ලැබූ නිදහසේ ඇති නොගැලපුම
On the anniversary of Independence, Ivan argues that because Ceylon won freedom without struggle, its communities never forged a real national unity. Citing Lord Soulbury’s foreword to B.H. Farmer’s Ceylon: A Divided Nation, he notes that Section 29 did not stop the citizenship laws or the Sinhala Only Act, and that minority representation fell short of expectations. A new constitution alone will not solve the ethnic problem; Sinhala and Tamil democratic aspirations must be joined in a common movement.
Need for reforms cries out loud
An unprecedented interest in the reforms good governance needs has arisen. The UNP is demanding independent commissions for elections, the judicial service, the police and the public service under a constitutional council, and K.N. Choksy is to bring a draft bill he has prepared.
ආර්ථික අර්බුදය හා රාජාණ්ඩු දේශපාලනය
As prices soar, the government has used police against a JVP protest while fishermen strike and the UNP turns to agitation. The editorial blames poor governance rather than external factors, citing the flour subsidy before the 1994 election, misdirected Samurdhi payments, unmetered electricity users, lost port revenue after the President moved to the Fort residence, the French locomotive deal and a Rs. 2,500 million new presidential palace, and calls for an open democratic system.
නපුර ජයගැනීම
Sri Lanka signed the UN Convention against Torture and passed a torture law in 1994, yet political torture has grown. Ivan cites the case of beautician Ivan Turner, detained as an alleged LTTE suspect and humiliated by senior police officer Bandula Wickremasinghe, whose only punishment was a transfer. Borrowing Bishop Frank Marcus’s phrase ‘evil rule’, he argues that Kumaratunga, like Jayewardene and Premadasa, rules through partisanship, and that only democratic reform can end it or allow the ethnic question to be seen democratically.
A cry for democracy
The TULF’s secretary has said that democracy cannot be safeguarded by four commissions alone and that the constitution has to change as well. Ivan agrees, and goes back to the 1930s to show what the country’s democratic tradition actually contained and who carried it.
ජලයටත් මිලක්
The editorial warns that laws are being prepared in secret to make both urban consumers and farmers drawing from tanks, canals and rivers pay for water. The Water Resources Board Act No. 42 of November 1999 and a cabinet paper of 28 March 2000 vest all water in the state, and bills to license water use are due in Parliament. Ministers deny it and the President’s policy statement of 11 November was silent, while huge sums go on bullet-proof cars for rulers. It asks what the elected representatives will do.
සුළු ජාතීන් පිළිබඳ ගැටලුව හා යෝජිතස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් හතර
Answering TULF secretary R. Sampanthan, who said the four commissions cannot secure democracy without constitutional change for minorities, Ivan argues that the south’s democratic demands and the north’s minority rights are two sides of one crisis, rooted in a democracy received from the British without a unifying freedom struggle. He praises the Jaffna Youth Congress, Sri Nissanka and Wilmot Perera, and recalls how the citizenship laws and Sinhala Only overrode Soulbury safeguards while Chelvanayakam lost before a dependent judiciary. He urges Tamils and Muslims to back the commissions.
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන් පුනරුත්ථාපනය කිරීම
Ivan argues that adding a research officer to MPs’ staff will change nothing while members fill their secretary, stenographer and office-aide posts with relatives and treat the pay as family income; staff should come from a public-service pool. Sri Lanka alone gives MPs a duty-free luxury vehicle every five years, which most sell illegally, though customs confiscated vehicles used by Aravinda de Silva and his father. He notes the non-enforcement of the assets and liabilities law and proposes a British-style parliamentary body to hear public complaints against members.
Rehabilitating parliamentarians
A research officer is to be added to every MP’s staff. Adding one will not change the quality of what members do; what is needed is to make the staff already there work properly. What would change it is an institution the public can complain to.
ආණ්ඩුව ඉන්නේ අන්තෝ ජටා බහි ජටා තත්ත්වයකය
Ivan says the People’s Alliance is trying to hide its sins behind peace talks without preparing the ground. It rewarded poll offenders, its pledge to recall MPs’ liquor licences is a lie when some ministers hold seven, and the President ties the four commissions to her constitution. He recounts the farce of cabinet-making, from Anuruddha Ratwatte’s return as Deputy Defence Minister to the splitting of the deputy finance post between G.L. Peiris and S.B. Dissanayake. With a four-vote majority and a failing economy, he expects the Chief Justice’s impeachment to be the first shot.