ගජ මිතුරු ධනවාදය ඒකාධිකාර මතවාදයකට
The editorial objects to Harry Jayawardena using banks and companies he controls to buy a controlling stake in Sampath Bank, against banking ethics and with the Central Bank silent. It describes him as a close Bandaranaike family friend and PA campaign financier shielded from customs cases, appointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and seeking monopolies in arrack, tea and banking, and calls for anti-monopoly enforcement.
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණය කල් දෑමීමකට ඉඩ නොතැබිය යුතුය
Despite the President’s assurance, Ivan says the government still hopes to extend Parliament’s term, a practice begun with the 1972 constitution and taken further by J.R. Jayewardene in 1982. He calls on the government to hold the election under an independent elections commission and to accept the European Union’s offer of observers, and urges citizens to act rather than watch.
සම්මානය සහ අධිකරණයේ අර්බුදය
Ravaya received the Editors’ Guild’s Sepala Gunasena award for defending judicial independence. Ivan recounts the background: his and W.A.B. Jayasekera’s petitions to disbar Attorney General Sarath N. Silva, Ravaya’s exposure of magistrate Lenin Ratnayake and district judge Upali Abeyratne, the Bar Association’s call for inquiries that found both guilty, the lenient penalties, and the protests by lawyers and MPs before Silva was made Chief Justice in September 1999.
සම්මානය හා අධිකරණ නිදහසේ මළගම
Ivan welcomes the attention foreign powers are paying to the government’s anti-democratic conduct as well as to the LTTE. He argues that the northern conflict is part of Sri Lanka’s democratic crisis and that southern rulers, though elected, rule partly by terror. He proposes third-party-guided talks, an all-party agreement on constitutional principles, independent institutions, a right to information law and an election followed by a five-year national government on the South African model.
Election under a commission
The ban on meetings and demonstrations has been lifted, and so has the censorship of foreign news — but publishing in the local media what the foreign media print about the war is still forbidden. The world outside has been given the right to know the truth about the war in the north.
අධිකරණය කොයිබටද?
Ivan cites cases showing the judiciary’s decline: a Galle magistrate interdicted for fraud, judges accused of sexual abuse, a district judge found biased in a case against the head of the Court of Appeal, and a Chief Justice appointed while facing disbarment petitions. He explains the separation of powers, recalls J.R. Jayewardene’s purge of the Supreme Court and Neville Samarakoon’s resistance, the 1982 referendum ruling, and warns that without reform the executive will swallow judicial power.
External powers and internal undemocratic activities
It is welcome that the external powers interested in a solution are looking past Prabhakaran’s extremism to the anti-democratic conduct of the Chandrika government. The American Deputy Secretary of State has gone beyond refusing to recognise an Eelam state to saying his government wants free and fair elections and protected freedom of expression.
ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයට සීල් තැබීම
Ivan argues that freedom of expression is the gateway to democracy and that modern practice allows only narrow, court-imposed limits for national security. He criticises emergency regulations used to seal the Jaffna paper Uthayan and the Leader group, including Irida Peramuna for a story it never carried, for six months though emergency powers lapse monthly. He places this beside earlier sealings of Aththa, Davasa and Eelanadu and ties it to plans to extend Parliament.
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයක් ජනමත විචාරණයක ද
Ivan expects the government to try to avoid the parliamentary election due by October, fearing defeat after setbacks in the North. With many MPs unsure of renomination, he sets out the seat numbers and shows it would need only 19 opposition votes for a two-thirds majority to extend Parliament through a 1982-style referendum, explains MPs’ pay rises and land grants in that light, and predicts such a referendum could fail.
තීන්දු ගැනීමේ ක්රියාවලිය සර්ව පාක්ෂෂික කළ නොහැක්කේ ඇයි?
The editorial argues that a crisis threatening the country’s survival demands that opposition parties share in decisions, not merely be briefed as at the 15 May all-party meeting. It calls for a temporary all-party administration, criticises concealment of events in the North, and notes the double standard by which cartoons of the President are banned while state media ridicule opposition politicians.