එල්ටීටීඊ තහනම ඉවත් කිරීම ජනාධිපතිවරණ දිනය හා පාප්තුමාගේ ගමන
After the cabinet spokesman hinted at the election date, Ivan examines the constitutional timetable and the clash with the Pope’s January visit, which the Catholic Church had asked to keep apart from politics, and the astrologer’s role. He then discusses a European court ruling of 16 October 2014 on the LTTE’s listing, arguing that bans cannot last forever, that the LTTE was defeated militarily but remains strong in the diaspora, and that only a political solution will end its appeal.
ලලිත් ප්රේමදාස ඝාතනය (II)
Part II recounts how an informant inside Sucharitha, Premadasa’s residence, telephoned Ivan at night; how the informant’s warnings proved true, including of a planned explosion at the UNP May Day rally that Ivan tried to expose in Ravaya; Mohideen’s revelations; the threats that followed; Bradman Weerakoon’s view of the Premadasa killing; the ‘Sudu Mahattaya’ of Wellampitiya; and why Hemantha Warnakulasuriya’s claims fail both legally and ethically.
සම්බාධක දංගෙඩිය මුවවිට සතුටින් කල් ගෙවන ජාතියක්
With the UN human rights investigation under way, Ivan warns that the government is ignoring the danger of sanctions, which no country has escaped unharmed. A small country’s foreign policy should seek safety, not confrontation with the United States and Europe. He criticises the government’s false show of innocence over alleged wartime abuses and the continuing hardship of Tamils in the North five years after the war.
කළයුත්තේ කුමක්ද?
Quoting Mao that falling into a pit teaches the mind, Ivan asks whether Sri Lankan society learns from its disasters. After defeating Wijeweera’s rising and then Prabhakaran, the country had a chance for an Asoka-like turn from war to reconciliation, but the victor was blinded by triumph. The crisis has taken a new form, hidden behind an illusion of development built on infrastructure and debt. The Rajapaksa government has lost its moral right to rule; the opposition’s first task is a common programme agreed through open negotiation.
ජාතියේ අන්ධ ගමන
On 15 July 2014 the President appointed foreign experts, including Sir Desmond de Silva, Sir Geoffrey Nice and David Crane, to advise the Paranagama commission, a sudden reversal of the government’s stand against foreign involvement. Ivan asks what the move is for, given the Defence Secretary’s long hostility, and argues that the government failed to foresee that accountability after the war could not be avoided. Having leaned on China and adopted an anti-Western line, Sri Lanka is on a blind journey that its strategic position makes dangerous.
ජාතියේ අන්ධකාරය
Starting from Gandhi’s view of struggle, Ivan examines the militarisation of Sri Lanka since 1971: by global indices it is among the most militarised countries in South Asia, and the forces grew hugely for the final war. He asks who is responsible for the rebellions, citing Bertrand Russell on the state, argues that the nation owes a debt to all who suffered, and warns that five years after the war the army has not been reduced and the national mood, driven by secret political movements, has turned against human rights.
ජාතිය ගොඩනැගීම
Ivan argues that Sri Lanka failed to meet two historical conditions for building a nation. The Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim leaders of the independence era were limited in outlook; liberal ideas came mainly through educated Burghers, while revivalists such as Migettuwatte Gunananda took another path. The left movement and the Jaffna Youth Congress briefly stood for a united nation. India, with its pluralist attitudes, built a nation and a democracy; Sri Lanka, by comparison, is in an ugly state.
ගෝඨාභයගේ හෙවණැල්ල
Ivan credits Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa with driving the war to a conclusion, but argues that he failed at what must follow the defeat of an internal rebellion: the humane rehabilitation of the defeated, as after 1971 and 1989, and letting a people mourn its dead. His gravest wrongs, Ivan writes, were the killing of criminals without trial, which continued after the war, and his patronage of extremist groups, from the halal campaign to the Beruwala and Aluthgama violence, which threatens to undo the peace won by defeating Prabhakaran.
ඊළඟ මුවහම මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ද?
Ivan warns that a handful of extremist groups acting in the name of Buddhism, apparently with state protection, are pushing the country towards bloodshed again. Black July 1983 internationalised the Tamil question and fed the northern insurgency; turning on the Muslims now would isolate Sri Lanka in a world with a vast Muslim population. He traces the Muslims’ history in the island, their ties with Sinhala castes such as the Salagama noted by Ananda Coomaraswamy and Ralph Pieris, and argues that envy of Muslim success in trade lies behind the hostility.
යාපනේ පුස්තකාලයට ගිනි තැබුවේ කවුද?
Ivan revisits the burning of the Jaffna Public Library during the 1981 District Development Council election, when the ruling party had made itself a contender in the North. Jaffna believed the police were responsible, and in private talk senior circles pointed to DIG Edward Gunawardena, then in charge there. Ivan recounts a book published some thirty-two years later, a June 2014 article by retired police officer Tassie Seneviratne and Seneviratne’s account to him of a sergeant’s story, and his own inquiry to a retired DIG about Gunawardena’s background.