Elimination of bribery and corruption
Duty-free vehicle permits, business with the state, staffing rackets: Victor Ivan lists what a new constitution would have to prohibit outright, and points to Hong Kong’s anti-corruption commission as a working model.
Making a People’s Constitution for Sri Lanka
Having argued that the Constitution has lost its spirit, Victor Ivan sets out what a replacement should do: build the nation, empower the people directly, and put constitution-making beyond the reach of the Executive alone.
The second freedom struggle (III)
From John Locke to the South African transition, Victor Ivan surveys how constitutions have actually been made — and concludes that Sri Lanka’s own expertise on the subject is thin, outdated and confined to a narrow elite.
The Second Freedom Struggle (Part II)
Victor Ivan returns to 1947-48 to show how the Soulbury Constitution was made and how quickly it was disfigured — the disenfranchisement of the plantation Tamils, the Sinhala Only Act, and the habit of amending away inconvenient safeguards.
Overcoming the crisis: The second freedom struggle
If the collapse of the state cannot now be avoided, what should replace it? Victor Ivan calls for a ‘second freedom struggle’ led by public organisations rather than political parties, aimed at a new constitution.
දර්ශනයේ දුප්පත්කම
A reply to C.A. Dissanayake’s Ravaya article defending limited constitutional reform, which Ivan links to Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne’s thinking. He questions who ‘Dissanayake’ really is, rebuts his account of J.R. Jayewardene’s Second Amendment to the 1972 constitution, which created the presidency, and argues that the executive presidency changed the whole character of Parliament: the old MP elected by a small constituency served the people, while today’s MPs, chosen under preferential voting, depend on money and patronage.
නව ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවක් ඉලක්ක කොටගෙන ඒකාබද්ධ විරුද්ධ පක්ෂ ව්යාපාරයක් ඇති කරගැනීම
A seventeen-point plan for a joint opposition movement with one aim: a new constitution. Parties would unite around a common programme rather than a common candidate, keep that unity until the constitution is drafted and passed within an agreed time, decide by consensus rather than majority vote, agree first on principles and then on a programme, launch it at a public rally, take it to the main towns, and if necessary negotiate with the President.
නව ව්යවස්ථාව හා පොදු අපේක්ෂකයා – 9
Part 9 turns to the opposition’s idea of a common presidential candidate who would deliver a new constitution within six months. Ivan questions whether the Seventeenth Amendment belongs in a new constitution, shows that some constitutions were written quickly but most were not, and argues that instead of a common candidate the opposition needs a common programme, agreed by all parties and set before the public, with a timetable for a new constitution; only this can prevent the slide into anarchy.
ව්යවස්ථා සම්පාදනයේ දකුණු අප්රිකානු ආදර්ශය (ව්යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්රශ්නය-8)
Part 8 holds up South Africa as a model. After de Klerk freed Nelson Mandela in February 1990, multi-party talks from 1991 agreed a two-stage transition: an interim constitution, elections in 1994, and a constitutional assembly given two years to draft a final text, with wide public participation through theme committees, which the new Constitutional Court then tested against agreed principles before approving it.
ලිඛිත ව්යවස්ථා ඇති රාජ්යයක් ඇතිවීම (ව්යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්රශ්නය-7)
Part 7 traces how written constitutions arose as the grip of theology broke in Europe. Ivan sets out ten principles of the liberal idea of the nation-state, from popular sovereignty and the separation of powers to equality before the law, protection of minorities and a secular state, then contrasts Britain’s unwritten constitution and parliamentary sovereignty with the American constitutional convention, now 228 years old, and India’s constituent assembly, which built a constitution for a vast and diverse nation.