දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතිය ගෞරවනීය තැනකට ගෙන ඒම පළමුවෙන්ම සිදුවිය යුතුය
The TULF objects that the PA–UNP consensus agenda covers democracy but not the ethnic question. Ivan agrees a settlement is vital but says it needs cross-party consensus, impossible while ruling parties use state power against rivals: the UNP stripped the SLFP leader’s civic rights and banned the JVP, and the PA humiliated and split the UNP and harassed the JVP. He calls for a level field, beginning with a judiciary freed from the executive and a new Chief Justice, laws against persecuting opponents, and the disarming of armed parties.
අෂ්රොෆ් ඔබට ආයුබෝවන්
A tribute to M.H.M. Ashraff, whom Ivan calls the most colourful Muslim leader since independence. He links Ashraff’s stand on Muslim identity to the concentrated farming Muslim community of the east, and recounts how in 1988 Badiudin Mahmud persuaded Sirimavo Bandaranaike to drop him from an opposition pact, driving him to back Ranasinghe Premadasa. Ivan recalls that Ashraff gave Chandrika Kumaratunga her 1994 majority yet privately criticised her, and that he publicly reversed his defence of Sarath N. Silva’s appointment after studying the documents.
චන්ද්රිකා පාලනයේ ඇතැම් ගති ලක්ෂණ අනාගතය
Ivan argues that Chandrika Kumaratunga reached power by chance, as Vijaya Kumaratunga, Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake left the scene and Anura Bandaranaike quit the SLFP. Lacking experience, she sidelined seasoned figures such as Dharmasiri Senanayake and Mahinda Rajapaksa in favour of S.B. Dissanayake and Mangala Samaraweera. He lists broken promises on the executive presidency, the ‘Pajero culture’, duty-free vehicle permits and liquor licences for MPs, condemns her record of rigged elections, and warns that the worst of her rule may come in a second six years.
Playing it right in the political arena
Unlike Jayewardene and Premadasa, President Kumaratunga did not come to power after long effort and sacrifice; she came to it by fortunate circumstance. What she did come to power on was a democratic political discourse — and this column measures her against it.
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.
බිත්තර නොකඩා ඔම්ලට් හැදිම
Ivan recalls that J.R. Jayewardene’s 1978 constitution concentrated power in an executive president, subordinating Parliament, the courts and the public service, and that Sirimavo Bandaranaike vowed to fight any resulting dictatorship. Quoting the People’s Alliance 1994 manifesto and Chandrika Kumaratunga’s January 1995 address pledging abolition, he notes that she now offers to change everything except the presidency, which would end only with her term, and contrasts this with F.W. de Klerk.
What happened to the Wayamba Election?
All the Wayamba election petitions were dismissed at the stage of preliminary objections, on the ground that they had not specified how the corruption, the intimidation and the prevention of voting had affected the result. What the petitions actually contained, station by station, is set out here.
වයඹ ඡන්ද පෙත්සම්වලට සිදුවූයේ කුමක්ද
Ivan examines the dismissal of all petitions on the 1999 North Western provincial election at the preliminary objection stage for failing to show specific effects on the petitioners. He notes that K.N. Choksy and H.L. de Silva argued the reverse positions from the 1988 presidential petition, argues that the court should have treated the case as one of popular sovereignty, and faults the Elections Commissioner, who annulled nine polling stations and knew of 236 stuffed boxes, for not seeking a fresh poll.
ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයට සීල් තැබීම
Ivan argues that freedom of expression is the gateway to democracy and that modern practice allows only narrow, court-imposed limits for national security. He criticises emergency regulations used to seal the Jaffna paper Uthayan and the Leader group, including Irida Peramuna for a story it never carried, for six months though emergency powers lapse monthly. He places this beside earlier sealings of Aththa, Davasa and Eelanadu and ties it to plans to extend Parliament.
Is history repeating itself?
When a ruling party acts undemocratically it falls to the official opposition to enlighten its members and the public and turn them into an active force against it. What happens when the opposition cannot or will not is the subject — and the case Ivan works from is the SLFP of the 1980s, read through Mick Moore.