Putting the country on right track
Victor Ivan answers the anger his defence of Ranil Wickremesinghe provoked, describes how the man’s public image was manufactured against him, and states plainly what his own role in all this has been.
Dismissing Ranil
Answering the critics of ‘Ranil’s destiny’. Victor Ivan asks who else was available for the presidency, weighs the charges against Wickremesinghe one by one, and returns to the shortage of mature leaders.
Ranil’s destiny
Victor Ivan describes taking his reform plan to Gotabaya Rajapaksa during the uprising, then makes the case for Ranil Wickremesinghe — a man, he argues, whose character the media deliberately destroyed.
True nature of the storm
Gotabaya fled because he was weak, not because the Aragalaya was strong. Victor Ivan restates the constitutional argument he has made throughout and says what the movement should demand next.
What could be the end of the revolution?
Written in the week of 9 July. Victor Ivan admits the uprising disproved his own forecast, sets out what distinguished it from the JVP insurrections, and asks what it can end in.
Overcoming ideological anarchy
Mao on falling into pits. Victor Ivan argues that neither the protesters nor the opposition parties who borrowed their slogan have worked out whether it can actually be done.
Choosing destruction instead of salvation
COPE’s daily hearings show where the money went. Victor Ivan notes that everyone is shouting at someone to go home and nobody is asking anyone to take charge.
Self-ruination or salvation
The country hangs on a cord braided from Gotabaya and Ranil — ugly, absurd, and the only one there is. Victor Ivan asks whose fault it was and what escape would actually require.
Youth struggle; what could be the end?
Ranil Wickremesinghe is appointed Prime Minister and Victor Ivan calls it a good omen. He also tells the youth movement plainly that its slogan cost it the reforms it could have won.
The mass uprising: What could be the outcome?
Written a week after Mirihana. Victor Ivan reads the protest movement as a direct democratic uprising and asks what it can actually win, beyond removing one man.