තොණ්ඩමන් ගනුදෙනුවේ ඇත්ත කුමක් ද?
Reports in the Sunday Leader and the Sunday Times link Arumugam Thondaman’s move to the government to a Water Board IT contract with an Indian company that he approved as a minister. The editorial asks for the facts and warns that a system which buys political support by protecting such deals will drag the country from ruin to ruin.
තෝරාගත් පිරිසකට පමණක් පඩි වැඩි කරන ප්රතිපත්තිය කුමක් ද?
The government promised all public servants a 70 per cent pay rise but has raised only the salaries of appellate and Supreme Court judges, on the ground of an anomaly with High Court judges. The editorial also asks how arrears for lower-court judges were paid without Parliament approving a supplementary estimate.
What Can Happen?
Reading the April 2004 election result, Victor Ivan opens with a fable of three fish: the green fish stripped of its dominance by a blue-and-red alliance, and the victors fused into one distorted creature, the red fish triumphant but immobilised by the half of the blue fish it cannot finish swallowing. Beneath the allegory he argues that a real change has begun — the system in which either main party’s turn in office amounted to an official permit to plunder public property may not survive the JVP’s new strength. But he judges the JVP’s positions on the economy and the ethnic question neither progressive nor practical: it accepts decentralisation while rejecting devolution, when only maximum devolution can settle the war, and its coercive route to constitutional change invites Prabhakaran to conclude that a minority may also impose its way. With the SLFP reduced to a dwarf and both leaders’ ambitions evaporating, Ivan proposes an all-party interim administration on an agreed reform programme.
ලොකු බණ්ඩාර න්යාය
Justice Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara has announced that a public officer facing bribery charges need not be suspended. The note shows that the Establishments Code says the opposite, and that the minister’s ‘doctrine’ was invented to protect the Public Trustee.
තිලංග හා මහාභාරකාරය
The Public Trustee, Sarath Seneviratne, is wanted by the Bribery Commission and in hiding, while Thilanga Sumathipala is on remand. The piece follows the sale of temple land, the protection both men enjoyed from the powerful, the President’s anger and why the government still has not removed Sumathipala from his posts.
මැඩම්ට ජයවේවා
A set of six short notes. The President, now in control of the police, applies the law to the sons of UNP ministers accused of assaulting relatives of Minister Kabir Hashim, which she never did in her own government; the ‘national heroes’ of the Soma Thera campaign now face bribery and criminal charges; the Elections Commissioner cannot even retire because the 17th Amendment commission has not been set up; the President challenges the Prime Minister over the peace process and defence; and the secret second swearing-in to extend her term.
සෝම හිමියන්ගේ අපවත්වීමට මුවාවී චෝදනාලාභී පුද්ගල තුන්කට්ටුවක් රට ගිනි තබයි
An investigation of the leaflet campaign that followed the death of Gangodawila Soma Thera, which claimed that Ravaya was funded by American churches to attack three ‘Buddhist leaders’: Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, the Public Trustee Sarath Seneviratne and Telecom chairman Thilanga Sumathipala. The piece traces who produced and paid for the leaflets and the ‘Bodu Handa’ newspaper, and argues that the aim was to inflame religious feeling to shield men facing corruption and criminal charges.
පොලති හා යහපත් ආණ්ඩුකරණය
The editorial welcomes the retirement of Inspector General of Police Anandarajah after he was denied an extension, following protests over his attendance at a drug dealer’s daughter’s birthday party. It doubts this signals any real commitment by the President to good governance, citing her protection of the Chief Justice and of presidential security officers, and criticises the government and Interior Minister John Amaratunga for defending the IGP and staying silent on the Public Trustee and the Telecom chairman.
ටෝනි නිදහස ලැබීම
Tony Fernando has been freed after serving the one-year sentence for contempt imposed by a bench headed by the Chief Justice, telling supporters his only offence was reading a constitutional provision in court. Ivan alleges the Chief Justice orchestrated the assault on him in prison. Further sections report Param Cumaraswamy’s Colombo lectures criticising the Bar Association under Ananda Wijesekera, a Dinakara article defending the Chief Justice by Nelson Perera, and new evidence of Tilanga Sumathipala’s links with Dhammika Amarasinghe.
නීතියේ පාලනය කථාවට පමණද?
The piece notes that the IGP attended a drug dealer’s birthday party, the Telecom and Cricket Board chairman Tilanga Sumathipala is accused of close links with contract killer Dhammika Amarasinghe, the Public Trustee took a bribe, and the Chief Justice faces impeachment charges, yet none has stepped down. Sections detail Sumathipala’s alleged role in sending Amarasinghe to the 1999 World Cup on a false passport, Dinakara’s use of religion to shield him, the IGP’s explanation, and the rivalry between Anura Bandaranaike and Chandrika Kumaratunga.