අගවිනිසුරුගේ මාළු බෑම
The latest fish on the Chief Justice’s hook is the ‘red fish’, the JVP. The note describes how he baits each hook to the taste of the fish he means to catch, and suggests even the revolutionary Wimal Weerawansa could not resist the charms of the ‘mermaid’ on the mobile phone.
ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා මරා දැමීමට ඉඩ දෙමු ද?
Months after the first Constitutional Council’s term ended, no new members have been appointed, and vacancies in the Court of Appeal cannot be filled. Whatever its flaws, the 17th Amendment was an important step towards good governance; the editorial says the commissions matter to the public, not the politicians, and it is for the public to save them.
එස්.බී. නඩුව හා අල්ලස් කොමිසම
The High Court’s acquittal of S.B. Dissanayake on bribery charges is a blow to the Bribery Commission, which has failed to show independence in politically important cases. The editorial argues that a president’s immunity is no reason not to investigate, citing France, and questions a commission made up entirely of retirees.
සුනාමි නඩුව
Martin Luther King could look to the US Supreme Court with hope; Prabhakaran and Tamils cannot feel the same about Sri Lanka’s. Ivan recalls the Tamil rights cases that failed, from the Kodakan Pillai citizenship case onwards, then describes the hearing of the petitions against the tsunami mechanism, noting a special guest linked to the Chief Justice’s Diyawanna Oya affair.
සුනාමි ආධාර අගමැති හා ජවිපෙ
Mismanaging a disaster that killed nearly 40,000 and displaced close to a million could bring a political tsunami. The Prime Minister’s report to Cabinet puts tsunami aid received at Rs 113,262,539 without saying from whom; the editorial says he, the JVP and every other party that collected aid should account for it.
නැති අවුල් ඇති කිරීම
Rulers who ignore the basic law are a lasting source of Sri Lanka’s political confusion, from the United Front’s new constitution of 1972 to the UNP’s in 1978. Ivan shows that everyone, the Chief Justice included, once accepted that the President’s second term began on 22 December 1999, as the transitional provisions of the 2000 draft constitution confirm, and argues that the election should be held this year.
ජවිපෙ කොෆි අන්නන්ගේ පිහිට පැතීම
Out of government, the JVP has not raised its voice; it says it will go to court against the tsunami mechanism and complain to the UN. The editorial asks why, if that was the best way, it staged a fast unto death, and argues that if a parliamentary election comes first its plans will collapse, though a new SLFP pact on SLFP terms remains possible.
ජවිපෙ මල්ලිලා හා අගවිනිසුරු
The Chief Justice took up the JVP’s and the Hela Urumaya’s fundamental rights petitions against the tsunami management structure filed on 5 July. A second note, ‘S.B. cries for freedom’, finds S.B. Dissanayake in the Merchant ward expecting release at any moment and blaming Bribery Commission Director-General Piyasena Ranasinghe for his troubles.
සුනාමි ආධාරවල පාරදෘශ්යභාවය
A Sunday Leader report that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa transferred part of the tsunami aid in his account to a Hambantota development fund raises a wider problem. The editorial calls on every party and politician who collected foreign aid to disclose what they received and how they spent it, and notes the banners thanking politicians for houses and boats.
දාර්ශනික මාක්ස් හා දේශපාලනික මාක්ස්
A reply to Sumanasiri, who holds that Marx the philosopher is not dead. Ivan grants that the world Marx hoped for is more beautiful than liberal democracy, but separates the philosopher from the politician. Drawing on Dmitri Volkogonov’s biographies of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, drawn from the opened Soviet archives, he argues that attempts to build Marx’s world produced tyranny, likens Pol Pot, Wijeweera and Prabhakaran to those figures, and concludes that capitalism cannot be replaced and must be reformed through liberal democracy, his preferred model being Gandhi’s India.