තකට තකතකට තක
Ivan argues that under Sarath N. Silva the judiciary became an object of public disgust. Appointed by Kumaratunga while facing charges, he purged judicial officers who would not bend, as the International Bar Association mission noted, and now seeks to reinstate a magistrate found guilty of rape and fraud. He suppressed cases against the PSD and approved the PA’s pre-2000 electoral law, and Ivan warns that disputes under any settlement with the LTTE would go to a Supreme Court headed by such a man.
පුදුම රටක්
A multi-part column. Ivan contrasts a poor country with rulers who bought 44 bulletproof cars at Rs 40 million each, many now missing, and spent Rs 600 million on the Sarasavi studio. Under ‘Sadism’ he reports confessions that Sanath Gunathilake ordered the bombing and burning of Anoja Weerasinghe’s house and the attack on Rookantha and Chandraleka, and describes the cover stories spread over the Rohana Kumara murder. Further sections discuss PA divisions over toppling the government and argue the domestic LTTE ban is pointless.
රාවය ඉදිරිය දකින ආකාරය
Answering critics who say Ravaya has gone soft on the UNF government, the paper recalls its record of opposing both UNP and PA governments. It backs curbing the President’s powers even at the cost of a distorting amendment, prosecution of those responsible for PSD crimes, including the President, and the peace effort, including lifting the LTTE ban. It lists its campaigns on the Elections Commissioner, state gifts, assets declarations, the 17th Amendment and Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, and reveals PSD plans to bomb Ravaya and kill its editor.
මංගලගේ හඬා වැළපීම
Mangala Samaraweera and others briefed the Indian High Commissioner on an alleged plot to arrest opposition figures linked to a conspiracy to kill the President. Ivan points out that allegations against the Presidential Security Division, including the attack on Lasantha Wickrematunge, long predate the government’s fall, and says those who fear unfair investigations should seek court restraint rather than complain to diplomats, recalling Samaraweera’s defiance over his Telecom credit card.
ජනාධිපතිනිය චෙක්මේට් වීමට ආසන්නයි
Ivan argues that Chandrika Kumaratunga ruled as a hereditary queen rather than an elected leader, flouted the 17th Amendment in the 2001 election she led, and should have resigned or sought a fresh mandate, or stepped back as D.B. Wijetunga did. Now she is cornered, and he predicts the crisis will cost her the presidency and the Bandaranaikes their hold on the SLFP, and says punishing PA-era crimes, though double-edged, is worthwhile.
උරුමයේ කරුමය
Ivan agrees with Anura Bandaranaike that the SLFP is a Bandaranaike family fiefdom in which Mahinda Rajapaksa is only a capable retainer, but warns that the country is not a fiefdom too. Further sections mock the ‘jobless’ President’s prison visit to her guards at Bogambara and her complaint that cabinet meetings drive her mad, note an unrevealed secret Mangala Samaraweera told S.B. Dissanayake, and describe how powerful remand prisoners end up in hospital rather than cells.
ජනාධිපති ලේකම්ට පිළිතුරක්
An open letter to Kusumsiri Balapatabendi answering his statement that private media were running a campaign linking the President and her security division to murders. Ivan lists attacks on Lasantha Wickrematunge and himself, the President’s own claim to have stopped a plot to kill two editors, S.B. Dissanayake’s account of her plan to bomb Ravaya and the Sunday Leader, and evidence linking presidential security men to the killings of Rohana Kumara and Kumar Ponnambalam and the assault on Rookantha and Chandraleka, and offers to join an impartial inquiry.
එජාප ආණ්ඩුවක් යටතේ රාවය ක්රියාකරන්නට යන්නේ කෙසේද?
Ivan sets out Ravaya’s stance after the change of government. He rejects the claim that the paper makes and unmakes governments, explains why it backed the SLFP before 1994 and turned against Chandrika Kumaratunga after the 1997 and Wayamba election violence, and states its positions on the UNP government, the People’s Alliance, whose ruling clique he names, and the JVP. He also contests a Press Council ruling he says Mangala Samaraweera and Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe engineered.
It’s time for cleaning up
Given how far the country has fallen, getting back to normal is not easy. People must understand that recovery will be gradual, and the government must at the same time give them a sense of hope. This is Ivan’s list of what the new government should clean up first.
ආණ්ඩුව ඉදිරියේ ඇති අභියෝග
Ivan sets out the tasks facing the new UNF government: humility in power, exemplary leadership, efficiency and, above all, restoring the rule of law. He urges an end to politicians’ immunity from traffic law and to fake number plates, noting their use in the Kandy killings and by presidential security, and calls for removing political protection from criminals such as Dhammika Perera, and for a Bribery Commission that targets the powerful and a right-to-information law.