ව්‍යවස්ථා සම්පාදනය හා අධිකරණය (ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්‍රශ්නය – 6)
Part 6 examines judicial review. Under Articles 120 to 124 of the 1978 constitution the Supreme Court can review bills only before they pass, so unconstitutional amendments can go through with a two-thirds majority. Parliament has ignored conventions, as in extending its own life by referendum. Contrasting Chief Justice Marshall’s establishment of judicial review in the United States and the Indian Supreme Court’s defence of the basic structure, Ivan argues that Sri Lanka’s courts have lacked the independence and creativity to protect a constitution, however good.
ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය (ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්‍රශ්නය – 5)
Part 5 compares how constitutions are amended in the United States and India, where fundamental provisions are hard to change and courts have restored constitutions after they were abused, with Sri Lanka, where all three constitutions were made by majority power rather than consensus. He surveys amendments to the 1978 constitution: the 1982 early presidential election and fraudulent referendum, the Sixth Amendment after Black July, the Thirteenth and Seventeenth, Kumaratunga’s failed draft, and Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Eighteenth.
පාඨකයින්ට පෙනෙන්නේ කෙසේද?
A short note to readers on the constitution series. Ivan explains the plan he set himself over the New Year holiday: to cover the history of Sri Lanka’s constitutions, what kind of constitution the country now needs and what it must achieve, which will take several more articles. He asks readers whether the series interests them enough to continue.
බලය ගල්ගැසුණු දෙයක් බවට පත් කළ ජේ.ආර්.ගේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව (ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්‍රශ්නය-4)
Part 4 examines the 1978 constitution. Holding five-sixths of Parliament after the 1977 election, J.R. Jayewardene rushed through a new constitution without proper public scrutiny, stripping Parliament of supremacy and creating a president above the law, with the power to appoint and dismiss the cabinet at will. Citing K.M. de Silva’s biography of Jayewardene, Ivan argues that though it removed some Sinhala-only provisions, the constitution was drafted without Tamil representatives and did nothing to stop young Tamils being pushed towards a separate state.
ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්‍රශ්නය 3
The third part of Ivan’s series on constitution-making examines the Soulbury constitution, drafted around D.S. Senanayake’s wishes by Ivor Jennings, whose weak safeguards for minorities Lord Soulbury later regretted, and Colvin R. de Silva’s 1972 republican constitution, whose unitary state, primacy for Buddhism and Sinhala-only laws the Federal Party rejected. The Tamil representatives walked out, and the road led to the 1976 Vaddukoddai resolution for a separate state.
අර්බුදය මට පෙනෙන හැටි (අවසන් කොටස)
Ivan divides the post-independence period into two eras and traces the second, from 1977: a government that could not be changed, thuggery institutionalised in the universities and unions, Black July and the JVP ban, and the violent era of 1985 to 2009, including Indian intervention and the state’s brutal suppression of the second JVP rising under Premadasa. Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance continued the corrupt system, and Mahinda Rajapaksa, after defeating Prabhakaran, chose a stinking path instead of reconciliation, leaving the country as isolated as it was when Prabhakaran was strong.
අර්බුදය මට පෙනෙන හැටි
Replying to a reader who said he blames everything on the executive presidency, Ivan traces the crisis further back, to a crisis of thought. Buddhism became confined to the Sinhalese, and independence came without a mass struggle, so the new state inherited narrow limits. He follows the distortions through to 1977 and beyond: the crushing of the 1980 general strike, the burning of the Jaffna library during the 1981 district council election, the 1982 referendum, and Black July, blamed on the JVP, which pushed both Tamil and Sinhala youth towards violence.
යූඇන්පියේ ආණ්ඩු ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ යෝජනා
Ivan warns that neither the government’s belief in its permanence nor the opposition’s hope of winning an election reckons with a third possibility: collapse into anarchy, as happened in the Tamil North. The country is in deep darkness over the rule of law, nation-building and constitutional reform. He sets out how the executive presidency distorted the state, from Jayewardene’s undated resignation letters and the 1982 referendum onwards, and argues that the UNP’s new constitutional proposals will not be credible until the party honestly admits its own responsibility for creating the system.
සමාජ පාදඩකරණය
Starting from P.B. Jayasekera’s first novel, whose hero is a former rebel of the second JVP rising turned political fixer, Ivan traces how a lumpen class has come to dominate Sri Lankan society. A black economy existed before 1977, but the executive presidency, the open economy and patronage let thugs, criminals and politicians form an alliance, strengthened by the private militias of the 1988–89 terror and the war. The LTTE was defeated, he writes, yet violent crime has become an everyday event, and he asks where the country is heading.
දූෂණ මර්දනය හා ස්මෝල්ගේ ආදර්ශය
Reading the biography of W.J.T. Small, the principal who shaped Richmond College, Galle, Ivan recounts how Small overturned a cricket-captain election won by bribery, setting an example of integrity for the school. He contrasts it with the bribery allegation against the chairman of the Bribery Commission and argues that corruption is built into the executive presidency itself. Examples from his own experience follow: Lalith Athulathmudali’s account of how wealth flows from the presidency, a senior official’s confession, a customs officer punished for enforcing the law, and a young political star.