ලැජ්ජා නැතිකමට බෙහෙත් නැත
The Chief Justice has suggested that the murder of High Court judge Sarath Ambepitiya was the result of criticism of the judiciary. Since he is the only judge under public criticism, the editorial replies, the claim is shameless, and it recalls how he narrowed human rights jurisdiction and drove out judges who would not bow to him.
ආණ්ඩුක්රමයේ වෙනසක් සඳහා පොදු එකගතාවක්
Aid pledged at Tokyo depends on peace talks, and the alliance’s first budget has been drawn up without the usual IMF support. The editorial warns against playing with the basic law by a bare majority and argues that reform of the executive presidency should come through consensus, which would also bring a more civilised relationship between the parties.
මහා භාරකාරතුමෙනි ඉතින් ආයුබෝවන්
Ravaya called the Public Trustee, Sarath Seneviratne, a first-rate crook for more than six years and gave the evidence. Ivan explains why so many who claimed to defend Buddhism shielded him, how politically important cases are steered to hand-picked benches, and closes on a Supreme Court ruling that a monk MP could not be expelled because he was not a party member.
ව්යවස්ථාව චග්ගුඩු පිටියක් නොවේ
The JVP now seems ready to go any distance to stop the UNP returning to power, and to change the constitution by a simple majority with the courts’ help. Ivan argues that the President and the JVP may fight the UNP within the democratic framework but not outside it, and recalls how the 17th Amendment bill was examined by a three-judge bench that included the Chief Justice.
අධිකරණ දූෂණය – චන්ද්රිකා, රනිල් හා විමල්
The President herself says the police and the courts are full of corruption, and Transparency International ranks them the most corrupt in the region. The editorial replies that the ‘blue’ President injected the poison at the head of the judiciary, the ‘green’ Ranil Wickremesinghe let it spread, and the JVP of Wimal Weerawansa, which first stood against the Chief Justice, fell silent.
අධිකරණය ගැන විග්නේෂ්වරන්
Retired Supreme Court judge C.V. Wigneswaran’s analysis of the court under the Chief Justice confirms what Ravaya has said: lawyers at Hulftsdorp can predict a judgment from the nature of the case and the faces on the bench, and without an end to partiality and cliques the court’s dignity will be lost.
When must the Presidential Election be held?
Was Chandrika Kumaratunga’s second term due to end in December 2005 or December 2006? Victor Ivan works through the constitutional arithmetic. G.L. Peiris holds that the public oath of 22 December 1999 governs, making the election due in 2005; Mangala Samaraweera replies that a two-term president is entitled to twelve years, placing it in 2006 and resting on an oath the President is said to have taken in secret on 12 November 2000. Ivan tests the twelve-year claim against J.R. Jayewardene, who served two terms and got eleven: having gone to the country early in October 1982, he took his second oath in February 1983 and lost a year. Article 31(3A)(d), quoted in full, sets the term from the date of the oath. He then explains why she took the December oath at all — after the bomb attack on her campaign, her advisers invoked the doctrine of necessity so that her death would not force a fresh election, an insurance that has since become a liability. A secret oath cannot invalidate a public one, he concludes, and any attempt to make it do so will bring on another crisis.
බිබික්කම ලස්සන කිරීම
G.L. Peiris told The Hindu that the UNP backs an executive presidency, but a reformed one. Ivan lists the further reforms such a system would need, recounts how a joint reform proposal failed when Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera’s signed copy never came back, and closes with sections on ‘the Chief Justice of the Dharma State’ and ‘a hunter’s sermon’.
ව්යවස්ථාව හිතුමතයේ වෙනස් කිරීම වෙනම රාජ්යයකට පාර කැපීමකි
The coming presidential election now steers politics in the South, and the President must complete a change that saves her from irrelevance before August 2005. The editorial warns that entering peace talks with hidden political aims rather than an honest wish to end the conflict could open the road to a separate state.
නීතිඥ වෘත්තියේ ගෞරවය හා අධිකරණ ස්වාධීනත්වය
The editorial welcomes the Bar Association’s belated awakening over the case of the Wellawaya magistrate, which it says exposes the Chief Justice’s partisan handling of the judiciary. It notes the record of the police officer involved and how first the JVP and then the Hela Urumaya fell silent about the Chief Justice.