අන්තෝජටා බහිජටා තත්ත්වයක්
Ivan argues that anti-government and nationalist forces are converging: after the SLFP–JVP alliance talks collapsed, pro-alliance elements in the SLFP are pushing the President back towards the JVP, which now demands through Wimal Weerawansa that the SLFP drop devolution. He likens her position to her father’s after the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam pact, notes the JVP’s drift from the red flag to the lion flag, and blames Ranil Wickremesinghe for ceding public debate on reform to nationalists, risking an independent North and a bloodstained South.
An Utterly Complicated Situation
In this article, Victor Ivan examines the volatile political maneuvering between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Driven by factions eager to topple the ruling government, efforts to form a JVP-SLFP alliance ultimately stalled due to President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s reluctance to commit to a permanent coalition. Ivan draws a historical parallel to the President’s father, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who was forced by chauvinist pressures to tear up the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact. The author highlights the JVP’s alarming ideological shift away from Marxism toward blatant racism and Sinhalese chauvinism, explicitly demanding that the SLFP abandon its policies on the devolution of power. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is criticized for remaining passively silent, hoping the President loses credibility—a dangerous strategy that Ivan warns could empower racist factions, destroy the peace process, and ultimately result in a divided and bleeding nation.
අභ්යන්තර තුවාල හඳුනාගැනීම
Writing after a workshop in Austria led by conflict-resolution scholar Johan Galtung, Ivan takes up Galtung’s point that history and myth feed Sri Lanka’s conflict. Drawing on B.H. Farmer’s ‘Ceylon: A Divided Nation’, he traces how the Mahavamsa’s stories of Vijaya, Mahinda and Dutugemunu shaped a Sinhala sense of special origin and of the Tamil as historic enemy, a potential tapped from Dharmapala and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to the JVP, and argues that these inner wounds must be treated along with the outer ones.
රාජ්යය ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදි කිරීම
The LTTE’s move from a separate state to a federal system of internal self-rule offers an easier basis for a settlement. Ivan argues that minorities pushed aside by the majority seek to break away, and that the state must be democratised so the majority cannot override their rights, citing Nehru’s creation of Tamil Nadu. He links the insurrections of Prabhakaran and Rohana Wijeweera to caste domination as well as ethnic and class grievances, and calls for a new constitution through broad national dialogue.
Democratization of the Country
This article explores the deeper socio-political fractures in Sri Lanka, arguing that the nation’s violent conflicts have been driven as much by caste oppression as by ethnic divisions. The author points out that both Prabhakaran in the North and Wijeweera in the South led armed rebellions that fundamentally challenged the entrenched dominance of the Vellala and Govigama castes. Highlighting historical examples of political exclusion based on caste—such as C.P. de Silva being denied party leadership—the article contends that Sri Lanka’s rigid political framework fails to accommodate marginalized voices. Ultimately, the author calls for a new, flexible constitution that guarantees true democratic participation and protects all minority groups from the tyranny of the majority.
ජේ.ආර්. ගේ “ගෝල්ඩ් රොලෙක්ස්” චන්ද්රිකාගේ පතේ පිලිප්ස්”
Ivan recalls an acquaintance who contrasted J.R. Jayewardene’s showy gold Rolex with the far costlier Patek Philippe worn by Chandrika Kumaratunga, and traces the Bandaranaike family’s modest finances from the Maha Mudaliyar to the 1956 election loans. He describes a phone call in which the President spoke of the watch, a gift she planned to auction, and his article leading her to hand gifts to the Treasury. He then recounts his failed efforts to obtain ministers’ and the President’s asset declarations.
මාළිගා විවාදය යළි කරලියට
A long reply by presidential media director Janadasa Peiris to a report that Rs 800 million had been spent on the site of a planned presidential palace has revived the controversy. The editorial notes what he leaves out about the Temple Trees renovation, including a swimming pool and mini-cinema, and about repairs to President’s House, and observes that earlier leaders from S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to Ranasinghe Premadasa lived in their own homes, a tradition Chandrika Kumaratunga broke.
නව විපක්ෂ නායකයාට සුභ පැතුම්
The editorial welcomes Mahinda Rajapaksa’s appointment as Leader of the Opposition as a first step in freeing the SLFP from one family’s control, noting that Chandrika Kumaratunga conceded it only under pressure from party members. It urges him to modernise the party and to practise an opposition politics that supports what is good, including peace, and opposes only what is harmful.
නිදහසේ උභතෝකෝටිකය
On the 54th Independence Day, Ivan laments that freedom won without struggle left Sri Lanka without the attitudes or institutions to hold its communities together. Contrasting its record with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India, he cites negative growth, 15 per cent inflation, war costs and some 100,000 deaths, and argues that no leader since 1948, Sinhala or Tamil, has won the respect of all communities.
ජනාධිපතිනියගේ ඒබ්රහම් ලින්කන් ආදර්ශය
Ivan examines President Kumaratunga’s 22 July racecourse speech calling the 1978 Constitution a death trap and citing Abraham Lincoln as a leader who acted outside the constitution to end slavery. He argues the referendum is a ploy to avoid a no-confidence vote; that crossing the floor is lawful and was done by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, D.A. Rajapaksa, Mahanama Samaraweera and the LSSP leaders; that the Constitution has allowed stable governments; and, recounting the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, that Lincoln acted within the constitution.