A test for JVP’s sincerity
The probationary programme agreed between the PA and the JVP will be decisive for both the PA and the UNP, and more decisive still for the JVP — because everything it does in this period will show its political maturity, its capacity to act on firm principle, and its honesty.
පෙරමුණේ අවංකභාවය උරගා බැලෙන පරික්ෂණයක්
Ivan calls the JVP–PA probation pact a test of the JVP’s maturity and honesty. Its claimed gains are hollow: the referendum was dropped because of public protest, and Parliament was brought forward only a day, perhaps because astrologers deemed the 7th inauspicious. Quoting the PA’s 1994 manifesto, he shows the pledge of 20 ministers covered all ministers, and warns that the pact’s ‘mutually agreed amendments’, a presidential nominee on the Constitutional Council and resistance to reviewing office-holders could deform the 17th Amendment.
රවට්ටන්න යන්නේ කාවද?
The politicisation of institutions that should be independent is a main cause of the country’s decline, and the 17th Amendment was meant to hand key appointments to a respected Constitutional Council. The editorial notes that the opposition draft provided for eight members, including five eminent persons chosen jointly by the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, but the government, backed by the JVP, now proposes seven members including a presidential nominee, giving it a majority. This, it says, merely dresses up the old system.
How independent are independent commissions?
Whatever the limits of the JVP’s programme, enacting the Constitutional Council and the four independent commissions of the Seventeenth Amendment before 24 September would be a first step towards changing the political culture of this country.
17 වැනි ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය
Ivan welcomes the JVP–PA agreement to enact the 17th Amendment’s Constitutional Council and four independent commissions by 24 September, and describes the council’s makeup and the fourteen offices it would fill. He lists further posts that should come under it, faults the draft for leaving current office-holders in place and for having no complaints procedure, and says the Bribery Commission, the Auditor General, the Attorney General and the Elections Commissioner must be held to redefined duties.
Pitfalls of probationary Govt.
Will the JVP, which is trying to supply oxygen to a weak government, get what it is asking for, the five independent commissions among it? The probationary programme has good things in it and things that could make the crisis worse.
පරිවාස වැඩපිළිවෙළ කෝකටත් තෛලයක් නොවේ
The editorial says the country now has a People’s Alliance government steered by the JVP: the bottle is Chandrika’s but the wine is the JVP’s. If the JVP’s probation programme at least secures the five independent commissions, an idea that came from civil society, that is a gain. But as a pact between only two parties, it cannot resolve the economic collapse, the war, political instability or the politics of hatred, and its benefits will be temporary.
ජනාධිපතිනිය තමන් වැටුණු බොරු වළට විපක්ෂය කැඳවීම
Ivan argues that President Kumaratunga, trapped in a pit of her own lies, wants to lure Ranil Wickremesinghe in with the premiership and a national government, climb out on his back, purge the rebels in her own camp and then discard him. He urges the opposition to build an all-party interim government for reform with the government rebels, predicts she will keep Parliament shut rather than face defeat on a policy statement, and says lasting stability needs a settlement with Prabhakaran that meets Tamil grievances.
Trapping UNP: PA’s way out of trap
The President is in a trap she cannot get out of, and is now trying to drag the leader of the opposition into it with her. Parliament reconvenes on 7 September, and if she delivers the policy statement the constitution requires, the opposition means to vote it down.
හිතුවක්කාරකම් නිකම් ම බලා සිටීමෙන් පරාජය කළ නොහැක
The editorial says the President is playing with the country’s survival as political instability speeds economic collapse. She cannot govern without Parliament, which holds the legislative and financial powers, and had no right to prorogue it to avoid a no-confidence debate. With the opposition now in the majority and a large group from the government joining it, it argues that the People’s Alliance government is finished and that she must reconvene Parliament and let the opposition form a government, or bear the consequences.