අර්බුදය කුණු කිරීම
Ivan says the Katunayake attack has badly damaged a weak economy, yet the parties behave like crabs dancing in a warming pot. The crisis stems from the prorogation to block the no-confidence motion; the Speaker put his sister ahead of Parliament and the JVP’s factional approach wrecked the chance of an all-party reform government. With over Rs. 100 crore spent on the postponed referendum and Parliament due on 7 September, he warns that months more without proper government will deepen the economic collapse.
ඊලගට විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද
Ivan says the government treats its crisis as a simple numbers problem that Sarath N. Silva or the JVP’s ten votes might solve, while the UNP and JVP resemble a jockey clinging to a bolting horse. With the referendum postponed to 18 October, he sets out the President’s options, warns of Philippine-style street protest or a heavy election defeat, and urges an all-party interim government that turns Parliament into a constituent assembly, following South Africa’s example of agreeing principles first, including on talks with the LTTE.
වඩා වැදගත් ප්රතිසංස්කරණ දිනා ගැනීමයි
What matters in the crisis is not who wins but whether reforms are secured. The government has refused even to enact the five commissions the JVP demanded as its price for opposing the no-confidence motion, so the task falls to the opposition, which can do it only through an all-party government. The editorial criticises the JVP for failing to commit to joint action, or to press its own demand to abolish the presidency, when the opposition has the numbers.
රිචඩ් සොයිසා ගැන වැඩිදුරටත්…
Replying to C.A. Chandraprema, an Island editorial, Justice Minister Batty Weerakoon and a state radio campaign against the Alliance for Democracy, Ivan explains his earlier remark on Richard de Zoysa. He recounts what a senior police investigator and a close friend told him: that de Zoysa was an active JVP supporter whose borrowed house sheltered Somawansa Amarasinghe, and that he was translating Wijeweera’s book on Eelam when abducted. He insists the murder was unjustifiable, discusses the class dimension of its prominence, and says his views are his own, not the Free Media Movement’s.
The Richard factor in the FMM
A mention of Richard de Zoysa in an earlier article, questioning the purpose of a government photographic exhibition, has become a great controversy. This is Ivan’s answer to it, and the most personally exposed thing he wrote in the Sunday Times.
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.
JVP terror to the fore
The government is marking the anniversary of Vijaya Kumaratunga’s assassination as a general commemoration of those killed by the JVP, with a costly travelling exhibition and fresh legal action against those involved in the second insurrection. Ivan’s objection is not to the remembering.
ස්ථාවර ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවීම අසීරුයි
Ivan calls the October 2000 poll the biggest ballot plunder in parliamentary history, yet the People’s Alliance won only 107 seats and lacks a majority even with the EPDP. He compares the 1994 arithmetic, notes the Muslim Congress’s resentment after Ashraff’s death and his National Unity Alliance’s four seats, and warns that EU observers’ findings could hit aid or bring sanctions. The JVP emerged strong and disciplined, the UNP was complacent, and the Sihala Urumaya was routed.
ප්රචණ්ඩත්වයට වගකිව යුත්තෝ කවරහු ද?
The President has expressed sorrow at the death of JVP member Arambagedara Siridewa, shot by police in Matale, but the editorial says she has shown no real will to curb the violence of her party’s regional strongmen. It cites Deputy Minister Shantha Premaratne calling the Chief Minister Anuradhapura’s only terrorist, D.M. Jayaratne’s remark that Kandy faces a war rather than an election, and a Matale police chief said to be the Chief Minister’s relative. It calls on the President to rein these men in.
JVP legacy that of Pol Pot and Prabhakaran
Answering JVP writers who now praise the party’s programme and compare its 1989 hartal to that of 1953, Ivan argues the 1989 hartal was enforced by killing, likens the JVP’s record to Pol Pot and Prabhakaran, and dismisses its manifesto as unworkable. He allows that a party can reform, but sees no sign of repentance.