Beckoning the devilish anarchy
Victor Ivan sets out his own position plainly: he opposed Gotabaya’s candidacy, took him a reform plan anyway, and asks now whether the country can survive until the next government without one.
Earning a system change
The World Bank, the IMF and the EU all say the political crisis must be solved alongside the economic one. Victor Ivan says the opposition parties are the obstacle, and calls this a golden opportunity being wasted.
Limitations inherent in July uprising
Victor Ivan measures the July uprising against Magna Carta, the American and French revolutions and the Indian independence movement, and locates the limitation that decided its outcome.
The crisis of not having mature leaders
Six opposition leaders, all of them products of the old order. Victor Ivan asks what a mature leader would look like and why the post-independence period has produced so few.
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.
The dilemma of the victory
A two-thirds majority and no idea what to do with it. Victor Ivan reads the 2020 landslide as a dilemma for the winners — and reserves his sharpest analysis for what became of the UNP and the JVP.
The post-election saga
Whatever the election returns, Victor Ivan expects deadlock — a shrinking economy, half a million jobs lost abroad, and three underlying failures that no majority can vote away.
Parliamentary Polls and the two centres of power
Two centres of power inside one ruling family, an election held under the shadow of a second COVID wave, and a Supreme Court that let MPs cross the floor without losing their seats.
Cutting the umbilical cord for a new birth
Whoever wins in August, the country reaches a crossroads. Victor Ivan sets out participatory constitution-making as practised elsewhere and argues Sri Lanka must cut the cord to be born again.
Silver line in pitch darkness
Mangala Samaraweera walks away from traditional politics, and Victor Ivan reads the decision as the first crack of light — an established figure joining the argument for system change.