පොල්, කුකුළු මස් හා බිත්තර ආනයනය
Importing coconuts as a remedy for the shortage can be called a good and useful act; importing chicken and eggs to control their price cannot. From there the article turns to the spread of monkeys and wild boar, to animal husbandry and religious belief, and to a decision Ivan calls genuinely revolutionary — making vocational education compulsory for those who fail their O levels.
රටට වෙනස්කම් අවශ්යද?
Given how rotten the political system and state administration had become, Ivan writes, winning the separatist war should be counted a miracle — the armed forces and police included people working for the LTTE for money, which shows how far the institutions had decayed. The question now is whether to go forward with that rot or reform it. Every important part is corroded: legislature, executive, electoral system, courts, public service, public services, media. The President has accepted change is needed but has set out no philosophy beyond the voting system and cabinet size, and it is unclear whether he means to win two-thirds by agreement with the opposition or by buying its members across. Ivan lists what remains unresolved — the executive presidency, a German-style mixed electoral system, the constitutional council killed after the 17th Amendment, judicial power used oppressively, customs revenue of which perhaps a quarter reaches the treasury, and education adrift.
ජනමාධ්යවල සමාජ වගකීම
The coarseness ruling Sri Lankan politics is equally visible in the media, and in the temple, the church and the courts. Journalists are the teachers of modern society, but teachers without learning, training or reading do damage. Television and radio carry almost nothing of intellectual value: political discussion programmes pick guests the way a cockfight picks birds, and a presenter succeeds by turning the discussion into a brawl. Stations chase audiences with giveaways rather than quality, some pushing the foolish belief that listening all day can make you a millionaire. Ivan argues the media could fill the gap left by the absence of career guidance in schools — European countries want skilled tradesmen more than professionals, and nurses trained here cannot work abroad because their training omits English. Channels teach French and Italian cooking; few Sri Lankans can cook rice properly or make a decent cup of tea.
දෙමළ කැරැල්ලක් ආවේ ඇයි? සිංහලයින් ද ආපසු හැරී බැලිය යුතුය
Having asked where the Tamil struggle went wrong, Ivan turns the question on his own
community. He puts the direct cost of the war to 1998 alone at 423 billion rupees and traces
the language question from the cross-party agreement of the early fifties — broken when Sir
John Kotelawala promised parity in Jaffna and the backlash swept both major parties into
Sinhala Only — through Bandaranaike’s twenty-four-hour pledge, the fast of F.R. Jayasuriya,
the unimplemented Tamil Language Act and standardisation.
දුම්රිය ගමන හා වේගය
A commuter’s letter about the two and a half hours from Galle to Colombo sends Ivan through
the history of travelling speed, from the ox cart at eight miles an hour to trains that now
exceed three hundred. Sri Lanka had the best railway in colonial Asia and has since
shortened rather than extended it; nine hundred level crossings on a thousand kilometres of
track are what hold the trains back. He recalls Lalith Athulathmudali’s expressway joining
Hambantota to Jaffna, and finds the same instinct in the Yal Devi announcement.
පෞද්ගලික වෛද්ය විද්යාල ප්රශ්නය ගැන වැඩිදුරටත්
Replying to a Peradeniya medical student who objected to his earlier column, Ivan asks why
selling medical services is acceptable if selling medical education is not, and sets World
Health Organization figures for doctors, nurses and pharmacists per ten thousand people
against those of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Korea and Europe. Two per cent of Sri Lankan
children who start school reach a degree, against forty in Korea; the state holds a monopoly
on universities it cannot fund, and twenty-two billion rupees a year leaves the country with
the students it turns away.
යුද්ධයෙන් ඔබ්බට
Alongside ending the war and answering Tamil grievances, Ivan argues, the country must
attend to the global downturn reaching it: strengthen reserves, cut the imports it can do
without, encourage bicycles, and teach English to the tradesmen and nurses already trained
but shut out of the Western labour market for want of it. Agriculture, he writes, is the
country’s protection in this crisis.
ඉංග්රීසි භාෂාව හා තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය
Following the government’s declaration of a year dedicated to Information Technology and English, this article critiques the poor state of digitalization in Sri Lanka’s public sector. Pointing to outdated practices in Parliament, Customs, and the CID, the author advocates for robust e-governance to curb corruption and increase efficiency. Furthermore, it addresses the national failure in English proficiency, contrasting Sri Lanka’s rigid, pronunciation-obsessed approach with India’s practical and fearless adoption of the language.
පෞද්ගලික වෛද්ය විද්යාලයක් ආරම්භ කිරීම හොඳ ද නරකද?
This article examines the controversy surrounding the government’s decision to allow the establishment of a private medical college by Dr. Neville Fernando. Countering the protests of student unions, the author argues that breaking the state monopoly on higher education is a progressive necessity. The piece highlights the severe shortage of state university placements, the massive outflow of national wealth to foreign universities, and the urgent need for a properly regulated private higher education sector.
අනාගතය ගැන අලුතෙන් හිතමු
The war’s quick end is now in sight, and the largest remaining problem is how to free the civilians trapped on a small strip of land. The government has declared a no-fire zone, but the LTTE, using those people as a shield, is unlikely to let them cross into it. Once that is resolved the LTTE can only take to the jungle — and the jungle left to it, however thick, is not as large as Thoppigala. Ivan doubts a movement developed to that level can easily revert to guerrilla warfare. The end of the LTTE would widen both the country’s development space and its democratic space: resettlement, rebuilding, provincial and local elections in the north. The most contested question will be what answer is given to Tamil grievances, and it can only be answered if government and opposition work together. The country needs a large change, not a small one.