Against whom are the draconian laws?
The government has declared military rule with a parliamentary election due before the end of August. Conditions in the coming period may be worse than they are now, and the government still cannot, under any circumstances, refrain from holding the election.
Tactics to ensure parliamentary power
The PA government is locked in a dilemma there is no easy way out of. Even a very satisfactory result at the coming parliamentary election would leave it with fewer seats than it holds now, which is why the electoral system itself is what it wants to change.
Is history repeating itself?
When a ruling party acts undemocratically it falls to the official opposition to enlighten its members and the public and turn them into an active force against it. What happens when the opposition cannot or will not is the subject — and the case Ivan works from is the SLFP of the 1980s, read through Mick Moore.
Individual power disastrous to democracy
The government will not get a two-thirds majority at a parliamentary election. It can reach the number only by enacting a law that permits crossovers and then holding a referendum — which is precisely what was done once before, and this column is about what that cost.