ජවිපෙට සිදුවුණේ කුමක් ද?
Ivan argues that the President used alliance talks with the JVP to strengthen her own hand, while the JVP paid any price, even abandoning its opposition to the executive presidency, before realising it had been deceived. Contrasting the JVP’s shallow leadership with the traditional Left, which taught the country democracy and won lasting social reforms, he says the party remains where it was in 1971. Further sections attack Mahinda Wijesekara’s claim that developing countries have too much democracy and question Mangala Samaraweera’s leadership of a media-freedom protest.
මංගලගේ බළලා මල්ලෙන් එළියට
Mangala Samaraweera’s call to abolish the executive presidency, Ivan argues, reflects the SLFP’s real aim of making Chandrika Kumaratunga an executive prime minister after her term ends, just as Ranil Wickremesinghe wants the presidency intact for himself. Further sections cover the Elections Commissioner’s criticism of the hastily passed 17th Amendment and of Supreme Court rulings, and the Editors’ Guild submission on contempt of court.
ස්වාධීන මැතිවරණ කොමිසම මරා දැමීම
Ivan argues that neither government nor opposition wants an independent Elections Commission: the President withholds approval of the Constitutional Council’s nominees and the Supreme Court declined to resolve the Elections Commissioner’s petition about his personal liability. Further sections criticise a campaign to build up Justice Shirani Bandaranayake as a future Chief Justice despite her role in the order restraining Parliament’s impeachment, and the President’s obstruction of Rajitha Senaratne’s scheme to issue freehold deeds for state land.
හැමදේටම විරුද්ධ වීමේ විපක්ෂ නිල පිළිවෙත
The editorial criticises the People’s Alliance for rejecting parliamentary oversight committees that would give the opposition scrutiny of ministries, dismissing the claim that they would weaken the presidency. It calls for removing presidential immunity, the power to dissolve Parliament at will after a year and the right to hold unlimited cabinet posts, and regrets that the PA, JVP and UNP have all abandoned the debate on reforming the executive presidency.
How will the struggle for power end?
In this article, Victor Ivan analyzes the escalating power struggle between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Facing the end of her term and unable to contest the next presidential election, the President seeks to overhaul the executive presidency to secure her continued political dominance, potentially by aligning with the JVP or utilizing Parliament as a constituent assembly. Conversely, the Prime Minister is determined to preserve the current system to claim the executive presidency for himself, plotting to render the President politically irrelevant. Ivan warns that this clash of ambitions, coupled with a lack of faith in the impartiality of the judiciary under Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva, risks plunging the nation into an extra-constitutional crisis and potential civil conflict.
බල අරගලයේ කෙළවර කුමක් ද?
Barred from a third term, Chandrika Kumaratunga now wants the executive presidency she once enjoyed reformed so she can keep her party leadership, while Ranil Wickremesinghe wants it untouched until he inherits it. Ivan traces her options, from a JVP alliance and a snap dissolution to a caretaker cabinet, and warns that with Sarath N. Silva controlling the courts the rivalry could slide into a civil conflict decided by which side the police and army take.
රටට අමතක වී ඇති විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්රමය
The editorial notes that the once-powerful campaign to abolish or reform the executive presidency, begun by N.M. Perera and carried forward by Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake, Chandrika Kumaratunga and the JVP, has fallen silent. With the President’s second term ending in 2005 and the Prime Minister hoping to succeed her, it argues that at minimum presidential immunity should be confined to official acts and removal for deliberate constitutional violations made easier.
චෞර රාජ්යය ප්රතිසංවිධානය කිරීම
Ivan argues that the state needs reorganising not only to resolve the ethnic conflict but because the whole political system has collapsed. He examines Parliament, the world’s costliest, whose members enjoy tax-free pay, pensions after five years, duty-free cars they resell illegally and subsidised meals, while its high posts and public accounts committees fail; and the executive presidency, with its immunity, private security force of 1,500 and unaudited President’s Fund, whose occupants all grew rich.
මරුවා සමග වාසේ
Ivan mocks the daily broadcasting of the inauspicious direction and the superstition peddled by television and even the JVP-backed paper Lanka. He turns the President’s lecture on the decline of politicians against her, tracing how every president since J.R. Jayewardene, including Premadasa, Wijetunga and Kumaratunga herself, used office for money or power, and attacks the costly upkeep of former presidents, now to be extended to former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake.
ජනාධිපති අගමැති ගැටුම කෙළවර කුමක් ද?
Tracing the Development Lottery Board dispute back to the 1978 Constitution, Ivan quotes N.M. Perera’s warning that split control of presidency and Parliament would paralyse the state and invite dictatorship. He recalls Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake turning against the executive presidency, the PA’s 1994 pledge to abolish it, D.B. Wijetunga’s peaceful handover of domestic power, and Kumaratunga’s broken promise to the JVP. Wickremesinghe, a defender of the office he hopes to hold, failed to strike a deal at the height of his mandate and now faces a dilemma.