Comprehending the puzzles of 19th and 20th Amendments
Both amendments are pickpockets, Victor Ivan writes — one in democratic dress, one in a dictator’s robe. What neither touches is the president’s licence to treat public property as his own.
Loveable 19th and fearsome 20th
Everyone is defending the 19th Amendment against the 20th. Victor Ivan argues the country was already in the dark under the 19th, and that those who cannot see that will not understand what the 20th does.
Seducing the Parliament
How Parliament was bought: Victor Ivan traces the estates, contracts and licences J.R. Jayewardene handed his MPs, and asks whether the new House will break the silence its predecessors kept.
The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary
A primer on the three pillars — what the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are each for, what judicial review means, and how far Sri Lanka’s institutions have drifted from the description.
Stark darkness
The voters believed they were electing a strongman who would rescue them. Victor Ivan describes a country sliding into a bottomless pit while neither its navigators nor its passengers can see what is ahead.
Will the pandemic gorge up democracy?
India and Sri Lanka took the democratic road together at independence. Victor Ivan asks whether the pandemic will let a nominal president govern as a real one, and whether the courts will stop it.
Power and the pandemic
If Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted the power to govern, Victor Ivan argues, he contested the wrong office — and the gap between the image built for him and the powers he actually holds is now deepening the crisis.
Withering of expectations and prospects of new ones
The younger brother is president, the elder is prime minister, and the powers do not sit where the voters think they do. Victor Ivan argues that changing the occupants will not change the system.
Mr. NOTA and understanding the Presidential Election
India gives voters a ‘None Of The Above’ box. Victor Ivan proposes Sri Lanka field Mr. NOTA as a candidate in his own right — a vote for a new constitution rather than for any of the men on the ballot.
Ignoring the main problem
The 19th Amendment stripped the president of executive power but left the office elected as if nothing had changed. Victor Ivan argues the country keeps patching its errors instead of correcting them.