ජනාධිපතිනියට ද කොකා පෙන්නුවේය
At last week’s Cabinet meeting the President reportedly accused the Prime Minister of conspiring with the Chief Justice to bring the election forward to 2005 and bury the tsunami-funds inquiry against him. Ivan observes that, as ticks leave a dying dog, parasites abandon a failing leader, and shows how the Chief Justice took up a petition to block the interpretation she had sought.
සුනාමි හානි පුනරුත්ථාපනය
The Auditor General’s report on tsunami recovery up to 30 June 2005 is now public. Of 48,974 houses destroyed, only 1,055, about 2 per cent of the need, had been completed by 4 August, and the report lists irregularities in the Rs 5,000 allowance payments. Under the subhead ‘Do we need more talk about the country’s failure?’, the editorial says the figures speak for the country’s level of civilisation.
සිය කැමැත්තෙන් විනාශයට යන රටක්
Lacking the wisdom to untie simple knots, Sri Lanka has let them grow into tangles, and the people pay the price. The editorial notes that the investigation into Judge Ambepitiya’s murder identified an underworld figure as the mastermind, and urges voters to make the candidates present, without lies, their vision for the country’s problems.
විශ්රාම යන ජනාධිපතිනිය සහ රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ
Ranil Wickremesinghe has told his MPs he is thinking of how to use the retiring President’s services, and spoke of American provisions for former presidents. The editorial welcomes cooperation between the two main parties but says retiring presidents must also face scrutiny, since immunity shields them while in office.
කෙළවර කුමක් ද?
The Cabinet has decided to give the retiring President an acre and a half facing the Diyawanna Oya opposite Parliament, in lieu of the pension and official residence she says she will forgo. The note recalls her plan for a Rs 1,700 million presidential palace in the same area.
අධිකරණ තීන්දුවෙන් පසු: ඊළගට විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
The Chief Justice’s only way out of a great crisis over the election year was to rule for 2005, ending the President’s dream of staying until 2006, though she still has cards to play. Ivan warns that the country is caught in a cycle of political violence and that the killings must be controlled even as attention turns to the election.
ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයන්ගේ වගකීම
The presidential race has begun, but on trivia rather than the country’s main problems. Taking public transport and another pressing issue as examples of about a dozen, the editorial says voters should demand to know what solutions the candidates offer.
රට කොයිබට ද?
The private bus strike of the 9th against new traffic fines brought transport to a halt. The editorial finds public transport in the same chaos as everything else and proposes proper licensing and training for bus crews, paid for by the state while they train.
ජනතාවට පොත පෙරළීම
Chandrika Kumaratunga has had her biography written by a well-known biographer, with the publisher’s US$40,000 fee paid by the Ports Authority under Mangala Samaraweera and launches planned from Oslo to Berlin at public expense. Ivan traces the practice to J.R. Jayewardene, then turns to a heartless Parliament and the coming Supreme Court interpretation, noting that everyone has suffered at the Chief Justice’s hands except the President.
හතළිස් දහසක් උපාධිධාරින්ට රැකියා ලබාදිම
Giving jobs to 40,000 unemployed graduates was a good step, but the way they were recruited was unfair to graduates who had already won lesser public posts by examination, and posting any graduate as an accountant ignores the need for trained, qualified people.