25 වැනි සමරුව හා ව්යාකූලතා
Ivan reflects on objections, among a few readers and staff, to inviting the President and other leaders to Ravaya’s 25th anniversary. Ravaya’s readers have never held one view, he says: during 1988–89 it refused to use the insurrection to topple the UNP; it helped defeat that government in 1994 but refused to profit from the new one, learning that changing governments does not change the system. The deepest split came over the war against the LTTE, which Ravaya opposed in a way Ivan now calls sometimes unfair and extreme, while he himself saw a just and winnable war; he argues that the UNP obstructed it hoping for regime change, that Prabhakaran and Wijeweera both chose guns over politics, and that the 2010 election left a hatred between the two camps that now blocks reform.
දහතුනේ අවුල
To win India’s support against the LTTE, President Rajapaksa promised a ’13-plus’ political solution, and Tamil leaders, the UNP and the old Left now demand he keep it, while the JHU, JVP and NFF oppose it. Ivan argues that the President’s doubts are not unreasonable, because the ethnic question is one expression of a larger failure of the political system. He traces how Tamil demands grew from modest regional councils in the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam and Senanayake–Chelvanayakam pacts to the 1976 separate-state resolution, the 1977 mandate, Black July, the Thimpu principles and the Indo-Lanka Accord, and says the provincial council system was hastily designed under LTTE pressure. He proposes instead village councils like India’s panchayats, district councils (with a provincial council for the North if needed), a smaller Parliament and a Senate.
25 වැනි සංවත්සරය
Ahead of Ravaya’s 25th anniversary, Ivan answers Sarvodaya leader A.T. Ariyaratne, who told Mawbima that he had spent millions on Ravaya, that the name was his idea and that Ivan later attacked him in the paper. Ivan sets out the founding story: the plan and the name were his, Sarvodaya’s Vishvalekha press printed the magazine at twice market rates and handled all the money, and so profited from Ravaya, not the other way round. He describes his differences with Ariyaratne’s outward Gandhianism, while crediting his service to rural youth, and explains the break: Ariyaratne switched from Premadasa to backing the JVP insurrection and Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1988, then tried to placate the victorious Premadasa by stopping Ravaya’s printing. Ivan closes with the paper’s 25-year ‘journey against the current’ and plans for the anniversary, including a documentary.
2005-2010 දක්වා ආපසු හැරී බැලීමක්
The years 2005 to 2010 were a period crowded with events: a great war between the government and the LTTE, and alongside it a great conflict between the government and the opposition movements. Ivan had wanted for some time to write a review of the conflict between those two sides in those five years, and of his own part in it.
විද්යුත් කැලෑ පත්තර අඩවි ගැන වැඩිදුරටත්
The article on the news websites that have turned into a species of electronic gutter press brought Ivan the chance to exchange views with one of the people he had charged — a man running a news website from a foreign country. Three sections follow: ethics, one-sided intellectuals, and Lionel Bopage and Rohana Kumara.
වත්කම් බැරකම් නීතිය ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම
The policy the elections commissioner followed on the assets and liabilities law at the last provincial council election was excellent. What would have been better still was an order that every candidate file a declaration with the nomination papers — and to get round the defect of not doing so he required all the winners to file by 15 October and the defeated candidates by 30 October.
කොළඹ නගර සභා මැතිවරණය හා වත්කම් බැරකම් නීතිය
The crafty and comical way the assets and liabilities law works at elections was shown again at the Colombo municipal poll. The law matters at an election because it gives voters the right to know the background of the candidates’ assets and liabilities — and they get that right only if candidates file their declarations with their nomination papers.
වත්කම් බැරකම් නීතිය ගැන වැඩිදුරටත්
After Anna Hazare’s satyagraha succeeded, the Indian prime minister and the members of his cabinet published their declarations of assets and liabilities for the public to see. It can be read as a step to control the disillusion growing among people towards the leaders of the government — and as a very important by-product of the popular struggle against corruption.
දෙමළ ජනයාගේ ප්රශ්න දෙස සාධාරණව බැලීමේ වැදගත්කම
Reducing the number of members for the Jaffna electoral district may be constitutional, but doing it at a moment when the settlement of the Tamil people’s problems is unfinished cannot create a good feeling among them. What matters more to the country now is creating conditions in which people can work from common agreement.
මැතිවරණයෙන් ඉදිරියට
The results of the elections for 65 local bodies show that no decline or collapse has yet happened in public confidence in the Rajapaksa coalition government. With the faults and weaknesses of its administration plainly visible, the public have still chosen, among the alternatives open to them, the one that approves it.