ජනාධිපතිනිය ඉන්නේ දෝෂාභියෝගයක මුව විට ය
Ivan reads Chandrika Kumaratunga’s handover of domestic power to the UNF as a tactical retreat by a cobra biding its time, since she keeps executive power, command of the forces, a large security force and the power to dissolve Parliament. Because she installed a loyal Chief Justice who could nullify an impeachment, he argues that the new government must first remove Sarath N. Silva before moving against her, which would then require a presidential election.
President may face impeachment
During the campaign the President boasted of her wide powers, and after the United National Front won she did not pick a fight with the winner by flourishing them. She has handed over internal administration and remains chief executive, commander-in-chief, and the holder of a private army of thousands.
ජයග්රාහකයා පරාජිතයා නොපෙළිය යුතු ය
The editorial condemns post-election reprisals in areas such as Anamaduwa, Pathadumbara, Nawalapitiya and Hiriyala, where PA figures had behaved like local warlords with police and presidential backing. It says the paper had long warned that such violence would provoke a backlash, and calls on the new government both to stop reprisals and to prosecute those responsible for earlier election violence.
සාහසිකකම්වලට වගකිවයුතු සියලු දෙනා නීතිය ඉදිරියට ගෙනා යුතු .
Voters defeated the People’s Alliance despite a violent campaign in which, the editorial says, the President and cabinet broke election law and the Constitution with the Chief Justice’s backing. It singles out the former deputy defence minister, whose paramilitaries it blames for intimidation in Kandy and the shooting of ten Muslim youths guarding ballot boxes at Madawala, and urges the new government to prosecute those responsible.
ජනාධිපතිනිය චෙක් මේට් වේද?
After the People’s Alliance defeat, Ivan weighs the options facing Chandrika Kumaratunga, who still holds executive power. Contrasting American practice and French cohabitation under Mitterrand and Chirac with Sri Lanka’s short 1994 experience, he sees three paths: resignation, a Wijetunga-style nominal presidency, or removal by the new majority through budget control or impeachment. He calls for constitutional reforms making the president accountable to Parliament and the courts and giving the Prime Minister full domestic authority.
Will the president be checkmated?
Using and misusing state resources to the utmost, a desperate PA played even its last trump card, the Tiger card, and the people disregarded all of it and defeated the government with the power of their innocent vote. What the President can still do, and what should be done to her office, is the question.
සෝමවංශ අමරසිංහ ජවිපෙ රැගෙන යන්නේ කොයිබටද?
Ivan questions Somawansa Amarasinghe’s fitness to lead the JVP. He recounts Amarasinghe’s arrest in the botched 1971 plan to seize Sirimavo Bandaranaike and his switch from anti- to pro-Wijeweera views in prison, and cites Vas Tillekeratne’s statement on Iraqi funding. He asks how Amarasinghe alone escaped in 1989, possibly helped by his relative Sirisena Cooray, notes the JVP’s shifts towards the PA, and criticises a leadership drawn from his home district of Kalutara.
මහජන කැමැත්තට පයින් ගැසීම
Anura Bandaranaike said that even if the United National Front won, his sister would not let it form a government but would keep proroguing and dissolving Parliament. The editorial replies that Sri Lanka is not a Bandaranaike feudal estate, that sovereignty lies with the people, and that voters also decide which politicians belong on the rubbish heap of history.
පොදු පෙරමුණ පරාජය වුවහොත් විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
Ivan considers cohabitation between a PA President and a UNP Parliament. He recalls how President Wijetunga cooperated with Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1994, quotes N.M. Perera’s 1978 warnings that a hostile Parliament could paralyse a president through its control of finance, and argues that a PA defeat would amount to a popular verdict against her. He concludes that she must accept the leader of the winning party as Prime Minister or face public revolt.
Powerless presidency and power of parliament
Under the 1978 constitution one party can hold the presidency while another commands parliament. That happened briefly between August and December 1994, and it is about to happen again — and this time the President will be at the greater disadvantage.