Playing with the sovereignty of the people
The printing of the draft constitution finished on Sunday 30 July and it went to the cabinet on the 31st. Every minister approved a 209-page document none of them had read, because there had been no time to read it. On 2 August it went to the Chief Justice.
එදා ජේ.ආර්. කල දේම අද චන්ද්රිකා කරයි
Ivan compares the government’s rush to enlarge Parliament to 281 seats with 168 elected by first-past-the-post, avoiding a referendum through a court ruling, with J.R. Jayewardene’s attempt to keep Abeyratne Pilapitiya in Parliament after losing the Kalawana election petition. Then the Supreme Court ruled that adding even one seat required a referendum and Sarath Muttetuwegama took the seat. He estimates buying the nine UNP votes needed for two-thirds would cost about Rs 180 million.
පරමාධිපත්යය සමග
The editorial describes how the 209-page draft constitution was printed on 30 July, approved unread by the cabinet on 31 July and sent to the Supreme Court as an urgent bill without gazetting or public comment. A constitution is a social contract, it argues, not an emergency law like that passed after Sepala Ekanayake’s hijacking; South Africa received some four million public submissions. With no public debate and votes being bought, the new constitution will deepen the country’s problems.
Politics of the Samurdhi
On the eve of a general election the government has cut the price of flour by three rupees, raised pensions by 300 and public service salaries by 600. More significant politically is the increase in the Samurdhi allowance — and the machine that distributes it.
What signals do appointments give the country?
Harry Jayawardena, a billionaire businessman, a close friend of the Bandaranaike family and the man reported to have met the chief expenses of the presidential campaign, has been appointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. What, Ivan asks, does an appointment like that tell the country about itself?
Big and mighty get away, small ones have to pay
After reports that most members of the legislature break the assets declaration rule they enacted themselves, the President has ordered every cabinet and deputy minister to hand over five years of declarations at once. Enforcing the law late, and only because a newspaper pressed, still deserves praise.
A government, an actor and an audio cassette
The PA government is pushing itself towards political extinction for the sake of a film actor. The disrepute the Channel 9 scandal has brought on the government and on the President who leads it is great, and the story shows how much weight men like Sanath Gunatilleke, who gate-crashed into the PA at the last moment, came to carry.
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.