හැමදේටම විරුද්ධ වීමේ විපක්ෂ නිල පිළිවෙත
The editorial criticises the People’s Alliance for rejecting parliamentary oversight committees that would give the opposition scrutiny of ministries, dismissing the claim that they would weaken the presidency. It calls for removing presidential immunity, the power to dissolve Parliament at will after a year and the right to hold unlimited cabinet posts, and regrets that the PA, JVP and UNP have all abandoned the debate on reforming the executive presidency.
How will the struggle for power end?
In this article, Victor Ivan analyzes the escalating power struggle between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Facing the end of her term and unable to contest the next presidential election, the President seeks to overhaul the executive presidency to secure her continued political dominance, potentially by aligning with the JVP or utilizing Parliament as a constituent assembly. Conversely, the Prime Minister is determined to preserve the current system to claim the executive presidency for himself, plotting to render the President politically irrelevant. Ivan warns that this clash of ambitions, coupled with a lack of faith in the impartiality of the judiciary under Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva, risks plunging the nation into an extra-constitutional crisis and potential civil conflict.
බල අරගලයේ කෙළවර කුමක් ද?
Barred from a third term, Chandrika Kumaratunga now wants the executive presidency she once enjoyed reformed so she can keep her party leadership, while Ranil Wickremesinghe wants it untouched until he inherits it. Ivan traces her options, from a JVP alliance and a snap dissolution to a caretaker cabinet, and warns that with Sarath N. Silva controlling the courts the rivalry could slide into a civil conflict decided by which side the police and army take.
රටට අමතක වී ඇති විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්රමය
The editorial notes that the once-powerful campaign to abolish or reform the executive presidency, begun by N.M. Perera and carried forward by Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake, Chandrika Kumaratunga and the JVP, has fallen silent. With the President’s second term ending in 2005 and the Prime Minister hoping to succeed her, it argues that at minimum presidential immunity should be confined to official acts and removal for deliberate constitutional violations made easier.
ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවක් හරහා හෝ අවුල ලිහාගත යුතු ය
The government lacks the constitutional power to grant the interim administration the LTTE demands, and the main parties’ power struggle blocks consensus. The editorial proposes a two-year national government to agree a solution, negotiate with the LTTE and identify principles for a new constitution, followed by an election open to the LTTE and a constituent assembly of all elected members.
Conscience Benumbed
In this article, Victor Ivan argues that decades of mass violence and rampant political corruption have paralyzed the collective conscience of Sri Lankan society. Drawing heavily on the psychological trauma outlined in Prof. Daya Somasunderam’s book Scarred Minds, Ivan asserts that the psychological damage seen in the Tamil community is reflective of a wider distortion affecting all Sri Lankans—victims, perpetrators, and witnesses alike. Using the commercialization and resulting decline of Sri Lankan cricket as an analogy for the state of the nation, the author critiques how governance has become a mechanism for public plunder. Specifically, Ivan highlights the failure of the 17th Amendment, pointing out that constitutional safeguards and independent commissions (such as the Elections, Police, and Bribery Commissions) have been deliberately sabotaged or stalled by the President, with little to no resistance from the judiciary, the political opposition, or a benumbed public.
සාම කතාවල අනාගතය
With the talks stalled but likely to resume, the editorial calls the ‘carrot’ approach, peace for aid, the weakest element of the process: peace is needed because relations between communities have been uncivilised. It argues that a settlement must address wider democratic problems, since anti-democratic conduct is not confined to Prabhakaran, citing the PA’s Wayamba poll and J.R. Jayewardene’s 1982 election, and must reach the grassroots and win UNP–PA agreement.
නිදහස හා ජාතික ඒකාග්රතාව
With national unity as the theme of the coming Independence Day celebrations, the editorial argues that rivalry between the two main southern parties blocks a settlement. Citing South Africa, it proposes agreeing basic constitutional principles in all-party talks including the LTTE, holding an election under a changed electoral system, and then forming a national government of all elected parties to draft a new constitution.
ශ්රී ලංකාව සඳහා මහාචාර්ය ගල්ටුන් නිර්දේශ කරන පෙඩරල් මාදිලිය
Noting which parties favour or oppose federalism, the piece outlines the model Johan Galtung put to a mixed Sri Lankan audience: bicameral legislatures at the centre and in the provinces, with a senate in which each ethnic group has equal representation and a veto on matters affecting it, so that minorities in both south and north-east are protected. It compares the US, Swiss and Indian second chambers and notes Galtung’s views on soft borders, courts and the division of powers.
A Snap Election
In a climate where peace hangs by a thread, the looming threat of a snap election promises not a democratic transition, but a destructive contest of death. Caught in a bitter, bilateral deadlock, the Executive President and the Prime Minister are poised to drag the nation into a mad struggle for supremacy. With the LTTE watching warily from the wings, an election waged in the “law of the jungle” risks plunging the exhausted country back into anarchy. To prevent this impending peril, civil society must forcefully demand a civilized consensus—a unified, all-party commitment to structural reform, independent electoral oversight, and a non-military resolution—before the ballot box is completely broken by the barrel of a gun.