මහින්ද-වීරවංශ දීගය හරි යයිද?
Back from Japan, the President did not quarrel with Mahinda Rajapaksa but backed his candidacy, leaving herself room for a later return. Mahinda is now in a bind: saying yes to the JVP’s conditions will cost him some of the forces gathering around him.
අගවිනිසුරු කරණම
The Chief Justice is playing a political conjuror. Ivan argues that the crisis over the election year was his own creation, from the circumstances of the President’s first public swearing-in after the bomb attack to the story of a second oath, invented to stretch her term by a year, and shows how the aim shifted along the way.
විශ්රාම යන ජනාධිපතිනිය සහ රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ
Ranil Wickremesinghe has told his MPs he is thinking of how to use the retiring President’s services, and spoke of American provisions for former presidents. The editorial welcomes cooperation between the two main parties but says retiring presidents must also face scrutiny, since immunity shields them while in office.
කෙළවර කුමක් ද?
The Cabinet has decided to give the retiring President an acre and a half facing the Diyawanna Oya opposite Parliament, in lieu of the pension and official residence she says she will forgo. The note recalls her plan for a Rs 1,700 million presidential palace in the same area.
විමල් වීරවංශ හා ඇටි කෙහෙල්
Like the civet in the saying who ate a seeded banana, the JVP tried to swallow the SLFP and cannot digest it; now it can only hang on Mahinda Rajapaksa’s neck, and Wimal Weerawansa says any deal will be with Mahinda, not the SLFP.
A Country Destroyed by Leaders
Victor Ivan argues that Sri Lanka has become, or is fast becoming, a failed state — a term its academics resist because they fear UN administration, while making no serious intervention to correct the country’s course. His test is the constitution: legislature, executive and judiciary alike decline to respect it, and none treats honouring it as a condition of the system’s survival. The 17th Amendment provides his illustration. A presidential campaign is underway with no elections commission in place, the President having refused to approve a name the constitutional council investigated and cleared. The elections commissioner, past retirement age and unable to leave his post because no commission exists, went to court and was told there was nothing the judiciary could do; parliament did not debate the matter at all. The constitutional council itself has been dormant for months, leaving Court of Appeal vacancies unfilled, with the IGP retiring in November and the terms of the Police and Public Service Commissions expiring. Appointing new members falls to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition — the two men now contesting the presidency, neither of whom appears interested.
අධිකරණ තීන්දුවෙන් පසු: ඊළගට විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
The Chief Justice’s only way out of a great crisis over the election year was to rule for 2005, ending the President’s dream of staying until 2006, though she still has cards to play. Ivan warns that the country is caught in a cycle of political violence and that the killings must be controlled even as attention turns to the election.
රනිල් ද? මහින්ද ද?
Leftward forces gather around Mahinda Rajapaksa and rightward ones around Ranil Wickremesinghe; Mahinda is new, Ranil old. The editorial argues that a candidate must lead his own movement, so either Chandrika must hand Mahinda the power willingly or he must take it without splitting the party.
ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයන්ගේ වගකීම
The presidential race has begun, but on trivia rather than the country’s main problems. Taking public transport and another pressing issue as examples of about a dozen, the editorial says voters should demand to know what solutions the candidates offer.
කදිර්ගාමර් ඝාතනයේ දේශපාලනය
Lakshman Kadirgamar’s assassination is inflaming the ethnic conflict. The LTTE had long treated him as enemy number one; Ivan argues that a policy of defeating the LTTE militarily only makes Tamils suffer and the LTTE stronger, while the killing shows the LTTE will not abandon the murder of its enemies, which blocks any peaceful settlement.