ජනාධිපති ඝාතන කුමන්ත්රණ කතාව හා කුමාර් පොන්නම්බලම් ඝාතනය
Ivan pays tribute to Kumar Ponnambalam as the boldest political commentator in the country, killed before his reply to the President’s warning to Tamils in Colombo could be published. He questions the shadowy ‘National Front Against Tigers’ that claimed the murder, likening it to the state-created death squads of the JVP’s second uprising, and criticises state media for spinning the attempt on the President into a plot involving businessmen, journalists and the UNP, as J.R. Jayewardene did before his referendum.
ගෙදර ගියොත් අඹු නසී, මග හිටියොත් තා නසී
Ivan finds the government trapped after its presidential win. S.B. Dissanayake has become one of the few steering the state, while Sarath Amunugama has displaced Mangala Samaraweera on media and failed to deliver UNP defectors. Party-crossing and a referendum to extend Parliament’s term are both fraught, the President’s health raises questions, she is unlikely to trade the presidency for the premiership, and on the ethnic question she is likely to lean towards war.
දැන් කරන්න යන්නේ මොනවාද?
Ivan says the People’s Alliance, instead of tackling the problems it promised to solve quickly, is busy attacking opponents. The new constitution has gone quiet, there is no clear approach to ending the war within a year, and the President’s three-hour address contradicted her conciliatory inauguration speech. He urges calm judgement and cooperation with political opponents.
Now back in power, what will she do?
Chandrika Kumaratunga’s win was not a clean victory in the full sense, and the abuses were not so great as to make one regret it. They did occur — in Hanguranketha, Wattegama, Wariyapola, Dambulla. What she does now is the question.
ඊළඟට කුමක් සිදුවේද
After the presidential election the editorial finds the way ahead unclear. It asks whether the President’s call to the UNP means a genuine national government or a ploy to isolate Ranil Wickremesinghe, doubts that the promised new constitution and package can pass with anti-package figures in the alliance, and notes that a prime minister is less secure than an executive president. A second section faults Wickremesinghe’s leadership for passivity over the Chief Justice appointment and the elections machinery and for careless remarks.
නැවත ජයග්රහණය අනාගතය
Ivan analyses Chandrika Kumaratunga’s re-election, which he judges not entirely clean but not overturned by the malpractice in seats such as Hanguranketa and Dambulla. The LTTE bomb at her final rally swung sympathy her way and the anger at Prabhakaran fell on Ranil Wickremesinghe, yet her share of the vote fell sharply from 1994. He foresees clashes between pro- and anti-package forces in the People’s Alliance, doubts she will give up the executive presidency as promised, and notes costly election pledges.
Failure to see the wood for the trees
If Prabhakaran can reverse in seventy-two hours what forty thousand men gained in thirty-three months, and if society still cannot see after that experience that there is no military solution to the ethnic problem, then the day a separate state is established in the North-East cannot be far away.
Who will get the Tamil support?
The President has gone for a snap election before her term expires, hoping to win it and then to convert that into a bigger parliamentary majority. The hope depends on the first hurdle, and the first hurdle depends on the Tamil vote — which this column counts constituency by constituency.
Politics behind Neelan’s martyrdom
Neelan Tiruchelvam, one of the main authors of the government’s devolution package, was assassinated just as the constitutional amendment carrying it was being brought before parliament ahead of a snap presidential election. The LTTE is plainly responsible — and what Ivan examines is what the government did to make the package unpassable long before the killing.
Wolves in Sheep’s clothing
An open letter congratulating President Chandrika Kumaratunga on a victory won across all communities. Ivan urges her to settle the ethnic question and to recover what the old regime’s cronies took, naming the Nawaloka land payment, the Airbus deal and the Ruhunu Cement sale, and warns that wolves cannot be taught to eat grass.