ලැබූ නිදහසේ ඇති නොගැලපුම
On the anniversary of Independence, Ivan argues that because Ceylon won freedom without struggle, its communities never forged a real national unity. Citing Lord Soulbury’s foreword to B.H. Farmer’s Ceylon: A Divided Nation, he notes that Section 29 did not stop the citizenship laws or the Sinhala Only Act, and that minority representation fell short of expectations. A new constitution alone will not solve the ethnic problem; Sinhala and Tamil democratic aspirations must be joined in a common movement.
A cry for democracy
The TULF’s secretary has said that democracy cannot be safeguarded by four commissions alone and that the constitution has to change as well. Ivan agrees, and goes back to the 1930s to show what the country’s democratic tradition actually contained and who carried it.
සුළු ජාතීන් පිළිබඳ ගැටලුව හා යෝජිතස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් හතර
Answering TULF secretary R. Sampanthan, who said the four commissions cannot secure democracy without constitutional change for minorities, Ivan argues that the south’s democratic demands and the north’s minority rights are two sides of one crisis, rooted in a democracy received from the British without a unifying freedom struggle. He praises the Jaffna Youth Congress, Sri Nissanka and Wilmot Perera, and recalls how the citizenship laws and Sinhala Only overrode Soulbury safeguards while Chelvanayakam lost before a dependent judiciary. He urges Tamils and Muslims to back the commissions.
කඩුවේ අභියෝග ජයගැනීම
Ivan argues that S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s Sinhala Only policy, by confining youth to Sinhala, fed the two southern insurrections led by Wijeweera and the Tamil separatist struggle under Prabhakaran, whereas Indian leaders kept English for higher education. He welcomes compulsory English at A-level but calls English-medium science in 560 schools from 2001 reckless, given teacher shortages and a 64% O-level English failure rate in 1995. He proposes model schools and a state-funded eight-month English and computer course for the 35,000 annual A-level passes, run through international schools.
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.
ඉන්දියානු මැදිහත් වීමක් විසඳුමක් ඇති කරලීමට සමත්වේද?
Ivan argues that India, itself a party to the crisis, cannot really resolve it. He traces the conflict to Sinhala Only under S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and university standardisation, and to India’s training and arming of Tamil militants in reaction to J.R. Jayewardene’s policies, which Indira Gandhi failed to see would cost her son’s life. Neither a ban on separation nor a merged North-East would satisfy both communities, and no party offers a lasting vision.
Self interest in making constitutions
As a nation we are on the edge of a great abyss, and the leaders behave like crabs dancing in water until it boils — so blinded by hunger for power that they cannot see the danger to themselves, let alone the danger to the country.
ජනාධිපතිනියගේ ජාතිය ඇමතීම බණ්ඩාරනායක පවුලේ ඉඩම් අයිතිය හා ඉඩම් සීමා නීතිය
Ivan disputes the President’s claim in her 3 January address that her father owned about 4,000 acres and sold 2,000 for politics. Tracing the Bandaranaike mudaliyar line, the colonial land grants of 1815 and 1818, and figures from Patrick Peebles and the 1927 Ferguson’s Directory, he shows Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike held 1,831 acres. He notes that many families lost more land under the ceiling law, reproducing tables of large native landowners.
Wolves in Sheep’s clothing
An open letter congratulating President Chandrika Kumaratunga on a victory won across all communities. Ivan urges her to settle the ethnic question and to recover what the old regime’s cronies took, naming the Nawaloka land payment, the Airbus deal and the Ruhunu Cement sale, and warns that wolves cannot be taught to eat grass.