දර්ශනයේ දුප්පත්කම
A reply to C.A. Dissanayake’s Ravaya article defending limited constitutional reform, which Ivan links to Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne’s thinking. He questions who ‘Dissanayake’ really is, rebuts his account of J.R. Jayewardene’s Second Amendment to the 1972 constitution, which created the presidency, and argues that the executive presidency changed the whole character of Parliament: the old MP elected by a small constituency served the people, while today’s MPs, chosen under preferential voting, depend on money and patronage.
ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය (ව්යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්රශ්නය – 5)
Part 5 compares how constitutions are amended in the United States and India, where fundamental provisions are hard to change and courts have restored constitutions after they were abused, with Sri Lanka, where all three constitutions were made by majority power rather than consensus. He surveys amendments to the 1978 constitution: the 1982 early presidential election and fraudulent referendum, the Sixth Amendment after Black July, the Thirteenth and Seventeenth, Kumaratunga’s failed draft, and Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Eighteenth.
බලය ගල්ගැසුණු දෙයක් බවට පත් කළ ජේ.ආර්.ගේ ව්යවස්ථාව (ව්යවස්ථාවක් හදාගැනීමේ ප්රශ්නය-4)
Part 4 examines the 1978 constitution. Holding five-sixths of Parliament after the 1977 election, J.R. Jayewardene rushed through a new constitution without proper public scrutiny, stripping Parliament of supremacy and creating a president above the law, with the power to appoint and dismiss the cabinet at will. Citing K.M. de Silva’s biography of Jayewardene, Ivan argues that though it removed some Sinhala-only provisions, the constitution was drafted without Tamil representatives and did nothing to stop young Tamils being pushed towards a separate state.
අර්බුදය මට පෙනෙන හැටි (අවසන් කොටස)
Ivan divides the post-independence period into two eras and traces the second, from 1977: a government that could not be changed, thuggery institutionalised in the universities and unions, Black July and the JVP ban, and the violent era of 1985 to 2009, including Indian intervention and the state’s brutal suppression of the second JVP rising under Premadasa. Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance continued the corrupt system, and Mahinda Rajapaksa, after defeating Prabhakaran, chose a stinking path instead of reconciliation, leaving the country as isolated as it was when Prabhakaran was strong.
අර්බුදය මට පෙනෙන හැටි
Replying to a reader who said he blames everything on the executive presidency, Ivan traces the crisis further back, to a crisis of thought. Buddhism became confined to the Sinhalese, and independence came without a mass struggle, so the new state inherited narrow limits. He follows the distortions through to 1977 and beyond: the crushing of the 1980 general strike, the burning of the Jaffna library during the 1981 district council election, the 1982 referendum, and Black July, blamed on the JVP, which pushed both Tamil and Sinhala youth towards violence.
යූඇන්පියේ ආණ්ඩු ප්රතිසංස්කරණ යෝජනා
Ivan warns that neither the government’s belief in its permanence nor the opposition’s hope of winning an election reckons with a third possibility: collapse into anarchy, as happened in the Tamil North. The country is in deep darkness over the rule of law, nation-building and constitutional reform. He sets out how the executive presidency distorted the state, from Jayewardene’s undated resignation letters and the 1982 referendum onwards, and argues that the UNP’s new constitutional proposals will not be credible until the party honestly admits its own responsibility for creating the system.
දූෂණ මර්දනය හා ස්මෝල්ගේ ආදර්ශය
Reading the biography of W.J.T. Small, the principal who shaped Richmond College, Galle, Ivan recounts how Small overturned a cricket-captain election won by bribery, setting an example of integrity for the school. He contrasts it with the bribery allegation against the chairman of the Bribery Commission and argues that corruption is built into the executive presidency itself. Examples from his own experience follow: Lalith Athulathmudali’s account of how wealth flows from the presidency, a senior official’s confession, a customs officer punished for enforcing the law, and a young political star.
අඬමුද? සිනාසෙමුද?
This article critically examines the controversial tenure and actions of former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva, detailing his abuse of judicial power for personal and political gain. It outlines his role in imprisoning S.B. Dissanayake to appease President Chandrika Kumaratunga, his subsequent legal betrayal of Kumaratunga following a personal insult regarding his behavior toward women, and his intimidation of treasury officials to secure an abnormally high pension. The author also provides a detailed investigative account of a 2004 incident near Diyawanna Oya, where police allegedly found the Chief Justice half-naked in a parked vehicle with a woman, using the cover-up of this event to highlight the systemic corruption and apathy within Sri Lanka’s political, parliamentary, and judicial systems.
චෝගම්වලින් පසු ජනාධිපතිවරණයක්!
After a costly CHOGM that worsened Sri Lanka’s standing, Ivan predicts an early presidential election, called before a fragile economy — falling exports, heavy Chinese loans, banks lending to the state instead of business, finance companies near collapse — gives way. The government runs on three wheels, Mahinda, Basil and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and the family is fraying over succession, as D.S. Senanayake’s preference for Dudley once split the UNP. With discontent in the SLFP, the JHU and all communities, he foresees a three-cornered contest: Karu Jayasuriya on a system-change platform, Chandrika Kumaratunga seeking to reclaim the SLFP, and an unpredictable royal battle.
රාජ්ය නිලධරතන්ත්රය
Politicians come and go but officials stay, Ivan argues, and a strong, law-bound bureaucracy is what has kept India’s democracy standing. Sri Lanka had one until the 1972 constitution weakened it and the 1978 constitution destroyed it. He traces the result through the forced resignation of Auditor General Wijesuriya, outsiders placed over the Elections Department, and Chief Justices chosen for loyalty from Wanasundera’s passing-over to Shirani Bandaranayake’s removal. Reviving the Seventeenth Amendment’s independent commissions is no cure, he says, because they had no power to punish a president who ignored them.