ඔවුන්ගේ කළ කැපකිරීමට රාවයේ ප්රණාම
Ravaya completes twenty years in August, and on the edge of that anniversary nearly half its staff have had to lose their jobs — the most painful experience in the paper’s history, and a decision they took of their own free will to save it. Their own words are here: if Ravaya closes there can never be another Ravaya, so it must not close; and if it has worked for the good of the society, keeping it alive is the society’s responsibility.
ආපසු හැරී බැලීමකට යොමුවෙමු
The ethnic crisis is the chief crisis the country faces and it is not the only one. At independence Sri Lanka stood ahead of every other country in the region: its infrastructure was relatively advanced, it had an efficient railway and tram cars and trolley buses in Colombo, and it was ahead in literacy and in schooling. An honest looking-back, Ivan writes, belongs at number one on the agenda of the all-party talks.
යුද්ධයෙන් කුල්මත්වීම
The security forces fought a successful and victorious campaign in the first phase, and the victories left not only the forces but the Sinhala people elated and intoxicated. The LTTE agreed formally to come to talks on the Tuesday, from a defeated position. Ivan’s warning is about what elation costs: the German ban could reach German credit and the tourist trade, and Europe could come to apply to the government the sort of programme it applied to the LTTE.
පොදු එකඟතාවේ ප්රතිඵල කෝ?
The public were dreaming pleasant dreams about what the understanding between the two main parties would bring the country, and it has brought not one good result, nor any sign of an effort to produce one. Ivan turns to Jaffna, where what he is told amounts to famine: the Bishop of Jaffna gives a kilo of rice at Rs 150, a kilo of wheat flour at Rs 150, a kilo of sugar at Rs 400 and a coconut at Rs 80.
අයවැය හා රටේ පවතින පීඩාකාරී බදු ප්රතිපත්තිය
The citizens of a state are its owners, and are treated as such because it is they who bear the cost of keeping it going. A family pays a hundred and thirty-six thousand rupees a year in direct and indirect taxes — and how much of that is spent on making people’s lives better, when they must pay again for transport, for electricity and water, and for the post and telecommunications they use?
ආණ්ඩුවේ බදු ප්රතිපත්තිය
If states made the best use of the additional sources of revenue open to them, the tax burden laid on the public could be eased. Sri Lanka uses its additional sources not for the common good but to fill the pockets of the rulers and the dealers grouped around them — and television and radio broadcasting, and the message traffic carried on mobile telephones, are the simple illustrations.
රටේ දේශපාලන ඉදිරි ගමන කුමක්ද?
The common agreement between the SLFP and the UNP has still not produced any good change in Sri Lankan politics. What it has done is let the government carry the budget unchallenged, and let the UNP leader protect his own position against the threats inside his party. The JVP and the UNP have given up their old hateful rivalry and come to a place where they talk to each other.
සුනාමියෙන් විපතට පත් ජනයාගේ දැවෙන ප්රශ්න කඩිනමින් විසඳා දිය යුතුය
Two full years after the tsunami we have not managed, as a country, even to give permanent houses to everyone who lost one. Of 114,069 houses needed, 63,469 are finished; 47,869 are being built; and 11,710 cannot be started for want of land or of provisions. The south has 5,550 more houses than it needs while the north and east are short. Of the schools destroyed, about 4 per cent have been completely rebuilt, and 446 schools are still being used as camps.
විදේශ ආධාර හා දේශපාලන යථාර්ථය ()
The prime minister says the government will not demean itself for foreign aid, days after Germany suspends new assistance and France does the same. Ivan’s answer is that we should object to conditions that harm the country and accept those that help it, and that pressure to observe human rights in wartime is what restrains the naked use of power.
යුද්ධයේ අනාගතය ()
The government is still managing to run the war to its own advantage, and whether the LTTE’s retreat is temporary or permanent will be decided soon. Ivan puts the movement’s political immaturity at the centre of its decline — it should either not have destroyed Ranil Wickremesinghe, or, having done so, should have consolidated peace and pressed for a settlement instead of returning to claymore attacks.