ජනමාධ්යවේදින්ට ඇණ ගැසීම
The editorial condemns the People’s Alliance’s use of criminal defamation against critical editors, first Sinha Ratnatunga of the Sunday Times and now Lasantha Wickrematunge of the Sunday Leader, both given suspended sentences that leave them one conviction from prison. The government promised to repeal the law; the R.K.W. Goonesekera committee recommended repeal or amendment, a select committee stalled and a multi-party repeal motion was never debated.
Parliament after polls: cohabitation or conflict?
What will the new parliament look like? Will the PA improve its slender majority or find itself on the opposition benches? A seat-by-seat reading written a fortnight before the October 2000 general election.
සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සඳහා මහානාහිමිවරුන්ගේ මැදිහත්වීම
The Mahanayake Theras of the three Nikayas have urged monks to work actively for a free and fair election, and the National Sangha Council is to meet on 5 September. Ivan welcomes this, urges other religious leaders to join, and traces organised electoral fraud from the 1981 Jaffna DDC poll through the 1980s and, after a clean interlude, the People’s Alliance’s elections from 1997, now subtler than old-style ballot stuffing. Only mass public action can check it.
විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
The editorial analyses the likely shape of the new Parliament. The People’s Alliance held about 129 seats through the Muslim Congress, Ceylon Workers’ Congress and EPDP, but splits in the first two and the EPDP’s weak prospects in Jaffna threaten that base, while the JVP may win eight to ten seats. Neither major party is likely to pass 100 seats, and any result may push the executive presidency into crisis, possibly ending in a national government.
When the going gets tough, PA gets going
The government’s greatest hope was to change the electoral system somehow, introduce a new one, and win the coming parliamentary election on it. That hope has gone, and the path left is a difficult one: lose the majority and the presidential system itself goes into crisis.
සැප වාහන ප්රතික්ෂේප කරන විරුද්ධ පක්ෂ පිළිවෙත අගේ කළ යුතුයි
Ivan praises the UNP parliamentary group’s decision on duty-free vehicles for MPs, a practice the UNP itself began. It proposes either vehicles on a depreciation basis or a pool of vehicles not owned by MPs, as the JVP suggested, and says MPs completing ten years will forgo a third duty-free vehicle. If most of the opposition holds to this, the government cannot keep the privilege for itself.
පොලිසිය ආණ්ඩුවේ දේශපාලන අතකොලුවක් නොවිය යුතු ය
The editorial condemns the removal from Kandy of Deputy Inspector General Sirisena Herath after he clashed with General Anuruddha Ratwatte’s son during a violent, corrupt election in the district, followed by the transfer of a superintendent and six officers of his special unit to operational areas. It says police across the country serve local politicians and calls for an independent police commission.
Reforms process: it’s a matter of trust
If Tamil and Muslim people saw the President’s attempt at a new constitution as a genuine effort to settle the ethnic question, its failure must pain them. And if she had succeeded, it might have brought not a solution but bloodshed between communities — because the thing missing was never the document.
චන්ද්රිකාගේ නව ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව
Ivan calls the President’s constitution a scheme to keep power under the banner of an ethnic solution, as her father used Sinhala grievances in 1956. Tied to a new electoral system, it provoked the JVP, Sihala Urumaya and UNP, alarmed her own MPs, and she attacked rather than persuaded the Sangha. Using the analogy of complex surgery by an unqualified surgeon, he contrasts her with Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, who gave up power for a settlement.
අධිකරණ සේවා කොමිසම කොයිබටද?
The editorial accuses the Judicial Service Commission of leniency towards judges found guilty of serious misconduct, including Upali Abeyratne, who handled the case against Sarath N. Silva, and Lenin Ratnayake, while dismissing some 21 others, many without charge sheets or inquiries and apparently for political reasons. It notes the commission’s composition has been changed and says the judiciary is becoming a branch of the ruling party.