අර්බුදයේ මුල ඇත්තේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවේය
Ivan traces the clash between the President and the UNF government to the 1978 Constitution, which J.R. Jayewardene modelled on de Gaulle’s while ignoring the need for power to alternate. Comparing the American, Indian and Swiss constitutions with Sri Lanka’s three in fifty years, he recounts how crisis was postponed until 2001, and argues that Chandrika Kumaratunga should follow Mitterrand in 1986 by ceding domestic power to the Prime Minister.
කෙළවර කුමක් ද?
Ivan explains that the 1978 Constitution assumed one party would hold both presidency and Parliament, and recalls how France and D.B. Wijetunga avoided conflict under cohabitation. Chandrika Kumaratunga could have conceded power or resigned after 2001 but chose confrontation, while the Prime Minister’s investigations of her corruption and crimes now give him the advantage. He sets out the likeliest course of the conflict, ending in impeachment, an election or her loss of office.
නයි පොළගුන් සමග සෙල්ලමට යාම
Ivan likens Ranil Wickremesinghe to a snake charmer handling cobras whose fangs he has not drawn: pursuing the President and her associates slowly through inquiries while they still hold key posts. Further sections note that the committee under retired judge Ranjith Dheerasekera on local election malpractice has been starved of resources, mock the President’s reported threat to bite the Prime Minister’s neck, and warn that the honeymoon is ending, citing Harry Jayawardena’s appointment to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
මජරකමද? වැඩවසම් උද්ධච්ඡකමද?
The dispute over luxury bullet-proof vehicles bought under the People’s Alliance, some now missing, shows how selfishly the country has been run. The editorial lists the purchases for the President’s security from 1999 to 2000, costing Rs 1,110 million for cars and perhaps Rs 3,000 million with helicopters, and contrasts this with UNP leaders who faced worse threats without such spending and with meagre budgets for agriculture, labour and irrigation.
සාපරාධී අපහාස නීතිය අවලංගු කිරිමෙන් පමණක් යහපත් රාජ්‍ය පාලනයක් ඇති නොවේ
Repealing the criminal defamation law, used by the executive against journalists, is an important step, but good governance also needs an independent judiciary, public service, audit commission and elections commission. Despite the 17th Amendment and the Constitutional Council, the impeached Chief Justice remains, local polls showed free elections are not yet assured, and the Bribery, Human Rights, Finance and Public Service commissions still run with their old members. The Council must move faster.
චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ ගැටලු ජයගන්නට රනිල්ට හැකි ද?
Ivan notes that President Kumaratunga still controls ambassadors, provincial governors, who would head any interim administration, and the power to dissolve Parliament after a year. Curbing these needs a two-thirds majority, and her strategy is to deny the government PA votes unless investigations into crimes of her era, which could threaten her and the Bandaranaike name, are dropped. Ranil Wickremesinghe’s political future, he says, depends on how he handles this.
ජනතාවගේ පරමාධිපත්‍යය බලය සමග සෙල්ලම් කිරීම
Ivan says the UNF government has failed to keep local elections civilised and has not appointed the promised inquiry into earlier poll malpractice, and traces state-level electoral fraud from the Dedigama by-election and the Jaffna development council poll through 1982 to its revival under Kumaratunga. A second section on the Constitutional Council recounts how the professionals’ draft was reshaped by Jayampathy Wickramaratne so that the President nominates key appointees, a trap the JVP fell into, and asks why the government has not corrected it.
රාවය ඉදිරිය දකින ආකාරය
Answering critics who say Ravaya has gone soft on the UNF government, the paper recalls its record of opposing both UNP and PA governments. It backs curbing the President’s powers even at the cost of a distorting amendment, prosecution of those responsible for PSD crimes, including the President, and the peace effort, including lifting the LTTE ban. It lists its campaigns on the Elections Commissioner, state gifts, assets declarations, the 17th Amendment and Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, and reveals PSD plans to bomb Ravaya and kill its editor.
ජනාධිපතිනියගේ ඡීඑස්ඩී දාමරිකකම් ගැන ශ්‍රීලනිප, පොපෙ හා ජවිපෙ කියන්නේ කුමක්ද?
When inquiries into the Presidential Security Division began, SLFP loyalists called them a plot to weaken the President’s security. The editorial notes that investigations now link the PSD to the attacks on the Leader editor, the Rohana Kumara murder and other outrages, with officers saying they acted on the President’s orders, and demands that the SLFP, PA and JVP state their position. If she ordered the crimes she must face the law, by constitutional amendment if necessary.
පීඑස්ඩී අපරාධවලට ජනාධිපතිනිය වගකිවයුතු නැද්ද?
Police inquiries are confirming what Ravaya long reported: that the Presidential Security Division was behind the attacks on the Leader editor and his home, the Rohana Kumara murder, the harassment of singers Rookantha and Chandraleka, the burning of actress Anoja Weerasinghe’s house and body parts sent to Ravi Karunanayake. The editorial argues these crimes had political motives, that the President’s role must be investigated, and that if involved she belongs in prison, not the presidential palace.