Betrayal of the nation
Going to Geneva is called treachery in Sri Lanka. Victor Ivan, who did it and won, sets out the Tony Fernando case and the judgment Parliament could reverse tomorrow if it chose to.
The rule of law
Dicey on the rule of law, applied to a president who stands above it. Victor Ivan reads the pandemic regulations and the Easter Sunday investigations as the same failure in two settings.
Constitutionality and Basil Rajapaksa
Basil Rajapaksa’s National List seat, examined against the Constitution and the international covenant Sri Lanka has already been found to have breached. Victor Ivan asks whether the law will simply be ignored.
Short-sightedness, where shall it end?
Minorities, the judiciary, and a cabinet Victor Ivan says cannot see past the next few months. He argues that with both parties failing, only public pressure is left.
Finding a way to free the nation
Written at a politician’s request, this is Victor Ivan’s programme in five numbered parts — nation building, the judiciary, the system of governance, empowering the public, and the country’s place between India and China.
Perfecting the failure
Anarchy, bankruptcy, a misread geopolitics and a Geneva resolution. Victor Ivan reads the failure of the state as something now being completed rather than merely risked.
The end of a journey and beginning of a new one
Anti-Muslim feeling, the forced cremations, and what Victor Ivan says the National Intelligence Service did. The column argues the old era has ended and asks what should be built in its place.
What is wrong with the Judiciary?
The jailing of Ranjan Ramanayake for contempt turns public sympathy against the courts. Victor Ivan asks what has gone wrong inside the Judiciary and answers with a series of cases from his own reporting.
Perfecting the failure
Gotabaya is failing, Victor Ivan writes, but so is the state he inherited. The column ends on the case of Shani Abeysekera and what happens to a country when its courts stop administering justice.
What went wrong with Ranil?
Known as the cleverest operator in Sri Lankan politics, Ranil Wickremesinghe ended up caught in someone else’s trap. Victor Ivan sets out what he thinks went wrong, and what it cost the country.