රනිල් හා චන්ද්රිකා: විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්රමයේ ඊළග දගර නැටුම
The UNP has finally spoken about the President’s secret second swearing-in. The editorial asks why Ranil Wickremesinghe never fought the executive presidency when he held a parliamentary majority, and says that backing real reform would be his best answer to the belief that he too is an autocrat.
කිරි හා සීනිවලින් ස්වයංපෝෂිතවීමේ සිහිනය
The President has promised self-sufficiency in milk powder and sugar within five years. Ivan asks whether the country has the capacity, comparing Sri Lanka with India, which won independence through a movement that united all its groups and could build a national economy afterwards.
ජාතියේ ගෞරවය කෙලෙසන පාසල් ක්රමයේ වෙනසක්
Ivan argues that the school system turns the whole country into liars and pushes parents into fraud to win a Grade 1 place. He proposes a reorganised system of primary, secondary and A-level schools with equal facilities, addresses laboratories and maintenance funding, and sets out tables for each level.
හැඳුනුම්පත අනිවාර්ය කිරීම
Requiring voters to show identity cards is an important step, but the government’s haste raises suspicion. The Elections Commissioner’s figures, reproduced district by district, show that about 30 per cent of voters, some 3.8 million, have no identity card.
ලෝක ළමා දිනය සැමරිම
Children’s Day is celebrated across the country, but the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are not upheld. The editorial treats care for children and the elderly as a measure of civilisation and warns that prosecuting abusers achieves little if the children themselves are left worse off by the process.
පාසල්වලට ළමුන් ඇතුළත් කරගැනීම
The yearly, heartless contest for school places is over, with few winners and many losers. The editorial describes how the race begins almost at conception, with certificates manufactured to fit a target school, as a sign of how thoughtless the country’s institutions have become.
අවලංගුවීම වළකා ගැනීම
President Kumaratunga presses on with her plan to avoid political irrelevance after her second term: the costly JVP alliance, the defeat of the UNP, and a constitutional change she hopes the Chief Justice will help her through. Ivan argues that growing economic hardship is the chief obstacle to her plan and to the referendum it needs.
පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඇස් නොපෙනේද?
Parliament has the final responsibility for the country’s course, yet it will not even look at a case in which a citizen who sued the Chief Justice and members of the Judicial Service Commission was tried by a bench that included a respondent. Parliament should not meddle with the courts, the editorial says, but it must correct a judiciary that has stopped behaving in a civilised way.
ශිෂ්ට සම්පන්න භාවයේ තරම
The Human Rights Committee has ruled against Sri Lanka again, this time over Nallaratnam Singarasa, jailed for 35 years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, while Tony Fernando’s case is pending. Ivan holds President Kumaratunga responsible for appointing Sarath N. Silva as Chief Justice, and Ranil Wickremesinghe for allowing the system to take root.
ත්රස්තවාදය ගැන ජනාධිපතිනිය
President Kumaratunga’s view of terrorism, given to the UN General Assembly after George W. Bush spoke, is judged sound, and more careful than Ranil Wickremesinghe’s earlier speech there. But the editorial reminds her that her government can do nothing without the JVP and cannot move a step without a settlement of the ethnic conflict.