breeds corruption.
ප්රභාකරන්ගේ ඊළග පියවර කුමක් ද?
The editorial argues that the LTTE is trapped not by military strength but by a world order that no longer legitimises armed struggle, as the fall of Elephant Pass and the outside help that saved Jaffna showed. Mandela, the PLO, the IRA and the JVP adapted; governments that crush just grievances also face isolation. It assesses Prabhakaran as a gifted but ruthless commander, groups him with Wijeweera, Premadasa and Vijaya Kumaratunga, and says a turn to peace would multiply his strength.
විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
With the President barred from a third term, a cold war over the SLFP succession has begun, with S.B. Dissanayake, now party secretary and holder of several ministries, pushing aggressively ahead of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. The editorial surveys the pressures on the People’s Alliance: a UNP strategy for an all-party interim government, a JVP now openly hostile and able to topple two provincial councils, and restlessness in the CWC, SLMC and Communist Party.
කමලාවතීගේ ජනාධිපති වේශ නිරූපණය
A woman who dressed as the President, including her injured eye, in a UNP march had her Raddolugama house attacked. The editorial recalls earlier impersonations of Jayewardene and the Premadasas, cartoonists’ caricatures and leaders’ nicknames, notes that the government itself used the covered-eye photograph and caricatured Ranil Wickremesinghe as Dracula, criticises the class disdain in the President’s response and compares the attack to earlier ones over mimicry of Pavithra Wanniarachchi.