ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා මරා දැමීමට ඉඩ දෙමු ද?
Months after the first Constitutional Council’s term ended, no new members have been appointed, and vacancies in the Court of Appeal cannot be filled. Whatever its flaws, the 17th Amendment was an important step towards good governance; the editorial says the commissions matter to the public, not the politicians, and it is for the public to save them.
එස්.බී. නඩුව හා අල්ලස් කොමිසම
The High Court’s acquittal of S.B. Dissanayake on bribery charges is a blow to the Bribery Commission, which has failed to show independence in politically important cases. The editorial argues that a president’s immunity is no reason not to investigate, citing France, and questions a commission made up entirely of retirees.
සුනාමි ආධාර අගමැති හා ජවිපෙ
Mismanaging a disaster that killed nearly 40,000 and displaced close to a million could bring a political tsunami. The Prime Minister’s report to Cabinet puts tsunami aid received at Rs 113,262,539 without saying from whom; the editorial says he, the JVP and every other party that collected aid should account for it.
සුනාමි ආධාරවල පාරදෘශ්යභාවය
A Sunday Leader report that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa transferred part of the tsunami aid in his account to a Hambantota development fund raises a wider problem. The editorial calls on every party and politician who collected foreign aid to disclose what they received and how they spent it, and notes the banners thanking politicians for houses and boats.
වෙරළ තීරයේ ඉඩම් කොල්ලකෑමට ඉඩ දෙමු ද?
Businessmen close to the government have begun using the tsunami to seize thousands of acres of valuable coastal land, confirming suspicions raised when the buffer zone was declared without reason. The editorial is not against foreign investment, but calls on informed citizens to force the government to abandon the scheme.
ජවිපෙට නිවට වෙන්නට සිදුවීම
However venomous the President’s attack in her television interview of 16 May, the JVP has not struck back, because she holds two fatal weapons: the power to dissolve Parliament and the power to look into JVP leaders’ assets. Sections follow on the President’s trump cards, the Chief Justice and religion, and the failure of every party to declare its assets and liabilities.
වෙරළ ආරක්ෂක කලාපයේ යථාර්ථය
Ravaya criticised the 100/200-metre buffer zone from the start, because such a law would ruin the survivors. The piece shows how it breaches eleven basic principles of two international covenants, then examines the roles of the JVP, of Ranil Wickremesinghe and a stagnant UNP, and of a President whose strategy may cost her only the executive presidency.
The cat is out of the bag
Two TAFREN advertisements, four days apart, expose what the 100-metre coastal building ban was for. The first, on 27 February, told the country that homes destroyed inside the zone could not be rebuilt and that the government would provide 500-square-foot replacements. The second, on 2 March, exempted buildings permitted before 26 December 2004 by the Tourist Board and other authorities — which may remain, may be repaired, and may be completed if construction had begun. Victor Ivan concludes the rule applies only to ordinary residents, and that its purpose is to clear the most valuable land in the country for the tourist industry. He notes that a Coastal Zone Management Plan already existed, drawn up by specialists, with a conservation zone varying from twenty metres to more than a hundred according to local conditions, and even anticipating a tsunami; the government consulted neither the Coast Conservation Department nor its experts, who are now unwilling to quarrel with those holding absolute power. Coastal residents and hoteliers had coexisted profitably, he argues, and turning the industry into an occupier will serve neither.
පොලිස් මිනීමැරුම් ද?
In recent weeks many underworld figures have been shot by police ‘while trying to escape’ or ‘attacking officers’. The piece notes the distress of the politicians who hired such men, explains why suspects first run to their patrons, and argues that killing them in custody destroys both the rule of law and the chance to expose those behind them.
The tsunami can become a political tsunami
A month on from the tsunami, Victor Ivan warns that mishandling the recovery could produce a political tsunami destructive to the government and the opposition alike. He attacks the 100-metre coastal buffer imposed by TAFREN: damage reached 400 metres inland at Telwatta and in Galle town while some houses at the water’s edge stood untouched, so the rule bears no relation to where the danger actually lay. It also bites only on the unlucky — those whose houses survive may stay, those whose houses were destroyed may not rebuild — and leaves the displaced waiting in camps for a house in a location of the government’s choosing, or buying land themselves. Pacific nations facing the same hazard do not clear their coasts, relying on warning systems and tsunami-resistant construction instead. Ivan argues that resettlement without consent breaches both UN policy on the displaced and the constitutional protection of private property, and sets out an alternative: let landowners rebuild where they lived, give them the per-capita sum the government would have spent, extend credit to ruined businesses, and revive economic life quickly.