Can the Political System be changed by way of Court Orders?
The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva now rules against the executive, and the public is pleased. Ivan sets this against the court’s record — the stay order on the impeachment motion, the JSC petition, and five years of turning away petitions to implement the 17th Amendment before Sumanasiri Liyanage’s succeeded — and argues that only changing the political system will last.
13 වැනි සංශෝධනය ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම
The government has decided to give provincial councils the full powers the 13th Amendment already allows. Ivan calls it arguable but better than doing nothing, and adds what costs nothing and is not being done either: making it possible to deal with state offices in Tamil in the north and east and in the Western and Central provinces, recruiting the staff for it, and rewarding bilingualism.
දේශපාලන බීරී අලින්ට වීණා ගැයීම
The election is being held without an Elections Commission because the President has not approved the Constitutional Council’s nominees, leaving the Commissioner to act alone. The editorial notes that the Police Commission has at least curbed political interference with the police, and regrets that neither the President nor the candidates see the issue as important.
නායකයන්ගේ වගකීමෙන් තොර බව
The presidential election is being held with neither an Elections Commission nor a Constitutional Council, leaving the Elections Commissioner, the man the 17th Amendment has hurt most, ‘caught like an areca nut in the cutter’. A second section, on the rule of law and the Chief Justice, counts the motion for a select committee on the Diyawanna Oya affair as a third impeachment charge against him.
ජනාධිපතිවරණය හා අවිචාරවත් නායකයින්
Any democracy needs a balance between legislature, executive and judiciary. Sri Lanka is sliding into a failed state, though its educated class rejects the label, and the neglect of the 17th Amendment shows it: there is still no Constitutional Council, and neither candidate seems interested in setting one up.
ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා මරා දැමීමට ඉඩ දෙමු ද?
Months after the first Constitutional Council’s term ended, no new members have been appointed, and vacancies in the Court of Appeal cannot be filled. Whatever its flaws, the 17th Amendment was an important step towards good governance; the editorial says the commissions matter to the public, not the politicians, and it is for the public to save them.
රට තිබෙන්නේ ඛේදජනක තත්ත්වයක යි
With the JVP gone, the government has no majority. The forces gathered around the alliance had no vision beyond defeating the UNP, the parties have no internal democracy and train autocrats, and although an election is near, the Elections Commission has still not been set up.
ජවිපෙ කඳ ප්රගතිශීලීය; ඔළුව ප්රතිගාමීය
The JVP deserves credit for bringing the rural Sinhala youth of no privilege into politics, but Rohana Wijeweera’s picture of politics as a musical chairs between two walauwas missed the historic change from feudal society to the modern state. Short sections follow on the President’s newest song, aid thieves, where the country is going, and how the President ignores the 17th Amendment in disciplining public officers.
ව්යවස්ථාව චග්ගුඩු පිටියක් නොවේ
The JVP now seems ready to go any distance to stop the UNP returning to power, and to change the constitution by a simple majority with the courts’ help. Ivan argues that the President and the JVP may fight the UNP within the democratic framework but not outside it, and recalls how the 17th Amendment bill was examined by a three-judge bench that included the Chief Justice.
පක්ෂ තුනක ප්රජාතන්ත්ර විරෝධී භාවිතය
A country divided by party loyalty sees only good in its own side. Ivan examines the undemocratic record of the UNP, the SLFP and the JVP, from the 1982 referendum that extended Parliament’s life, which Sirimavo Bandaranaike opposed, to their handling of the independent commissions under the 17th Amendment.