Scapegoat for political survival
While the Alliance for a Free and Fair Election was getting people to wear a yellow band, the President published an advertisement of her own in which the yellow bands are replaced by bands of various bright colours. What the two campaigns are actually asking for is not the same thing.
ප්රචණ්ඩත්වයට වගකිව යුත්තෝ කවරහු ද?
The President has expressed sorrow at the death of JVP member Arambagedara Siridewa, shot by police in Matale, but the editorial says she has shown no real will to curb the violence of her party’s regional strongmen. It cites Deputy Minister Shantha Premaratne calling the Chief Minister Anuradhapura’s only terrorist, D.M. Jayaratne’s remark that Kandy faces a war rather than an election, and a Matale police chief said to be the Chief Minister’s relative. It calls on the President to rein these men in.
රටට අරාජිකත්වයක් අවශ්ය නැත
The editorial warns that if the parliamentary election is not free and fair, people will lose faith in the political system and the result will be anarchy. It rejects the government’s claim that six elections under it were fair, citing more than 100 armed booth captures in the 1997 local polls, the North Western provincial poll, and notes that no one was punished. It condemns attacks on the Elections Commissioner and the rejection of an EU call for an independent commission, and urges civil society to secure a fair poll.
අෂ්රොෆ් ඔබට ආයුබෝවන්
A tribute to M.H.M. Ashraff, whom Ivan calls the most colourful Muslim leader since independence. He links Ashraff’s stand on Muslim identity to the concentrated farming Muslim community of the east, and recounts how in 1988 Badiudin Mahmud persuaded Sirimavo Bandaranaike to drop him from an opposition pact, driving him to back Ranasinghe Premadasa. Ivan recalls that Ashraff gave Chandrika Kumaratunga her 1994 majority yet privately criticised her, and that he publicly reversed his defence of Sarath N. Silva’s appointment after studying the documents.
Human rights Vs Election victory
The future of democracy in Sri Lanka appears to hang on one question: whether the Commissioner of Elections can hold the coming parliamentary election in a free and fair manner, if not entirely then substantially.
මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයාට අත නොතබනු
After a complaint showed that polling cards identical to those secretly printed at the Government Press were being produced outside, the Elections Commissioner had security stickers printed privately. The CID seized the stickers and the government moved to remove him for bypassing the Government Press. The editorial defends his decision, says the government should apologise, and urges citizens to protect the Commissioner unconditionally.
චන්ද්රිකා පාලනයේ ඇතැම් ගති ලක්ෂණ අනාගතය
Ivan argues that Chandrika Kumaratunga reached power by chance, as Vijaya Kumaratunga, Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake left the scene and Anura Bandaranaike quit the SLFP. Lacking experience, she sidelined seasoned figures such as Dharmasiri Senanayake and Mahinda Rajapaksa in favour of S.B. Dissanayake and Mangala Samaraweera. He lists broken promises on the executive presidency, the ‘Pajero culture’, duty-free vehicle permits and liquor licences for MPs, condemns her record of rigged elections, and warns that the worst of her rule may come in a second six years.
Playing it right in the political arena
Unlike Jayewardene and Premadasa, President Kumaratunga did not come to power after long effort and sacrifice; she came to it by fortunate circumstance. What she did come to power on was a democratic political discourse — and this column measures her against it.
කවුරු දිනුවත් ජනාධිපති ක්රමය අහෝසි වන ඡන්දයක්
Ivan describes S.B. Dissanayake as the man now steering the People’s Alliance, whose hints foretold the dropping of Lakshman Jayakody and possibly Richard Pathirana, and who shaped the national list. He recounts the sidelining of Dharmasiri Senanayake, S.B.’s ambitions for the media ministry and premiership, and alarm within the alliance at a drift towards junta rule. With no clear winner likely, any government will need small parties such as the JVP and may have to agree to abolish the presidency.
නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සඳහා
Ivan explains how electoral fraud became institutionalised after the 1978 executive presidency made power hard to change and bent the public service and police to the executive, from the 1981 Jaffna poll to the North Western election of 1999 and the subtler rigging of the presidential poll. He announces the ‘Swarna Bandhana’ yellow-ribbon campaign by the Alliance for Democracy, sixty unions and mass organisations, asking a million people to wear yellow bands until polling day, with religious institutions joining.