ආර්ථික අර්බුදය හා රාජාණ්ඩු දේශපාලනය
As prices soar, the government has used police against a JVP protest while fishermen strike and the UNP turns to agitation. The editorial blames poor governance rather than external factors, citing the flour subsidy before the 1994 election, misdirected Samurdhi payments, unmetered electricity users, lost port revenue after the President moved to the Fort residence, the French locomotive deal and a Rs. 2,500 million new presidential palace, and calls for an open democratic system.
Need for reforms cries out loud
An unprecedented interest in the reforms good governance needs has arisen. The UNP is demanding independent commissions for elections, the judicial service, the police and the public service under a constitutional council, and K.N. Choksy is to bring a draft bill he has prepared.
Economic mess? turn the searchlight inwards
The government is trying to put the economy right with extreme measures that have driven prices up and laid an unbearable burden on the poor, and it wants the liquidity crisis understood as something external that it could not control. The internal factor it will not admit is mismanagement.
මහජන මුදල් සමග සෙල්ලම් කිරීම
While development spending is cut, Lake House spent Rs. 5 million printing 290,200 copies of a photograph of the President and her children for free distribution with Silumina and the Sunday Observer during the parliamentary election. The editorial ridicules Chief Government Whip Reggie Ranatunga’s claim in Parliament that the public had asked for it, and says the money would have been better spent on exercise books for poor schoolchildren.
ජනතාව කබලෙන් ළිපට
Prices of gas, diesel, kerosene, water and electricity are rising, bus operators want fares raised by up to 33 per cent, and the GST net is to widen. The editorial argues that rulers must tighten their own belts first, pointing to ministers with five or more vehicles, new furniture and foreign tours, and costly new residences for the President and Speaker, and warns that the public will not bear the burden patiently.
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන් පුනරුත්ථාපනය කිරීම
Ivan argues that adding a research officer to MPs’ staff will change nothing while members fill their secretary, stenographer and office-aide posts with relatives and treat the pay as family income; staff should come from a public-service pool. Sri Lanka alone gives MPs a duty-free luxury vehicle every five years, which most sell illegally, though customs confiscated vehicles used by Aravinda de Silva and his father. He notes the non-enforcement of the assets and liabilities law and proposes a British-style parliamentary body to hear public complaints against members.
Rehabilitating parliamentarians
A research officer is to be added to every MP’s staff. Adding one will not change the quality of what members do; what is needed is to make the staff already there work properly. What would change it is an institution the public can complain to.
ආණ්ඩුව ඉන්නේ අන්තෝ ජටා බහි ජටා තත්ත්වයකය
Ivan says the People’s Alliance is trying to hide its sins behind peace talks without preparing the ground. It rewarded poll offenders, its pledge to recall MPs’ liquor licences is a lie when some ministers hold seven, and the President ties the four commissions to her constitution. He recounts the farce of cabinet-making, from Anuruddha Ratwatte’s return as Deputy Defence Minister to the splitting of the deputy finance post between G.L. Peiris and S.B. Dissanayake. With a four-vote majority and a failing economy, he expects the Chief Justice’s impeachment to be the first shot.
වඩා භයානක මදුරුවා ද ? ත්රස්තවාදියා ද?
Ivan contrasts the billions spent on fighting terrorism with the neglect of mosquito control. About 60,000 died in the 1989–90 insurrection and fewer than 100,000 in 16 years of war, while the 1934–35 malaria epidemic alone killed about 100,000. He recounts how malaria relief carried the Sama Samaja movement to Sabaragamuwa, where N.M. Perera defeated Adeline Molamure in 1936 and became ‘Parippu Mahatthaya’, cites B.H. Farmer on malaria and the dry zone, and warns that since state control was abandoned in the 1980s the disease is returning.
පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ගෞරවය ස්ථාපිත කිරිමෙහිලා නව කථානායකවරයා ඉදිරියේ ඇති අභියෝග
Anura Bandaranaike, an opposition member, has been elected Speaker with government support as Parliament declines. Ivan urges him to have ballot rigging at the last election investigated by a select committee or commission and the guilty expelled, to champion an Indian-style election commission, and to introduce a code of conduct for members. He should enforce the assets and liabilities law and make declarations cheaply available, open Parliament and its committees to electronic media, and bring funds such as the President’s Fund and Samurdhi under the Auditor General.