සනත් ගුණතිලක සහ රුපියල
A profile of the actor Sanath Gunathilake after losing his post as the President’s media adviser, a fall Ivan likens to the rupee’s. He describes the vehicles, guards, free stays at the Galadari hotel and deference he once enjoyed, his habit of attaching himself to whoever held power from Gamini Dissanayake to Kumaratunga, and the income he drew from bar licences run by Neil Abeywardena, liquor distribution, advertising, teledramas and the Channel 9 deal with Lakshman Hulugalle.
බහිරවයාට ගිය මහා භාරකාර දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව
Ivan explains how the Public Trustee’s Department holds charitable trusts and bequests worth hundreds of millions, then documents spending by the new Public Trustee, N.S.A.S. Seneviratne, whose past he had warned about: a pirith ceremony and air-conditioning from the D.B. Jayatilaka fund, a car bought from the Samarakoon dowry trust, repairs to others’ vehicles, gifts to his children’s school and temples, costly work at Richmond Castle and an unreturned G.L. Peiris fund transfer.
කමල් අද්දරආරච්චි, රාවය හා කාන්තා ඉරණම
Ivan recounts Ravaya’s campaign after a magistrate who knew actor Kamal Addararachchi discharged him of raping a schoolgirl; the magistrate left for Australia and Kamal was indicted and sentenced by Shiranee Tilakawardane to ten years. The Court of Appeal has now acquitted him while calling his conduct ungentlemanly. Ivan argues that poor young women rarely get justice, citing a girl abused by a former police chief, a child-sex racket at a Beruwala children’s home that led to a defamation case against Ravaya, and Lenin Ratnayake, sent on paid leave.
අෂ්රොෆ් ඔබට ආයුබෝවන්
A tribute to M.H.M. Ashraff, whom Ivan calls the most colourful Muslim leader since independence. He links Ashraff’s stand on Muslim identity to the concentrated farming Muslim community of the east, and recounts how in 1988 Badiudin Mahmud persuaded Sirimavo Bandaranaike to drop him from an opposition pact, driving him to back Ranasinghe Premadasa. Ivan recalls that Ashraff gave Chandrika Kumaratunga her 1994 majority yet privately criticised her, and that he publicly reversed his defence of Sarath N. Silva’s appointment after studying the documents.
රාවයට වැරදුණේද? ආපසු හැරි බැලීමක්
Ivan defends Ravaya’s critical stance before the presidential election. He explains that the paper promoted Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1992–94 for her reform programme, which she never implemented, and rejects her claim to have ended the fear of death and granted media freedom, recalling how Ravaya defied J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa, including publishing the 1988 election petition verdict in advance. He lists corrupted polls under her rule and maintains her win was not a clean mandate.
How the law is used to silence the truth
Ivan lists the 27 defamation suits brought against Ravaya in its first six years and recounts three: a Minister’s criminal case heard before a partial judge, Attorney General Thilak Marapone’s indictment in the W.A.K. Silva affair after a Bribery Commissioner was removed, and an ex parte suit served to the wrong court. He calls for reform of the criminal defamation law.
WANTED: An organized civil movement
This article delivers a scathing critique of “crony capitalism” in Sri Lanka, a deeply entrenched system of state plunder initiated under former President J.R. Jayewardene. The author expresses profound disillusionment with the newly elected People’s Alliance government, arguing that instead of dismantling this corrupt network and recovering stolen national wealth, the new leadership has simply embraced the same wealthy elites who bankrolled their rise to power, leaving the public’s demand for justice unfulfilled.
Thwarting the people’s will can be disastrous
On the eve of the August 1994 parliamentary election, Ivan warns of a plan to use the President’s power over the choice of Prime Minister to name Sirimavo Bandaranaike rather than Chandrika Kumaratunga and split the People’s Alliance. He calls on Mrs Bandaranaike to speak, and predicts the tide against the UNP cannot be stopped.