මොළයෙන් වෙනුවට හදවතින් තර්ක කිරීම
Ivan’s August article on the war and the Tamil people was translated into Tamil and English and answered by Kumar David in the Sunday Island and criticised by Gamini Viyangoda. This is his reply to Kumar David: the LTTE and the JVP, freedom from naked power, the separate state, the Vaddukoddai resolution, the silent revolution, and the difference between pride and emotion.
ඔබාමාගේ ජයග්‍රහණය මානව වර්ගයාගේ අපේක්ෂාව
A black candidate made this American election the whole world’s election, and his victory the political event of our time. Ivan traces the distance from slavery through Lincoln and Martin Luther King, and sets out what the world now wants from the most powerful state on earth — a development policy that narrows the gap between rich and poor countries, and equal standing for nations large and small.
ඔබාමාගේ ජය සැමරුම හා විජේවීරගේ ඉල්මහ සැමරුම
Ivan reads everything written about Obama in the Sinhala press, and finds two sentences in the JVP’s own paper and no analysis at all. The same weekend the papers give Rohana Wijeweera large space. From there he asks the question the two commemorations put together: who may lead this country — and answers that leadership here is still fixed by race, religion and caste, and that the day talent alone decides it is the day the country becomes free.
යුද්ධය හා අර්බුදයට විසඳුමක් සොයා ගැනීම
The LTTE played the Tamil Nadu card skilfully and did not get what it wanted; India sent relief to the displaced instead of pressing for a ceasefire. Ivan then turns to the harder half — a settlement everyone can accept — and works through the shift to guerrilla warfare, what kind of settlement would do, and how devolution could actually be built, using education as the worked example.
පවුල් දෙකක් සමග දීගකෑම ( රාවයේ 25 වැනි සංවත්සර කලාපය වෙනුවෙන් ලියූ ලිපියකි.)
Written for Ravaya’s 25th-anniversary issue, this personal essay describes how Ivan’s family says he has two families: his wife and three children, and Ravaya. Gandhi, his lifelong hero, failed as a father, as did Mandela and King, and Ivan resolved not to. He recalls weekends at home in Galle, his family’s refusal to exploit Ravaya, and his son’s reply to taunts after President Kumaratunga attacked Ivan on television and a fake Ravaya was circulated. But Ravaya was not always sensitive in return: reports on a school principal led to reprisals that drove his son, a six-time national chess champion, out of school; attacks on Dian Gomes cost the boy his sponsor; and the paper wounded friends such as Suranjith, Hemasiri Fernando, Susanthika Jayasinghe and Vimukthi Jayasundara. Critics, he says, must remember who their friends are.
සටන් කිරීම හා අවසාන සටන
Ivan sets out the principles that let him win most of his battles: a just cause, a clear philosophy and plan, careful assessment and preparation, and knowing when not to fight, as Gandhi refused to hamper the Allies in wartime. He recalls how J.R. Jayewardene ordered him to stop his ‘Kalinga’ column during the second JVP insurrection and how a calm reply won the President’s respect; how he refused JVP requests for help and armed protection, backed the state against the rebels though opposed to the UNP, and saw every such crisis as no time for regime change. He contrasts Gandhi’s respect for his opponents with the hatred driving Sri Lankan struggles, then tells how he defeated the parliamentary privileges committee’s power to punish journalists by refusing its summons, enlisting Mrs Bandaranaike and international pressure, until the committee adjourned indefinitely.
සටනකට පෙර ස්වයං විවේචනයකට
Responding to a public statement by a group of Tamil intellectuals led by the Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph, which urges the Tamil National Alliance to reject the 13th Amendment, boycott talks and stay out of the Northern Provincial Council election, Ivan argues that they are again pointing Tamils down the road to ruin. Before any new struggle, he says, the Tamil leadership must honestly ask why the last one failed: the separate-state goal was a fantasy of the traditional leaders, the 1977 mandate was far from overwhelming, J.R. Jayewardene’s 1978 Constitution met many language grievances, and Prabhakaran killed more Tamils than the security forces did. Like Gandhi’s Congress or Martin Luther King’s movement, Tamils should seek equal rights within a Sri Lankan nation and a democratic society.
යුද්ධය හා ජනවර්ග අර්බුදය
Written for the Tamil-language Veerakesari at that paper’s invitation, and it begins by placing its author: the man writing to a Tamil paper about what the Tamil people face after the war is not a Tamil but a Sinhalese — and not a Sinhalese born in a Sinhala area but one born in Batticaloa, who drove his pen to build Sinhala opinion in recognition that a grave injustice had been done to the Tamil nation.
බුද්ධිමය අවංකභාවය හා බුද්ධිමතකුගේ සදාචාර අර්බුදය (ආචාර්ය සුනිල් විජේසිරිවර්ධනට පිළිතුරක්)
Ivan questioned one idea from Dr Sunil Wijesiriwardena’s interview, not to put him in difficulty but because he believed it would put a wrong view into a reader’s head. The reply came, and this is Ivan’s answer to the reply — which begins by noting that the reply insists repeatedly that it is not a reply.
ඒකාධිපති පාලකයන්ට එරෙහිව අරාබි ලෝකයෙන් හමන සුළි සුළඟ
What will the large-scale risings against the autocratic rulers of the Muslim world — beginning in Tunisia, passing through Egypt and into North Africa and the Middle East — do to that world and then to the whole world? What is the social background of those struggles, and what are their main characteristics?