අකාර්යක්ෂමතාවට හා දූෂණයට වගකිවයුත්තේ කව්ද?
The President told a conference of public officers that only 10 per cent of officials are efficient and that 25 to 30 per cent of development funds are lost to waste and corruption, implicitly blaming ministers too. The editorial replies that she chose the Cabinet, that political henchmen placed at the top of the public service undermine it, and that the clean-up must begin with the political executive rather than officials.
තොරතුරු ලබාගැනීමේ අයිතිය රාජ්ය පාලනය විවෘත කිරීමට හේතු වේ
Welcoming the UNP’s acceptance of the professionals’ draft for four independent commissions, the editorial backs the Editors’ Guild draft on freedom of information, Article 19’s campaign and the Democratic Alliance’s twelve demands. It traces unfulfilled pledges from the Premadasa era and the R.K.W. Goonesekere committee, and argues that a right to information would curb secret privatisation deals such as Air Lanka’s, empower villagers, and force the Auditor General, Elections Commissioner and tax authorities to do their duty.
පාන් වෙනුවට කේක්
In a television interview the President denied an economic slide or real price rises and claimed a bank driver earns Rs. 60,000 while a minister gets Rs. 19,000. The editorial corrects her figures, noting ministers earn about Rs. 29,815 tax-free and that some have built mansions since 1994, reads her remarks on executive power as a warning, and likens her message to Marie Antoinette’s.
ආර්ථික අර්බුදය හා රාජාණ්ඩු දේශපාලනය
As prices soar, the government has used police against a JVP protest while fishermen strike and the UNP turns to agitation. The editorial blames poor governance rather than external factors, citing the flour subsidy before the 1994 election, misdirected Samurdhi payments, unmetered electricity users, lost port revenue after the President moved to the Fort residence, the French locomotive deal and a Rs. 2,500 million new presidential palace, and calls for an open democratic system.
මහජන මුදල් සමග සෙල්ලම් කිරීම
While development spending is cut, Lake House spent Rs. 5 million printing 290,200 copies of a photograph of the President and her children for free distribution with Silumina and the Sunday Observer during the parliamentary election. The editorial ridicules Chief Government Whip Reggie Ranatunga’s claim in Parliament that the public had asked for it, and says the money would have been better spent on exercise books for poor schoolchildren.
ජනතාව කබලෙන් ළිපට
Prices of gas, diesel, kerosene, water and electricity are rising, bus operators want fares raised by up to 33 per cent, and the GST net is to widen. The editorial argues that rulers must tighten their own belts first, pointing to ministers with five or more vehicles, new furniture and foreign tours, and costly new residences for the President and Speaker, and warns that the public will not bear the burden patiently.
ජලයටත් මිලක්
The editorial warns that laws are being prepared in secret to make both urban consumers and farmers drawing from tanks, canals and rivers pay for water. The Water Resources Board Act No. 42 of November 1999 and a cabinet paper of 28 March 2000 vest all water in the state, and bills to license water use are due in Parliament. Ministers deny it and the President’s policy statement of 11 November was silent, while huge sums go on bullet-proof cars for rulers. It asks what the elected representatives will do.
ජනමාධ්ය නිදහසට එරෙහිව සාපරාධී අපහාස නීතිය
Although its first media minister Dharmasiri Senanayake called the People’s Alliance a government brought to power by journalists, it has reformed only parliamentary privilege law and, instead of repealing criminal defamation, filed twelve cases against editors, six of them against Ravaya. Sinha Ratnatunga and Lasantha Wickrematunge were convicted of defaming the President, who never testified. The editorial contrasts English practice and the Salman Rushdie episode, cites New York Times v. Sullivan, and notes that the 1996 recommendations of the R.K.W. Goonesekere committee were ignored.
රාජසන කතාව හා ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය
The editorial says the President’s throne speech covered much but ignored the real problems of democracy. It cites the Elections Commissioner, PAFFREL’s finding of gross malpractice in 22 electorates, the election-violence monitors’ call to annul 17 results and EU observers’ ratings of polling stations, against her claim to have revived democracy since 1994. Consensus against Prabhakaran’s terrorism, it argues, requires first ending the state terror and electoral fraud of every ruling party since 1977, and the opposition must take up a practical reform programme.
සිදු වූ මැතිවරණ දූෂණ ඉදිරියේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නිහඬ නොවිය යුතුයි
Although the President pledged to give no posts to anyone involved in electoral fraud or violence, many leading offenders have been rewarded with cabinet posts. The editorial argues that future fraud can be prevented only by punishing past offences, criticises the opposition for staying silent about the organised rigging of the last election, and proposes a parliamentary commission of inquiry to expel the ‘rotten eggs’ so that their dishonour is not shared by every member.