A new age of terror
The government called the harassment of the singers Rukantha Gunatilaka and Chandralekha Perera a robbery, and the levelling of Anoja Weerasinghe’s house at Moneragala a personal grudge. Set those explanations beside each other, Ivan argues, and a pattern appears that the country has seen before.
යළි මරණ බිය රජ කරන යුගයක්
Ivan rejects the government’s explanation of the attacks on Rookantha Gunathilake, Chandralekha Perera and Anoja Weerasinghe as robbery or private feud, comparing the haircutting to the abduction of Lakbima’s Sri Lal Priyantha and recalling unsolved attacks on photographers, Sarath Kongahage and Lasantha Wickrematunge and the murders of Rohana Kumara and Kumar Ponnambalam. He quotes Chandrika Kumaratunga’s 1994 advertisement pledging to end state terror and says she now travels the opposite road.
Individual power disastrous to democracy
The government will not get a two-thirds majority at a parliamentary election. It can reach the number only by enacting a law that permits crossovers and then holding a referendum — which is precisely what was done once before, and this column is about what that cost.
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.
ජනාධිපතිනියගේ ජාතිය ඇමතීම බණ්ඩාරනායක පවුලේ ඉඩම් අයිතිය හා ඉඩම් සීමා නීතිය
Ivan disputes the President’s claim in her 3 January address that her father owned about 4,000 acres and sold 2,000 for politics. Tracing the Bandaranaike mudaliyar line, the colonial land grants of 1815 and 1818, and figures from Patrick Peebles and the 1927 Ferguson’s Directory, he shows Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike held 1,831 acres. He notes that many families lost more land under the ceiling law, reproducing tables of large native landowners.
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.
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.
ජනාධිපති ක්රමය අහෝසි කරන බවට දි ඇති පොරොන්දුව ඉටු කරන්නේ කවදා ද?
Ivan recalls that Chandrika Kumaratunga promised at every rally to tear up J.R. Jayewardene’s constitution and enact the People’s Alliance draft. He traces the demand to abolish the executive presidency from the Premadasa impeachment and the SLFP’s 1988 and 1994 manifestos, notes the government’s silence since winning, and argues that with UNP cooperation the next parliamentary election could be held under a parliamentary system.