The 2019 Presidential Election and the aftermath
Two brothers, two minds: Victor Ivan argues that Mahinda Rajapaksa for all his faults kept a civilian outlook, and that what would follow a Gotabaya victory is government by the barracks.
Reflections on Presidential Elections
Victor Ivan looks back at 2010 and 2015 and then at the man on the 2019 ballot, setting out at length what was done to journalists and soldiers during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s years as Defence Secretary.
අඬමුද? සිනාසෙමුද?
This article critically examines the controversial tenure and actions of former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva, detailing his abuse of judicial power for personal and political gain. It outlines his role in imprisoning S.B. Dissanayake to appease President Chandrika Kumaratunga, his subsequent legal betrayal of Kumaratunga following a personal insult regarding his behavior toward women, and his intimidation of treasury officials to secure an abnormally high pension. The author also provides a detailed investigative account of a 2004 incident near Diyawanna Oya, where police allegedly found the Chief Justice half-naked in a parked vehicle with a woman, using the cover-up of this event to highlight the systemic corruption and apathy within Sri Lanka’s political, parliamentary, and judicial systems.
ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් කෝපයට පත් කළ ෆේරඩ්රිකා ජෑන්ස්ගේ කරුණු විමසීම
Ivan defends Sunday Leader editor Frederica Jansz, whose paper published her telephone conversation with Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa about a puppy flown from Zurich on SriLankan Airlines. He describes how the Secretary answered calmly at first, then turned to abuse and threats, using obscene language and calling her a journalist who eats filth, when she asked about a pilot unqualified to fly the aircraft. Jansz, he argues, was doing her job properly by putting a story of public interest to the person concerned before publishing it, and the Secretary’s conduct was unworthy of his office.
සරත් නන්ද සිල්වා හා සමාජ පාදඩකරණය
The Sunday Leader editor Frederica Jansz called the former chief justice a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and his long reply appeared in that paper at the weekend — answering not all her charges but only the few he could interpret to his own advantage. This is Ivan’s account of the rest.
අඳ-ගොළු-බිහිරි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව
Ivan argues that Parliament, unlike legislatures elsewhere, ignores citizens’ complaints and media exposures. His examples include the Bribery Commission’s ruling on Mangala Samaraweera’s credit-card spending, its refusal to act on his own complaint against the Chief Justice, and Ravaya’s 2001 exposure of abuses by the Public Trustee, including misuse of the Samarakoon fund meant for poor couples’ dowries. He cites the Marga survey and the IBA report on the judiciary, which Parliament never debated, and the UNP’s silence on the Chief Justice now it is in government.