ජනතාවගේ ජීවිත සමග සෙල්ලම් නො කළ යුතු ය
Instead of using the tsunami to rebuild, the country is doubling the damage. The editorial attacks the coastal buffer zone that bars survivors from returning to their land, points out that most were freehold owners, not squatters, and argues that those able to rebuild on their own land should be helped to do so.
රට ගොඩනගන ආණ්ඩුවේ සැලසුම
The National Planning Department’s reconstruction plan puts the cost at US$1.5 billion (Rs 145.5 billion). The piece sets out the plan’s figures by sector and district and argues that the challenge can be met only by a national programme that unites the country’s strength and knowledge.
සිදුවූ විපත දෙස ආපසු හැරි බලමු
The tsunami that killed some 25,000 Sri Lankans was a natural disaster, but the editorial asks whether the geologists responsible failed in their duty and why the government managed the aftermath so poorly, noting that rescuers reached the wrecked train with over a thousand passengers only after 30 hours.
Overcoming the disaster
Victor Ivan treats the December 2004 tsunami as a test the Sri Lankan state failed. Warning instruments existed and went unused; the armed forces were instructed too late to be effective outside the north-east where they were already concentrated. Forty-eight hours after the waves the government allocated Rs 100 million in urgent relief — a hundred rupees a head for a million destitute — and eight days later the President’s office put reconstruction at Rs 100 billion against the Central Bank’s provisional Rs 400 billion, a sum equal to a full year of government spending or three years of Tokyo consortium aid. In twenty minutes the country lost lives and property comparable to twenty years of war. Ivan argues the two catastrophes cannot be addressed separately, since housing tsunami victims alone would affront those displaced by the fighting, and calls for a two-year all-party government charged with physical reconstruction and with enacting a new constitution — something he thinks civil society will have to compel the parties to accept.
අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභා නීතිය ගැන නැවත සලකා බැලිය යුතුයි
The Bribery Commission’s term has ended and the new nominees face complaints. The editorial blames weak provisions on its three-member composition, calls the assets and liabilities law a powerful but unused weapon, and notes that the Commission has read the law as if the President need not declare her assets.
ජනතා හිතවාදය යට ඇති කූට සැලසුම්
Jobs for graduates, a thousand tanks restored, a relief budget and ten thousand villages uplifted form the populist first round of the government’s show. The editorial warns that the second round will be coercive and violent, aimed at removing from politics those able to lead resistance, though the government itself is not united behind it.
මහා භාරකාරතුමෙනි ඉතින් ආයුබෝවන්
Ravaya called the Public Trustee, Sarath Seneviratne, a first-rate crook for more than six years and gave the evidence. Ivan explains why so many who claimed to defend Buddhism shielded him, how politically important cases are steered to hand-picked benches, and closes on a Supreme Court ruling that a monk MP could not be expelled because he was not a party member.
අධිකරණ දූෂණය – චන්ද්රිකා, රනිල් හා විමල්
The President herself says the police and the courts are full of corruption, and Transparency International ranks them the most corrupt in the region. The editorial replies that the ‘blue’ President injected the poison at the head of the judiciary, the ‘green’ Ranil Wickremesinghe let it spread, and the JVP of Wimal Weerawansa, which first stood against the Chief Justice, fell silent.
ජාතියේ ගෞරවය කෙලෙසන පාසල් ක්රමයේ වෙනසක්
Ivan argues that the school system turns the whole country into liars and pushes parents into fraud to win a Grade 1 place. He proposes a reorganised system of primary, secondary and A-level schools with equal facilities, addresses laboratories and maintenance funding, and sets out tables for each level.
පාසල්වලට ළමුන් ඇතුළත් කරගැනීම
The yearly, heartless contest for school places is over, with few winners and many losers. The editorial describes how the race begins almost at conception, with certificates manufactured to fit a target school, as a sign of how thoughtless the country’s institutions have become.