What Can Happen?
Reading the April 2004 election result, Victor Ivan opens with a fable of three fish: the green fish stripped of its dominance by a blue-and-red alliance, and the victors fused into one distorted creature, the red fish triumphant but immobilised by the half of the blue fish it cannot finish swallowing. Beneath the allegory he argues that a real change has begun — the system in which either main party’s turn in office amounted to an official permit to plunder public property may not survive the JVP’s new strength. But he judges the JVP’s positions on the economy and the ethnic question neither progressive nor practical: it accepts decentralisation while rejecting devolution, when only maximum devolution can settle the war, and its coercive route to constitutional change invites Prabhakaran to conclude that a minority may also impose its way. With the SLFP reduced to a dwarf and both leaders’ ambitions evaporating, Ivan proposes an all-party interim administration on an agreed reform programme.
තිලංග හා මහාභාරකාරය
The Public Trustee, Sarath Seneviratne, is wanted by the Bribery Commission and in hiding, while Thilanga Sumathipala is on remand. The piece follows the sale of temple land, the protection both men enjoyed from the powerful, the President’s anger and why the government still has not removed Sumathipala from his posts.
තක්කඩින් රකින පත්තර සදාචාරය හා මහා භාරකාරයා
Replying to a Divaina article that portrayed Public Trustee Sarath Seneviratne as a pious Buddhist targeted by a Christian conspiracy, the piece insists Ravaya is non-religious and recalls how Divaina and other media shielded Lenin Ratnayake and Wack Silva. It traces Seneviratne’s career from a judicial inquiry at Gampaha to the Bribery Commission and the Public Trustee’s office, and lists alleged abuses: four official vehicles with extravagant repair bills, payments to his daughters’ school, and a Rs. 1.9 million commission on trust funds.
Bribery, Corruption and Politics
In this article, Victor Ivan highlights the systemic political corruption in Sri Lanka and the ineffectiveness of the Commission of Inquiry into Bribery or Corruption. Recounting an exchange at a Transparency International seminar, Ivan criticizes the Commission’s Chairman for protecting a former minister accused of misusing state funds via a credit card, arguing that the Commission acts as a shield for corrupt politicians rather than a deterrent. The author contends that bribery and corruption have become the very foundation of Sri Lankan politics and political funding. Because both major political parties depend on illegal wealth generation and crony capitalism for their survival, neither President Chandrika Kumaratunga nor Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe genuinely wants an independent Bribery Commission, as true accountability would result in many politicians facing imprisonment.
තක්කඩියන් රැකීම
The editorial calls the Public Trustee, a former judicial officer close to the Chief Justice, a ‘respectable crook’ who placed Rs. 131.2 million of trust funds, including Rs. 18.1 million belonging to the Temple of the Tooth, in a bank and pocketed a commission of about Rs. 1.9 million. It notes that he admitted the commission once confronted with documents, that a Bribery Commission report recommending prosecution was suppressed, and that the ministry secretary has taken no disciplinary action.
හිතක් පපුවක් නැති රටක්
The state pays Rs 10 a day to keep each of the 9,500 children in 91 homes under the Probation and Child Care Department, and Rs 2.50 a day for children in the Salvation Army’s care at Borella. The editorial contrasts this with the Rs 1.6 million daily cost of Parliament, Rs 6 million a year for a retired president and Rs 5 million spent on a cricket song.
චෞර රාජ්යය ප්රතිසංවිධානය කිරීම
Ivan argues that the state needs reorganising not only to resolve the ethnic conflict but because the whole political system has collapsed. He examines Parliament, the world’s costliest, whose members enjoy tax-free pay, pensions after five years, duty-free cars they resell illegally and subsidised meals, while its high posts and public accounts committees fail; and the executive presidency, with its immunity, private security force of 1,500 and unaudited President’s Fund, whose occupants all grew rich.
මරුවා සමග වාසේ
Ivan mocks the daily broadcasting of the inauspicious direction and the superstition peddled by television and even the JVP-backed paper Lanka. He turns the President’s lecture on the decline of politicians against her, tracing how every president since J.R. Jayewardene, including Premadasa, Wijetunga and Kumaratunga herself, used office for money or power, and attacks the costly upkeep of former presidents, now to be extended to former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake.
Conscience Benumbed
In this article, Victor Ivan argues that decades of mass violence and rampant political corruption have paralyzed the collective conscience of Sri Lankan society. Drawing heavily on the psychological trauma outlined in Prof. Daya Somasunderam’s book Scarred Minds, Ivan asserts that the psychological damage seen in the Tamil community is reflective of a wider distortion affecting all Sri Lankans—victims, perpetrators, and witnesses alike. Using the commercialization and resulting decline of Sri Lankan cricket as an analogy for the state of the nation, the author critiques how governance has become a mechanism for public plunder. Specifically, Ivan highlights the failure of the 17th Amendment, pointing out that constitutional safeguards and independent commissions (such as the Elections, Police, and Bribery Commissions) have been deliberately sabotaged or stalled by the President, with little to no resistance from the judiciary, the political opposition, or a benumbed public.
කෙළෙහි ගුණ දැක්වීම
Ivan notes that the President was met in London by Ronnie Peiris, who had helped her in exile after Vijaya Kumaratunga’s murder and has since grown rich, and says the UNP’s promised inquiries into such figures have gone quiet. Further sections note that she named Sarath N. Silva as a drafter of her constitution though he sat on the bench reviewing it, praise Anton Balasingham’s endorsement of Neelan Tiruchelvam’s 1996 devolution plan, and ask why no one has sought Tony Fernando’s release.