මජරකමද? වැඩවසම් උද්ධච්ඡකමද?
The dispute over luxury bullet-proof vehicles bought under the People’s Alliance, some now missing, shows how selfishly the country has been run. The editorial lists the purchases for the President’s security from 1999 to 2000, costing Rs 1,110 million for cars and perhaps Rs 3,000 million with helicopters, and contrasts this with UNP leaders who faced worse threats without such spending and with meagre budgets for agriculture, labour and irrigation.
ජේ ආර් ප්රේමදාස හා චන්ද්රිකා ආශ්රයෙන් රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ
Ivan compares the new Prime Minister with three presidents. J.R. Jayewardene thought big and was democratic with his cabinet though authoritarian towards the country; Premadasa was the reverse; Chandrika Kumaratunga had no national goal and was autocratic towards both. He credits Ranil Wickremesinghe’s restraint on the ethnic issue and his rapid lifting of northern restrictions, likened to John Major in Northern Ireland, but faults his hoarding of ministries and his ambivalence on the Chief Justice and holdover officials.
දෝෂාභියෝගයක්
With an impeachment motion filed against Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Ivan recalls the only earlier one under the 1978 Constitution, against Neville Samarakoon. He recounts Samarakoon’s career and clashes with Jayewardene’s government: the reconstituted Supreme Court, the Kalawana seat, the referendum amendment, the Ratanasara and Vivienne Goonewardene cases and mobs outside judges’ homes, and his 1984 speech that led to a select committee and impeachment committee. The contrast with today shows how far politics has declined.
රිචඩ් සොයිසා ගැන වැඩිදුරටත්…
Replying to C.A. Chandraprema, an Island editorial, Justice Minister Batty Weerakoon and a state radio campaign against the Alliance for Democracy, Ivan explains his earlier remark on Richard de Zoysa. He recounts what a senior police investigator and a close friend told him: that de Zoysa was an active JVP supporter whose borrowed house sheltered Somawansa Amarasinghe, and that he was translating Wijeweera’s book on Eelam when abducted. He insists the murder was unjustifiable, discusses the class dimension of its prominence, and says his views are his own, not the Free Media Movement’s.
The Richard factor in the FMM
A mention of Richard de Zoysa in an earlier article, questioning the purpose of a government photographic exhibition, has become a great controversy. This is Ivan’s answer to it, and the most personally exposed thing he wrote in the Sunday Times.
JVP terror to the fore
The government is marking the anniversary of Vijaya Kumaratunga’s assassination as a general commemoration of those killed by the JVP, with a costly travelling exhibition and fresh legal action against those involved in the second insurrection. Ivan’s objection is not to the remembering.
චන්ද්රිකා පාලනයේ ඇතැම් ගති ලක්ෂණ අනාගතය
Ivan argues that Chandrika Kumaratunga reached power by chance, as Vijaya Kumaratunga, Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake left the scene and Anura Bandaranaike quit the SLFP. Lacking experience, she sidelined seasoned figures such as Dharmasiri Senanayake and Mahinda Rajapaksa in favour of S.B. Dissanayake and Mangala Samaraweera. He lists broken promises on the executive presidency, the ‘Pajero culture’, duty-free vehicle permits and liquor licences for MPs, condemns her record of rigged elections, and warns that the worst of her rule may come in a second six years.
Playing it right in the political arena
Unlike Jayewardene and Premadasa, President Kumaratunga did not come to power after long effort and sacrifice; she came to it by fortunate circumstance. What she did come to power on was a democratic political discourse — and this column measures her against it.
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.
එස්.බී. ගේ තප්පුලෑම
Ivan answers S.B. Dissanayake, who on television called him an extortionist working for an alleged arms dealer, Ananda Chittampalam, to bring Ranil Wickremesinghe to power. Ivan phoned into a live programme to question him, recounts his past association with Chittampalam, Harry Goonatilleke and Anuruddha Ratwatte in the 1988 campaign, and rebuts claims about his income, houses and English. He contrasts Dissanayake’s former hardship with his new wealth and recalls his own role in the impeachment move against Ranasinghe Premadasa.