රජ ගෙදරින් ඇසෙන ඝාතන සංවාදය
Chandrika Kumaratunga told a youth convention that S.B. Dissanayake had urged her to become a dictator and offered to have one or two critical editors killed. Dissanayake replied that she had discussed such matters with Baddegane Sanjeewa, the murdered presidential security officer linked to the Rohana Kumara killing. Ivan describes Sanjeewa’s wealth and protection, identifies the targeted editors as Lasantha Wickrematunge and himself, and recalls the threats and attacks they suffered.
The truth is out there
The accusations and counter-accusations in the quarrel between S.B. Dissanayake and the President are extremely serious, and both sides are holding fire — refraining from using all the bullets at once, and firing one or two at a time.
රෙජී රණතුංගට එරෙහිව නීතිය ක්රියාත්මක විය යුතු ය
A young man who had got a job through Reggie Ranatunga was beaten to death after joining another party. The editorial cites inquest evidence that the politician struck him, notes that the Gampaha magistrate granted bail while the victim was in intensive care and was then promoted Director General of the Bribery Commission, and condemns the police for still not arresting him.
Who can name the winner
The PA’s defeat at the coming election is inevitable. Closing off electoral malpractice, a powerful group leaving the PA for the UNP, and the SLMC and the CWC contesting in alliance with the UNP are the main things that will produce the result.
A game of switching friends and foes
The PA government is in political uncertainty. With a UNP no-confidence motion gathering momentum it has become suspicious not only of its enemies but of its allies, and appears to have lost the capacity to look at anything calmly or logically.
මාවනැල්ලේ ඇතිවූ විනාශයට වගකිව යුත්තෝ කවරහුද?
Ivan argues that the government nurtured thuggish regional bosses such as Minister Mahipala Herath over educated figures like Jagath Balasuriya, and that the Mawanella violence began when his henchmen, long extorting locals with police protection, tied the cashier of the Sahira Hotel to the Premadasa statue and slashed his face. He cites other PA politicians evading arrest, including D.M. Dassanayake and Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, and the President’s refusal to reinstate Parry Liyanage.
Who was responsible for the Mawanella disaster?
There is a saying that if you go to sleep with dogs you wake up with ticks, and the government is in that position now. What happened at Mawanella, and who let it happen, is followed here from the local politics up to the immunity of the President.
දේශපාලකයන් සිටිය යුත්තේ නීතියට ඉහළින් ද?
PA MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra held a concert on the Angoda mental hospital grounds in defiance of a court order, and a PA local councillor accused of stripping a woman in the North Western election has evaded arrest, prompting a notice on the Katupotha police chief. The editorial says the President sets the example, citing her failure to implement a court order reinstating Parry Liyanage after his acquittal in the Embilipitiya case.
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.
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.