සතුරන් සේම මිතුරන්ද සැකයි
Ivan describes a People’s Alliance government paralysed by fear of a no-confidence motion. Its margin has shrunk from 37 seats before the 2000 election to nine, with no outside support, so six defections would bring it down. Thondaman, Hakeem and even S.B. Dissanayake are restive, the President accuses allies of taking LTTE money, and the Prime Minister blocked lifting the LTTE ban. The opposition must act before October, when the President may dissolve Parliament.
ජනවාර්ගික ආවේග පාලනය කිරීම
Managing ethnic, religious and linguistic passions is Sri Lanka’s greatest challenge, and adding a Muslim conflict to the Tamil one would bring chaos. The editorial argues that no post-independence ruler has shown the ability to do so, recalling how the UNP blamed the JVP for Black July 1983, and criticising the President for implicitly blaming the UNP, the JVP and the railway strike for the Mawanella violence.
කුණාටුව තවමත් අවසන් වී නැත
Ivan argues that the UNP revolt, though it did not unseat Ranil Wickremesinghe, curbed his autocratic leadership, raised internal democracy and forced him to promise to step aside if he obstructed an all-party government. Neither the PA nor the JVP wanted a change of UNP leader. With no outside support and a slender majority, the government could fall on a handful of defections, and Parliament, which controls law and money, could then reform the whole system.
මාවනැල්ලේ ඇතිවූ විනාශයට වගකිව යුත්තෝ කවරහුද?
Ivan argues that the government nurtured thuggish regional bosses such as Minister Mahipala Herath over educated figures like Jagath Balasuriya, and that the Mawanella violence began when his henchmen, long extorting locals with police protection, tied the cashier of the Sahira Hotel to the Premadasa statue and slashed his face. He cites other PA politicians evading arrest, including D.M. Dassanayake and Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, and the President’s refusal to reinstate Parry Liyanage.
දේශපාලකයන් සිටිය යුත්තේ නීතියට ඉහළින් ද?
PA MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra held a concert on the Angoda mental hospital grounds in defiance of a court order, and a PA local councillor accused of stripping a woman in the North Western election has evaded arrest, prompting a notice on the Katupotha police chief. The editorial says the President sets the example, citing her failure to implement a court order reinstating Parry Liyanage after his acquittal in the Embilipitiya case.
නීතීඥ සංගමයට ප්රශ්න 6ක්
After lawyers Neil Dias, Chandrapala Kumarage and Sena Liyanasuriya urged the Bar Association to act against Ravaya, Ivan recounts how inquiries upheld Ravaya’s charges against Lenin Ratnayake and Upali Abeyratne and poses six questions: on Sarath N. Silva’s domestic life and judicial ethics, his appointment while disbarment petitions were pending, Abeyratne’s promotion, the trust land obtained while on the Vijaya Kumaratunga commission, his continuing trusteeship, and his ties to Rohana Kumara, a suspect in the Wijekoon murder.
ජනාධිපති අරමුදල හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told Parliament that the President’s Fund need not table accounts because it receives nothing from the Consolidated Fund. The editorial calls this misleading: the Act subjects the fund to audit and parliamentary scrutiny, it has not been audited since 1995, and it is fed by state lotteries worth perhaps Rs. 10,000 million a year, comparable to Samurdhi or war capital spending. It traces the fund to J.R. Jayewardene and recalls an incomplete list of beneficiaries given to Sarath Kongahage.
Making corruption possible in a democratic country
The President told a government party meeting that she planned to go to parliament herself to answer the opposition’s accusations over the Katunayake expressway, the Diyawanna golf links land and the Thilan Wijesinghe bribery case, because her ministers were not replying well enough.
රට අල්ලස්ලන්තයක් ද?
The Presidential Secretary called English-press reports on bribery allegations against BOI chairman Thilan Wijesinghe malicious. The editorial notes that Wijesinghe’s petition names Ranjith Atukorale, introduced by Minister Mangala Samaraweera, as seeking a $5 million bribe in the names of the President, Samaraweera and Wijesinghe over a Galle flour mill, that the Bribery Commission finds the charge against Wijesinghe credible, and that the government bears responsibility.
ජනාධිපතිනිය දූෂිත ද?
As the President offers to answer opposition charges in Parliament herself, Ivan argues that a leader must dispel public suspicion created by her inner circle. He sets out the evidence that BOI chairman Thilan Wijesinghe sought a $1 million bribe over the Galle flour mill, Rajan Asirwatham’s conflicted role in the Kotagala plantation sale, the unseen influence of Ronnie Peiris behind highway and Diyawanna projects, and the government’s refusal to release ministers’ asset declarations.