ජනාධිපති ක්රමය හා ඇටිකෙහෙල්
Comparing the executive presidency to seeded bananas, tasty but hard to digest, Ivan recalls N.M. Perera’s warning that the 1978 system would produce crises once president and legislature diverged. He traces the Premadasa impeachment attempt and Wijetunga’s restraint, then argues that Chandrika Kumaratunga’s arrogance towards her ministers and the opposition, capped by Rauff Hakeem’s dismissal and the prorogation, has trapped her and may pit a hostile new government against her.
සමසමාජ මග හා ජවිපෙ මග
The piece compares the JVP’s ‘probationary’ pact with Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government in 2001 with the LSSP’s 1964 coalition with Sirimavo Bandaranaike. It sets out the LSSP’s internal debate, the talents of its leaders such as N.M. Perera, and its ideological fit with the SLFP, and contrasts these with the JVP’s lack of debate and weak rationale. Both governments, it notes, then fell to parliamentary defections, in 1964 over the Press Bill.
බලතල නැතැයි කීමේ හැකියාවක් දැන් මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්ට නැත
The editorial notes that, pending an Elections Commission, the 17th Amendment gives its powers to the Elections Commissioner, including control of police on election duty and the power to take over partisan state bodies. It calls on him to stop misuse of state resources and state media, to collect the asset declarations of candidates that have never been obtained, and to ensure a free and fair election.
Challenges before the constitutional council
Freeing the institutions under the Constitutional Council from politicisation, and directing them so as to guarantee good governance, is one of the council’s main obligations. The first thing it has to do is define properly what the institutions and the posts under it are responsible for.
ව්යවස්ථා සභාව ඉදිරියේ ඇති අභියෝග
Ivan says the new Constitutional Council must win public trust through its conduct, not merely by filling vacancies. He notes gaps in its powers, criticises the retention of incumbent commission secretaries and the Bribery Commission’s Director General, points to conflicts of interest at the Human Rights Commission, Attorney General’s and Elections offices, and argues that the Council should keep the impeached Chief Justice away from judicial and administrative work while it appoints the Judicial Service Commission.
යුක්තියේ දෙවොල ගිනි ගනී
Ivan argues that judicial reform must come first and that a Judicial Service Commission reshuffled under the 17th Amendment will change nothing while the discredited Chief Justice stays. He traces magistrate Lenin Ratnayake’s career from an insurance-claim fraud at the Insurance Corporation, through patronage into the judiciary, to two rape allegations upheld by an inquiry committee, and accuses Sarath N. Silva, as Attorney General, of shielding his relative.
17 වැනි සංශෝධනයට සුභ පැතුම්
Despite its limitations, the enactment of the 17th Amendment is an important step towards rebuilding institutions broken by political interference. The editorial calls the Constitutional Council the heart of the reform and urges the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader and all parties to appoint honest people with backbone rather than political henchmen, to fill the commissions likewise, and to clean the top of the pyramid first by removing corrupt heads of institutions.
17 වැනි ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය හා ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය
Ivan argues that constitutional amendments should not be rushed or sent to court before the public sees the draft, citing N.M. Perera and faulting Batty Weerakoon and Jayampathy Wickramaratne. He contrasts the seven- and nine-judge benches that reviewed earlier amendments with Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva’s small benches that left out Mark Fernando, A.R.B. Amerasinghe and Ranjith Dheeraratne, and objects to his ruling that ITN, Lakhanda and Lake House, as companies, fall outside the Elections Commission’s powers.
තරමක් අංගවිකලයි ඒත් නරකම නෑ
Ivan welcomes the 17th Amendment but lists its flaws: no public debate, no published draft, brief review by a three-judge bench, and passage without a final draft before Parliament. He faults the UNP’s weak first draft and lack of vigilance, credits the JVP for securing the reform but says it accepted a presidential nominee on the Constitutional Council and backed Jayampathy Wickramaratne’s plan to drop Mark Fernando and A.R.B. Amerasinghe from the Judicial Service Commission. The government, he says, kept the council, the Chief Justice and state media within its reach.
Debilitated, but not too bad
For all the serious and inherent limits of the Seventeenth Amendment, the fact that a Constitutional Council and a system of independent commissions have been enacted is a very important step. It was the JVP’s intervention that got even this debilitated version through.