Next choice of Sri Lanka, a People’s Constitution
Forty-six people’s organisations met in Colombo on 19 January and agreed how a new constitution should be framed. Victor Ivan sets out that consensus and the international-law argument for participatory constitution-making.
Investigating corruption of the Yahapalana Government
The Yahapalana government’s flagship anti-corruption inquiry was chaired, Victor Ivan notes, by a former Chief Justice whose own record he sets out at length. A column about who is trusted to investigate whom.
Elimination of bribery and corruption
Duty-free vehicle permits, business with the state, staffing rackets: Victor Ivan lists what a new constitution would have to prohibit outright, and points to Hong Kong’s anti-corruption commission as a working model.
Roots of bribery and corruption
Corruption in Sri Lanka is not a failure of individual character but a system built deliberately, Victor Ivan argues — traced here from J.R. Jayewardene’s admiration for Napoleon to the party machinery that now depends on it.
Making a People’s Constitution for Sri Lanka
Having argued that the Constitution has lost its spirit, Victor Ivan sets out what a replacement should do: build the nation, empower the people directly, and put constitution-making beyond the reach of the Executive alone.
The second freedom struggle (III)
From John Locke to the South African transition, Victor Ivan surveys how constitutions have actually been made — and concludes that Sri Lanka’s own expertise on the subject is thin, outdated and confined to a narrow elite.
The Second Freedom Struggle (Part II)
Victor Ivan returns to 1947-48 to show how the Soulbury Constitution was made and how quickly it was disfigured — the disenfranchisement of the plantation Tamils, the Sinhala Only Act, and the habit of amending away inconvenient safeguards.
Overcoming the crisis: The second freedom struggle
If the collapse of the state cannot now be avoided, what should replace it? Victor Ivan calls for a ‘second freedom struggle’ led by public organisations rather than political parties, aimed at a new constitution.
Anarchy and the collapse of the State
The Executive and the Legislature have disintegrated; the Judiciary may yet find its orders ignored. Victor Ivan reads the state as a machine whose faults were visible, and whose remaining life could have been predicted, long ago.
Understanding the root cause of the crisis
The collapse Victor Ivan sees around him did not begin in October 2018. He traces it to the failure, from independence onward, to build a single nation out of Sri Lanka’s ethnic, caste and religious divisions.