19 වැනි සංශෝධනය
The government seeks a 19th Amendment to remove the President’s power to dissolve Parliament after one year, while the President resists. The editorial supports the change, citing France, but warns against repeating the hasty 17th Amendment and lists further defects to fix: the President’s right to hold cabinet portfolios, presidential immunity and the distorted Constitutional Council. It urges a transitional programme that does not make the opposition fear a two-thirds majority.
ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයක් අවශ්ය වුවත් එය සිදුකළ යුත්තේ පරිස්සමෙනි
With the UNF in government but President Kumaratunga holding decisive constitutional powers, including dissolving Parliament after a year, Ivan traces the cohabitation crisis to a 1978 constitution designed for one-party control, a flaw N.M. Perera foresaw. The government’s planned amendment to curb her powers needs PA votes for a two-thirds majority, and he warns that buying them could distort constitution-making, urging a broad consensual process for a new constitution instead.
සියලු රාජ්ය අරමුදල් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පාලනයට යටත් විය යුතුයි
Former finance minister Ronnie de Mel asked during the budget debate that all state funds, including the President’s Fund, be brought into the Consolidated Fund under Parliament’s control. The editorial calls holding funds outside it illegal and contrary to parliamentary democracy, and criticises the Auditor General’s weak scrutiny of institutions under powerful figures and the Public Accounts Committee’s frequent failure to meet for lack of a quorum.
පාර්ලිමන්ට් ජෝක්ස් නවතම රංගනය මැඩම් චන්ද්රිකාගෙන්
Reports say the President will attend the budget debate and that there is a question over where she will sit. Ivan notes that under Article 33 of the 1978 Constitution a President may enter Parliament only to present policy, make a special statement or preside at a ceremonial sitting, and only in the chair. She has already broken this by presenting a budget as Finance Minister and a constitution from a minister’s seat, unopposed by the UNP, and he warns the Constitution is becoming a comedy.
නව විපක්ෂ නායකයාට සුභ පැතුම්
The editorial welcomes Mahinda Rajapaksa’s appointment as Leader of the Opposition as a first step in freeing the SLFP from one family’s control, noting that Chandrika Kumaratunga conceded it only under pressure from party members. It urges him to modernise the party and to practise an opposition politics that supports what is good, including peace, and opposes only what is harmful.
Peace and president: New Govt.’s tight-rope walk
The Prime Minister and his retinue have crossed the river full of man-eating crocodiles and reached land. They may think the walk to the oasis is easier than the crossing was. Land looks safe and is full of pits and mirages, and sometimes crossing it is harder than crossing water.
ගින්දර සමග සෙල්ලම් කිරීම
Ivan warns Ranil Wickremesinghe that after crossing the crocodile-infested river of the election he faces mined ground. Chandrika Kumaratunga has ceded defence but keeps appointments of the IGP, service chiefs, governors and ambassadors, an expanding presidential secretariat, the President’s Fund and a security force of some 4,000. While she quietly backs the JVP’s campaign against the peace process, he argues, she waits for an incident that will let her strike, so her powers must be curbed.
Will the president be checkmated?
Using and misusing state resources to the utmost, a desperate PA played even its last trump card, the Tiger card, and the people disregarded all of it and defeated the government with the power of their innocent vote. What the President can still do, and what should be done to her office, is the question.
Powerless presidency and power of parliament
Under the 1978 constitution one party can hold the presidency while another commands parliament. That happened briefly between August and December 1994, and it is about to happen again — and this time the President will be at the greater disadvantage.
පොදු පෙරමුණ පරාජය වුවහොත් විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
Ivan considers cohabitation between a PA President and a UNP Parliament. He recalls how President Wijetunga cooperated with Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1994, quotes N.M. Perera’s 1978 warnings that a hostile Parliament could paralyse a president through its control of finance, and argues that a PA defeat would amount to a popular verdict against her. He concludes that she must accept the leader of the winning party as Prime Minister or face public revolt.