ආගමික නායකයන්ගේ මැදිහත් වීමක් අත්යවශ්ය ය
The editorial welcomes the Inter-Religious Council formed by Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Muslim and Christian leaders to press politicians to put the country right. It argues that politics, not religion, now determines every aspect of life and is leading to ruin through rigged elections, politicised institutions and ethnic mistrust, and asks religious leaders to back deep reform of the political system rather than bless those who win by fraud.
සතුරන් සේම මිතුරන්ද සැකයි
Ivan describes a People’s Alliance government paralysed by fear of a no-confidence motion. Its margin has shrunk from 37 seats before the 2000 election to nine, with no outside support, so six defections would bring it down. Thondaman, Hakeem and even S.B. Dissanayake are restive, the President accuses allies of taking LTTE money, and the Prime Minister blocked lifting the LTTE ban. The opposition must act before October, when the President may dissolve Parliament.
Democracy and the crisis in the judiciary
The judicial crisis around Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva is a question that can decide the politics of the country. At no point should the Supreme Court become a partner in an executive programme that runs against the principles it exists to protect.
රාවයට කරන ලද අනතුරු ඇගවීමක්ද
After a smoke bomb attack on Ravaya, the Media Minister condemned it and ordered an inquiry. The piece reads the attack as a warning linked to state media’s anti-Ravaya campaign and to government circles that see the paper as leading efforts to topple it, and recalls the attacks on Lasantha Wickrematunge and the murders of Rohana Kumara and Nimalarajan, after which similar promises produced nothing.
Ensuring healthy peace talks
After the failure of Agni Khiela the government has had to soften the hard conditions it set for starting talks. It now enters negotiations from weakness rather than strength, and the talks are likelier to deepen its crisis than to steady it.
දෝෂාභියෝගයක්
With an impeachment motion filed against Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Ivan recalls the only earlier one under the 1978 Constitution, against Neville Samarakoon. He recounts Samarakoon’s career and clashes with Jayewardene’s government: the reconstituted Supreme Court, the Kalawana seat, the referendum amendment, the Ratanasara and Vivienne Goonewardene cases and mobs outside judges’ homes, and his 1984 speech that led to a select committee and impeachment committee. The contrast with today shows how far politics has declined.
පුද්ගලිකකරණය හා විගණකාධිපතිගේ වගකීම
Employees protest the sale of 51 per cent of the National Insurance Corporation, with life funds over Rs. 1,800 million, to Janashakthi for about Rs. 490 million. The editorial says privatisation has become a source of illicit wealth under both UNP and PA, notes that the Public Enterprises Commission misled COPE over Air Lanka, and calls on the Auditor General to examine all privatisation deals and report to Parliament.
අධිකරණයේ අර්බුදය ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය
Ivan argues that an independent judiciary must protect citizens, not the government, when popular sovereignty is threatened, citing Kuldip Singh’s court under Indira Gandhi. Under Sarath N. Silva the Supreme Court has become the executive’s tool: he packed the bench on the electoral bill, blocked Karu Jayasuriya’s media petitions, reversed the growth of fundamental rights jurisprudence by assigning cases to himself, and dismissed over twenty judicial officers. No reform or ethnic settlement is possible until this is remedied.
මාවනැල්ලේ ඇතිවූ විනාශයට වගකිව යුත්තෝ කවරහුද?
Ivan argues that the government nurtured thuggish regional bosses such as Minister Mahipala Herath over educated figures like Jagath Balasuriya, and that the Mawanella violence began when his henchmen, long extorting locals with police protection, tied the cashier of the Sahira Hotel to the Premadasa statue and slashed his face. He cites other PA politicians evading arrest, including D.M. Dassanayake and Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, and the President’s refusal to reinstate Parry Liyanage.
Who was responsible for the Mawanella disaster?
There is a saying that if you go to sleep with dogs you wake up with ticks, and the government is in that position now. What happened at Mawanella, and who let it happen, is followed here from the local politics up to the immunity of the President.