End of an era?
The pandemic is an accident, not a conspiracy. Victor Ivan argues it has merely accelerated a collapse already under way, and asks whether what is ending is a government or an era.
කූට ලේඛන සංස්කෘතිය (ජාතික හැඳුනුම්පත හා ගමන් බලපත්‍රය)
Answering officials who disputed details in his series on the bureaucracy, Ivan stands by his accounts and then turns to how deep forgery runs. Using Dayananda Dissanayake’s Nuwara Eliya deal, he calculates the Treasury’s loss at over Rs. 6.1 million on one plot. Birth certificates without serial numbers, a corrupt identity-card office that issued LTTE suicide bombers genuine-looking cards, and a passport office that keeps no copies have created an industry, fed above all by the trade in underage and overage housemaids for the Middle East. Forgery, he says, now runs from school admissions to medical licences and doctorates.
පක්ෂපාතභාවයට කප්පම් ගෙවන අපක්ෂපාතභාවයට දඬුවම් දෙන ක්‍රමයක්
Prompted by a reader’s tip, Ivan sets out how former Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake obtained a prime plot in Nuwara Eliya on President Kumaratunga’s recommendation for Rs. 30,000 in 1995 and sold most of it five months later for over Rs. 5.2 million. Such favours, he argues, are the bribe the executive presidency pays for loyalty, continuing the plunder of estate land after 1977. Those who uphold the law are punished instead: Auditor General Wijesuriya forced out, Justices Wanasundera and Mark Fernando passed over, B.C. Perera driven from the Treasury, and Shirani Bandaranayake impeached.
මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් වත්කම් බැරකම් නීතිය
Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya collected candidates’ asset declarations with zeal, Ivan argues, only to lock them away, telling Ravaya that the public needs a court order to see them. The 1988 amendment to the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law gives anyone the right to certified copies for a fee. Ivan recounts how he first saw Lalith Athulathmudali’s declaration, the People’s Alliance’s broken 1994 pledge to publish ministers’ assets, the Speaker who complied and the President’s office that did not, and reproduces a 2005 letter from Deshapriya’s predecessor sending him six declarations — disproving the claim that there is no precedent.
අගවිනිසුරුගේ දෝෂාභියෝගයෙන් පන පෙවෙන වත්කම් බැරකම් නීතිය
Two of the impeachment charges against the Chief Justice concern her asset declarations, and Ivan argues that whatever their merit they have revived a powerful but neglected law. He explains the 1975 Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law and its 1988 amendment, which gave any citizen the right to inspect declarations and did not exempt the president. He recounts learning of the law from MP C.V. Gooneratne in the late 1980s, asking the Secretary-General of Parliament for MPs’ declarations, persuading G.L. Peiris, and later testing the Kumaratunga government and the Election Commissioners, and calls for the law to be updated and strictly enforced.
මංගලගේ බළලා මල්ලෙන් එළියට
Mangala Samaraweera’s call to abolish the executive presidency, Ivan argues, reflects the SLFP’s real aim of making Chandrika Kumaratunga an executive prime minister after her term ends, just as Ranil Wickremesinghe wants the presidency intact for himself. Further sections cover the Elections Commissioner’s criticism of the hastily passed 17th Amendment and of Supreme Court rulings, and the Editors’ Guild submission on contempt of court.
ස්වාධීන මැතිවරණ කොමිසම මරා දැමීම
Ivan argues that neither government nor opposition wants an independent Elections Commission: the President withholds approval of the Constitutional Council’s nominees and the Supreme Court declined to resolve the Elections Commissioner’s petition about his personal liability. Further sections criticise a campaign to build up Justice Shirani Bandaranayake as a future Chief Justice despite her role in the order restraining Parliament’s impeachment, and the President’s obstruction of Rajitha Senaratne’s scheme to issue freehold deeds for state land.
ඡන්දදායකයන් සඳහා හැඳුනුම් පත අනිවාර්ය කිරීම
The Elections Commissioner’s administration report for 2001 recommends making the national identity card compulsory at the polls to stop impersonation, and calls for a commission to probe the violence and misuse of public property at the last parliamentary election. The editorial notes that a select committee held back because about 35 per cent of voters lacked cards, and argues that digital technology now allows cards to be issued to all adults within a month at modest cost.
බලතල නැතැයි කීමේ හැකියාවක් දැන් මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්ට නැත
The editorial notes that, pending an Elections Commission, the 17th Amendment gives its powers to the Elections Commissioner, including control of police on election duty and the power to take over partisan state bodies. It calls on him to stop misuse of state resources and state media, to collect the asset declarations of candidates that have never been obtained, and to ensure a free and fair election.
මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයාගේ වගකීම
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Central Provincial Council poll in Ududumbara, Pathadumbara, Hewaheta and Galagedara was grossly corrupt and that the Elections Commissioner violated petitioners’ rights by not cancelling voting at all 23 polling stations, whatever obstruction he faced. The editorial applies the Court’s words, that the law wants a real election, not a sham, to the presidential poll’s alleged forged ballots, on which the Commissioner remains silent.