අධිකරණ සේවයෙන් ලෙනින් රත්නායක පිටමං කිරීම
After more than five years, the Judicial Service Commission has decided to remove magistrate Lenin Ratnayake, whom a three-judge inquiry had found guilty on four serious charges but who was meanwhile kept on compulsory paid leave. The editorial recalls that he had been dismissed from the Insurance Corporation for fraud before joining the judiciary and was accused of sexually abusing two women connected to cases before him, and holds Sarath N. Silva responsible for shielding him. It calls for wider judicial reform beyond removing the Chief Justice.
ඒකාධිපතියන් රටට අවශ්ය නැත
The editorial accuses the President of abusing her powers under the distorted 17th Amendment. She has kept Priyani Wijesekera, the most senior and qualified candidate, as only acting Secretary-General of Parliament despite the 14-day limit on acting appointments, and passed over Justice Mark Fernando, whose ruling that presidential immunity ends with the term of office she resented, when naming an acting Chief Justice. It calls on all parties to correct the amendment.
ව්යවස්ථාව සමග වළ කජු ගැසීම
Ivan traces how politicians have toyed with the constitution: the authoritarian features of J.R. Jayewardene’s 1978 charter, rushed through as urgent; Chandrika Kumaratunga’s broken promise to abolish the executive presidency and her transitional clauses keeping her in power; the 2000 attempt to pass a new constitution by buying UNP votes; and the distortion of the 17th Amendment by Jayampathy Wickramaratne. He notes the Speaker signed the wrong draft, leaving commissions in legal limbo, and argues the proposed 19th Amendment is too narrow.
දූෂණයට වඩා වගකිව යුත්තේ දේශපාලකයා ද රාජ්ය නිලධාරියා ද
Using the purchase of armoured vehicles for the President, where Rs 2,400 million was spent against a parliamentary allocation of Rs 63 million on used BMWs bought through an intermediary, Ivan argues that senior officials bear greater blame than politicians because their posts are permanent and they are bound to uphold the law. He criticises the Treasury Secretary and the Auditor General, including over the President’s Fund, privatisation and Mangala Samaraweera’s credit-card spending, and calls for top officials and politicians to be prosecuted and jailed.
17 වැනි සංශෝධනය ඔළුවෙන් සිටුවීම
The idea of a Constitutional Council, advanced by professional bodies and backed by pro-democracy and media groups, was meant to take appointments to key posts out of the head of state’s arbitrary hands. The editorial argues that the version of the 17th Amendment drafted with JVP mediation reverses this, leaving the President to nominate and the Council merely to approve, a distortion it attributes to the President, the Chief Justice and Jayampathy Wickramaratne, with the UNP assisting through carelessness.
කොටි තහනම ඉවත් කිරීම
The editorial welcomes the government’s decision to lift the ban on the LTTE as necessary to the peace process despite some opposition. The ban was imposed to placate the public after the attack on the Temple of the Tooth and made no difference to what the LTTE did. It notes that the ceasefire is holding and that public support for a settlement is strong, and urges both sides to look beyond past wrongs.
නීතිය ඔලුවෙන් සිටුවීම
Ivan rejects the Bribery Commission’s ruling that the Chief Justice is not a public servant and that his complaint against Sarath N. Silva and Lenin Ratnayake falls outside its remit, citing the Penal Code and the assets law. Further sections argue that the 17th Amendment was certified without its transitional provisions, leaving the existing commissions without legal standing; criticise the Constitutional Council’s demand for immunity through an 18th Amendment; and ask whether the securities found in Anuruddha Ratwatte’s safes will be pursued.
Who is More Responsible for Corruption: the Politician or the Bureaucrat?
This article argues that Sri Lanka’s greatest existential threat is not the war waged by Prabhakaran, but the pervasive cancer of state-level corruption and waste that has been rotting the country from within. Challenging the popular narrative that blames corruption entirely on politicians, the author places heavy responsibility on permanent state bureaucrats. Rather than acting as the legal backbone of the state, these officials frequently collude with temporary politicians for personal gain. The author concludes that until both corrupt politicians and their complicit bureaucratic enablers are prosecuted and imprisoned, Sri Lanka will never develop a strong, independent administrative service capable of upholding the rule of law.
මේව දැකල පණ පලයන් පෙරේදා
Ivan recounts eight numbered first-person incidents about the judiciary: a former PA minister urging a friend to ‘shape’ Ivan over the Chief Justice; a judge’s tale of a colleague who fathered his maid’s child; a journalist spreading word that the government would drop impeachment; talk with an Attorney General’s officer; a judge’s account of W.J.M. Lokubandara’s changed stance; a Constitutional Council member alleged to draw his daughter’s salary; a bribe paid for Sirimavo Bandaranaike in the SLFP case; and Abeysinghe, who tried to strangle Lenin Ratnayake.
කටයුතු සිදුවෙමින් තිබෙන ආකාරය ඛේදජනකය
The CID found Rs 50 million in treasury bill certificates in one bank locker of a former powerful minister, reportedly holding Rs 1 billion in such securities, and earlier probed Rs 450 million linked to a former service chief. Questions also surround Rs 540 million allocated to a rubber company project on the President’s cabinet paper, whose chairman is her close associate. The editorial rejects her claim of immunity from inquiry and urges the government to enforce the law against large-scale plunder.