කමලාවතීගේ ජනාධිපති වේශ නිරූපණය
A woman who dressed as the President, including her injured eye, in a UNP march had her Raddolugama house attacked. The editorial recalls earlier impersonations of Jayewardene and the Premadasas, cartoonists’ caricatures and leaders’ nicknames, notes that the government itself used the covered-eye photograph and caricatured Ranil Wickremesinghe as Dracula, criticises the class disdain in the President’s response and compares the attack to earlier ones over mimicry of Pavithra Wanniarachchi.
තමන්ට රජ සැප ඇත්නම් රට මකබෑවී ගියත් කම් නැතැයි සිතන ඇමතිවරු
Despite the President’s circular limiting ministers to three vehicles, Planning Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi uses fourteen, including seven kept from the Health Ministry, as does former Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, so the new Health Minister borrows vehicles from the Labour Ministry. The piece also cites S.B. Dissanayake’s granite in his new official residence and warns that the country is at the limit of such greed.
සනත් ගුණතිලක සහ රුපියල
A profile of the actor Sanath Gunathilake after losing his post as the President’s media adviser, a fall Ivan likens to the rupee’s. He describes the vehicles, guards, free stays at the Galadari hotel and deference he once enjoyed, his habit of attaching himself to whoever held power from Gamini Dissanayake to Kumaratunga, and the income he drew from bar licences run by Neil Abeywardena, liquor distribution, advertising, teledramas and the Channel 9 deal with Lakshman Hulugalle.
අකාර්යක්ෂමතාවට හා දූෂණයට වගකිවයුත්තේ කව්ද?
The President told a conference of public officers that only 10 per cent of officials are efficient and that 25 to 30 per cent of development funds are lost to waste and corruption, implicitly blaming ministers too. The editorial replies that she chose the Cabinet, that political henchmen placed at the top of the public service undermine it, and that the clean-up must begin with the political executive rather than officials.
බහිරවයාට ගිය මහා භාරකාර දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව
Ivan explains how the Public Trustee’s Department holds charitable trusts and bequests worth hundreds of millions, then documents spending by the new Public Trustee, N.S.A.S. Seneviratne, whose past he had warned about: a pirith ceremony and air-conditioning from the D.B. Jayatilaka fund, a car bought from the Samarakoon dowry trust, repairs to others’ vehicles, gifts to his children’s school and temples, costly work at Richmond Castle and an unreturned G.L. Peiris fund transfer.
තොරතුරු ලබාගැනීමේ අයිතිය රාජ්ය පාලනය විවෘත කිරීමට හේතු වේ
Welcoming the UNP’s acceptance of the professionals’ draft for four independent commissions, the editorial backs the Editors’ Guild draft on freedom of information, Article 19’s campaign and the Democratic Alliance’s twelve demands. It traces unfulfilled pledges from the Premadasa era and the R.K.W. Goonesekere committee, and argues that a right to information would curb secret privatisation deals such as Air Lanka’s, empower villagers, and force the Auditor General, Elections Commissioner and tax authorities to do their duty.
යන්නෙ කොහේද? මල්ලෙ පොල්
Ivan catalogues the absurdities of government: the President’s television pledge not to postpone local elections, contradicted by the news bulletin that followed; her claim that democratic freedom is complete as the International Press Institute put Sri Lanka on its watch list; Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake blaming democracy for the decline; attacks on the UNP’s march in Kegalle linked to Mahipala Herath; and a curb on ministers’ vehicles issued after they had all been bought.
පාන් වෙනුවට කේක්
In a television interview the President denied an economic slide or real price rises and claimed a bank driver earns Rs. 60,000 while a minister gets Rs. 19,000. The editorial corrects her figures, noting ministers earn about Rs. 29,815 tax-free and that some have built mansions since 1994, reads her remarks on executive power as a warning, and likens her message to Marie Antoinette’s.
මුදල් අර්බුදයේ නොපෙනෙන පැති කිහිපයක
Ivan examines the floating of the rupee and its fallout: importers ruined by paying at the new exchange rate for goods sold at the old, daily price rises, and likely shortages at the Sinhala New Year. He traces the drain on reserves to war purchases, duty-free vehicles and bulletproof BMWs for politicians, crony privatisation, Air Lanka’s aircraft and fuel subsidies, and falling aid, and doubts that exports, heavily dependent on imported inputs for garments, can close the gap.
අධ්යාපන ඇමතිට මල් මිටක්
The piece welcomes the decision to admit half of all Grade One pupils by computer lottery from January 2002. It describes how competition for popular schools has bred forged documents, a market in fake deeds and bribes to principals of up to Rs. 300,000 in Colombo, shutting out poor children, and urges that the lottery, drawn before parents, be implemented to the letter despite pressure from powerful quarters.