මැතිවරණ දූෂණවලට විසඳුමක් නැද්ද?
The editorial notes that armed ballot-stuffing began under the UNP with the Jaffna Development Council poll, while elections from 1991 to 1994 were free and fair. The People’s Alliance promised to empower the Elections Commissioner but has presided over corrupt polls, notably the 1999 North Western provincial election, and never appointed the promised inquiry committee. It calls for an all-party reform of the electoral machinery before the parliamentary election.
ඊළගට වෙන්න යන්නේ කුමක්ද?
Ranil Wickremesinghe has signalled, if awkwardly, that the UNP will not block the People’s Alliance draft constitution, a ‘googly’ to the President. Ivan explains that the draft would force her to give up an executive presidency that answers to neither Parliament nor the courts for a premiership open to criticism and defeat. Refusing would expose her before the public, her own party, minorities and the international community.
Who killed Kumar Ponnambalam?
Kumar Ponnambalam was the most courageous of Sri Lanka’s political commentators. He lived in Colombo among Sinhala people, most of his associates were Sinhala, and knowing exactly what it cost to defend the LTTE from Colombo he went on saying what he thought, fearlessly and well.
ජනාධිපති ඝාතන කුමන්ත්රණ කතාව හා කුමාර් පොන්නම්බලම් ඝාතනය
Ivan pays tribute to Kumar Ponnambalam as the boldest political commentator in the country, killed before his reply to the President’s warning to Tamils in Colombo could be published. He questions the shadowy ‘National Front Against Tigers’ that claimed the murder, likening it to the state-created death squads of the JVP’s second uprising, and criticises state media for spinning the attempt on the President into a plot involving businessmen, journalists and the UNP, as J.R. Jayewardene did before his referendum.
මාධ්ය නිදහසට මරණය
The editorial says no government has been as hostile to media freedom as the present one, which claims to have granted that freedom. It recalls that Ravaya exposed bank frauds, land grabs and the Airbus deal under Jayewardene and Premadasa, and that Premadasa even appointed a committee on its land revelations. Media freedom was won by journalists, it argues, and warns against the servility shown at the President’s address.
ගෙදර ගියොත් අඹු නසී, මග හිටියොත් තා නසී
Ivan finds the government trapped after its presidential win. S.B. Dissanayake has become one of the few steering the state, while Sarath Amunugama has displaced Mangala Samaraweera on media and failed to deliver UNP defectors. Party-crossing and a referendum to extend Parliament’s term are both fraught, the President’s health raises questions, she is unlikely to trade the presidency for the premiership, and on the ethnic question she is likely to lean towards war.
දැන් කරන්න යන්නේ මොනවාද?
Ivan says the People’s Alliance, instead of tackling the problems it promised to solve quickly, is busy attacking opponents. The new constitution has gone quiet, there is no clear approach to ending the war within a year, and the President’s three-hour address contradicted her conciliatory inauguration speech. He urges calm judgement and cooperation with political opponents.
This is what happened
There are occasions when a foolish friend can be more dangerous than a vicious enemy. The longest piece in the archive: Ivan’s point-by-point answer to the account the President gave of him in a televised interview, setting out what actually passed between them from the founding of Ravaya onwards.
Now back in power, what will she do?
Chandrika Kumaratunga’s win was not a clean victory in the full sense, and the abuses were not so great as to make one regret it. They did occur — in Hanguranketha, Wattegama, Wariyapola, Dambulla. What she does now is the question.
ඊළඟට කුමක් සිදුවේද
After the presidential election the editorial finds the way ahead unclear. It asks whether the President’s call to the UNP means a genuine national government or a ploy to isolate Ranil Wickremesinghe, doubts that the promised new constitution and package can pass with anti-package figures in the alliance, and notes that a prime minister is less secure than an executive president. A second section faults Wickremesinghe’s leadership for passivity over the Chief Justice appointment and the elections machinery and for careless remarks.