චන්ද්රිකාගේ නව ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව
Ivan calls the President’s constitution a scheme to keep power under the banner of an ethnic solution, as her father used Sinhala grievances in 1956. Tied to a new electoral system, it provoked the JVP, Sihala Urumaya and UNP, alarmed her own MPs, and she attacked rather than persuaded the Sangha. Using the analogy of complex surgery by an unqualified surgeon, he contrasts her with Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, who gave up power for a settlement.
අගමැතිනියගේ හතළිස්වැනි අගමැති සංවත්සරය
Marking forty years since Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman prime minister, the editorial honours her but questions her holding office at 84 when her health prevents her from performing the duties of a post that, though diminished, still answers to Parliament and acts for the President. Citing Roosevelt and Mandela on fitness for office, it calls the practice a waste of public money and an indignity to her, and notes the similar case of bedridden deputy minister P.B.G. Kalugalla.