කුණාටුව තවමත් අවසන් වී නැත
Ivan argues that the UNP revolt, though it did not unseat Ranil Wickremesinghe, curbed his autocratic leadership, raised internal democracy and forced him to promise to step aside if he obstructed an all-party government. Neither the PA nor the JVP wanted a change of UNP leader. With no outside support and a slender majority, the government could fall on a handful of defections, and Parliament, which controls law and money, could then reform the whole system.
ජනාධිපති අරමුදල හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told Parliament that the President’s Fund need not table accounts because it receives nothing from the Consolidated Fund. The editorial calls this misleading: the Act subjects the fund to audit and parliamentary scrutiny, it has not been audited since 1995, and it is fed by state lotteries worth perhaps Rs. 10,000 million a year, comparable to Samurdhi or war capital spending. It traces the fund to J.R. Jayewardene and recalls an incomplete list of beneficiaries given to Sarath Kongahage.
ජනාධිපතිනිය දූෂිත ද?
As the President offers to answer opposition charges in Parliament herself, Ivan argues that a leader must dispel public suspicion created by her inner circle. He sets out the evidence that BOI chairman Thilan Wijesinghe sought a $1 million bribe over the Galle flour mill, Rajan Asirwatham’s conflicted role in the Kotagala plantation sale, the unseen influence of Ronnie Peiris behind highway and Diyawanna projects, and the government’s refusal to release ministers’ asset declarations.
Eliminate hatred from the struggle for power
Some problems a governing party cannot solve alone, and some cannot be solved without the agreement of all the parties. In a country with many of the first kind, the main challenge of its politics is how to reach the second kind of agreement.
බල තරගයේ වෛර සාධකය ඉවත් කිරීම
Mutual hatred and fear of reprisal stop parties from agreeing on national problems. The editorial reports the Alliance for Democracy’s all-party meeting in Parliament on its eleven-point reform programme, attended by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Rauff Hakeem, the UNP, JVP, TULF, TELO and Tamil Congress, where all agreed that the presidency should answer to Parliament and the courts, backed independent commissions, and favoured holding presidential and parliamentary elections together.
රාජ්ය ප්රජාතන්ත්රීය කිරීම
Ivan surveys reform proposals from parties and civil society: the UNP’s four independent commissions, the JVP’s call to abolish the executive presidency and for a state media commission, and the Alliance for Democracy’s conditions for reforming the presidency, on dissolution, appointing the Prime Minister and Cabinet, expulsion of MPs and emergency powers. He adds the Editors’ Guild proposals on criminal defamation, freedom of information and an independent Press Council, citing Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s dual roles.
වලව් මාලිගා විවාදය
Ranil Wickremesinghe attacked the Rs. 2,500 million presidential palace and its imported oak, marble and chandeliers; Mangala Samaraweera replied that the Bandaranaikes, born in walawwas, need no palaces. Ivan distinguishes royal palaces from the walawwas of radala nobility, notes that the Bandaranaike and Jayewardene fortunes rested on land granted for helping the British in 1815, 1818 and 1848, citing James Rutnam and Kumari Jayawardena, and says Horagolla is humbler inside than Temple Trees.
විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
With the President barred from a third term, a cold war over the SLFP succession has begun, with S.B. Dissanayake, now party secretary and holder of several ministries, pushing aggressively ahead of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. The editorial surveys the pressures on the People’s Alliance: a UNP strategy for an all-party interim government, a JVP now openly hostile and able to topple two provincial councils, and restlessness in the CWC, SLMC and Communist Party.
පාන් වෙනුවට කේක්
In a television interview the President denied an economic slide or real price rises and claimed a bank driver earns Rs. 60,000 while a minister gets Rs. 19,000. The editorial corrects her figures, noting ministers earn about Rs. 29,815 tax-free and that some have built mansions since 1994, reads her remarks on executive power as a warning, and likens her message to Marie Antoinette’s.
ආර්ථික අර්බුදය හා රාජාණ්ඩු දේශපාලනය
As prices soar, the government has used police against a JVP protest while fishermen strike and the UNP turns to agitation. The editorial blames poor governance rather than external factors, citing the flour subsidy before the 1994 election, misdirected Samurdhi payments, unmetered electricity users, lost port revenue after the President moved to the Fort residence, the French locomotive deal and a Rs. 2,500 million new presidential palace, and calls for an open democratic system.