The dilemma of independence
More than five decades have passed since independence, and the fifty-fourth anniversary has to be marked with sadness rather than pleasure. What the country has done with its freedom, measured against the neighbours who started level with it, is the subject.
ඡන්දයේ වටිනාකම එක සමානද?
A set of short items. Ivan objects that the President, Prime Minister and Anura Bandaranaike voted at their residences while ordinary voters faced threats. He faults the failure to prosecute election offences, the Bribery Commission’s refusal to act on misuse of state resources and its neglect of asset declarations, and the CID’s cover-up of the Rohana Kumara and Kumar Ponnambalam murders. He ends with a satirical note on the President’s visit to supporters in Bogambara prison.
නිදහසේ උභතෝකෝටිකය
On the 54th Independence Day, Ivan laments that freedom won without struggle left Sri Lanka without the attitudes or institutions to hold its communities together. Contrasting its record with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India, he cites negative growth, 15 per cent inflation, war costs and some 100,000 deaths, and argues that no leader since 1948, Sinhala or Tamil, has won the respect of all communities.
නුවුවමනා තරම් ඉක්මන්කම සේ ම අධික ප්රමාදය ද රටට අයහපත් ය
The editorial notes that the new government has still not appointed chairmen and boards to corporations and statutory bodies, paralysing decisions at state banks and the Insurance Corporation. It urges prompt appointments vetted by a parliamentary committee open to public objections, and full enforcement of the assets and liabilities law, which the previous government ignored even for the President and cabinet.
It’s tricky path to peace
The new government is moving fast towards an agreement with the LTTE. The country is bankrupt as it has never been and growth has gone negative, and although the fundamental problems are various they are all tied into one another.
දැලි පිහියෙන් කිරි කැම
Ivan likens Ranil Wickremesinghe’s rapid push for peace to a Lasker-style chess attack that ignores control of the centre, in a game with many live players, from the President and JVP to Prabhakaran, Hakeem and Thondaman. He recalls how Mandela won respect across racial lines, finds international and business conditions favourable, but warns that the Prime Minister must negotiate while the army answers to a hostile President.
උතුරේ ජන ජීවිතය සාමාන්ය අතට පත් කිරීම
The editorial welcomes the reopening of the Vavuniya–Kilinochchi road and urges a Colombo–Jaffna bus service. It describes costly and scarce flights and sea passages, a decade and a half without electricity, and prices three to five times those in the south, and argues that normalising life in the north would build the climate needed for a peaceful settlement.
Peace and president: New Govt.’s tight-rope walk
The Prime Minister and his retinue have crossed the river full of man-eating crocodiles and reached land. They may think the walk to the oasis is easier than the crossing was. Land looks safe and is full of pits and mirages, and sometimes crossing it is harder than crossing water.
සාමය සඳහා දරන උත්සාහයට බාධා නොකළ යුතු ය.
The editorial says Sri Lanka can recover only by ending the war, and urges all parties not to obstruct the new government’s peace effort. It criticises the JVP, itself once outside the democratic mainstream, for opposing the process from the start, arguing that if Sinhala youth could leave armed struggle for democracy, Tamil youth deserve the same chance.
ගින්දර සමග සෙල්ලම් කිරීම
Ivan warns Ranil Wickremesinghe that after crossing the crocodile-infested river of the election he faces mined ground. Chandrika Kumaratunga has ceded defence but keeps appointments of the IGP, service chiefs, governors and ambassadors, an expanding presidential secretariat, the President’s Fund and a security force of some 4,000. While she quietly backs the JVP’s campaign against the peace process, he argues, she waits for an incident that will let her strike, so her powers must be curbed.