අධිකරණ ඇමතිගේ නිහඬතාව
Following up Ravaya’s previous exposé, the piece says a close confidant of the Chief Justice, a man with underworld links whom he made custodian and caterer of the judges’ training institute, is linked by phone records to a murder and to fraudulently filed fundamental rights petitions. Police found a photograph of him with the Chief Justice at his Horana home. It condemns the Justice Minister’s silence.
ජනාධිපති අරමුදල හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told Parliament that the President’s Fund need not table accounts because it receives nothing from the Consolidated Fund. The editorial calls this misleading: the Act subjects the fund to audit and parliamentary scrutiny, it has not been audited since 1995, and it is fed by state lotteries worth perhaps Rs. 10,000 million a year, comparable to Samurdhi or war capital spending. It traces the fund to J.R. Jayewardene and recalls an incomplete list of beneficiaries given to Sarath Kongahage.
President’s Fund draws instant money
The Prime Minister has told parliament that the President’s Fund need not table its accounts because no money is allocated to it from the consolidated fund. That statement misled parliament and the public both, and will feed the doubts people already have about the fund.
Making corruption possible in a democratic country
The President told a government party meeting that she planned to go to parliament herself to answer the opposition’s accusations over the Katunayake expressway, the Diyawanna golf links land and the Thilan Wijesinghe bribery case, because her ministers were not replying well enough.
රට අල්ලස්ලන්තයක් ද?
The Presidential Secretary called English-press reports on bribery allegations against BOI chairman Thilan Wijesinghe malicious. The editorial notes that Wijesinghe’s petition names Ranjith Atukorale, introduced by Minister Mangala Samaraweera, as seeking a $5 million bribe in the names of the President, Samaraweera and Wijesinghe over a Galle flour mill, that the Bribery Commission finds the charge against Wijesinghe credible, and that the government bears responsibility.
ජනාධිපතිනිය දූෂිත ද?
As the President offers to answer opposition charges in Parliament herself, Ivan argues that a leader must dispel public suspicion created by her inner circle. He sets out the evidence that BOI chairman Thilan Wijesinghe sought a $1 million bribe over the Galle flour mill, Rajan Asirwatham’s conflicted role in the Kotagala plantation sale, the unseen influence of Ronnie Peiris behind highway and Diyawanna projects, and the government’s refusal to release ministers’ asset declarations.
අපරාධ වර්ධනය හා දේශපාලන ආරක්ෂාව
Violent crime is blamed on army deserters, but the piece argues that the link with politicians’ security details is stronger. More than 3,000 personnel protect politicians, including 1,500 in the Presidential Security Division, and known criminals have been enrolled as auxiliary police on political recommendation, using their freedom from checkpoints. It cites criminals arrested at a PSD officer’s house and a deputy minister’s bodyguard among gangsters shot at Delkanda.
වලව් මාලිගා විවාදය
Ranil Wickremesinghe attacked the Rs. 2,500 million presidential palace and its imported oak, marble and chandeliers; Mangala Samaraweera replied that the Bandaranaikes, born in walawwas, need no palaces. Ivan distinguishes royal palaces from the walawwas of radala nobility, notes that the Bandaranaike and Jayewardene fortunes rested on land granted for helping the British in 1815, 1818 and 1848, citing James Rutnam and Kumari Jayawardena, and says Horagolla is humbler inside than Temple Trees.
යුද්ධ ආයුධ මිලදි ගැනීම හා දූෂණ
Justice Minister Batty Weerakoon told Parliament that the Bribery Commission is investigating a top Defence Ministry official over arms deals but refused to name him. The editorial says the official should be suspended by the President, under whom the ministry falls, notes that war spending has risen from Rs. 4,000 million to Rs. 6,000 million and is funded by a 7.5 per cent levy, and argues that secrecy in arms buying breeds corruption.
බියගැන්වීමේ දේශපාලනය
A severed head and hand from a corpse were delivered to the homes of UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake’s wife and mother, an evident warning to an active opposition politician. The piece notes that the police have not traced the body, likely taken from a morgue, recalls how political interference stalled the Rohana Kumara, Kumar Ponnambalam and Nimalarajan murder inquiries, and says intimidation is as brutal as killing and incompatible with democracy.