A test for JVP’s sincerity
The probationary programme agreed between the PA and the JVP will be decisive for both the PA and the UNP, and more decisive still for the JVP — because everything it does in this period will show its political maturity, its capacity to act on firm principle, and its honesty.
පෙරමුණේ අවංකභාවය උරගා බැලෙන පරික්ෂණයක්
Ivan calls the JVP–PA probation pact a test of the JVP’s maturity and honesty. Its claimed gains are hollow: the referendum was dropped because of public protest, and Parliament was brought forward only a day, perhaps because astrologers deemed the 7th inauspicious. Quoting the PA’s 1994 manifesto, he shows the pledge of 20 ministers covered all ministers, and warns that the pact’s ‘mutually agreed amendments’, a presidential nominee on the Constitutional Council and resistance to reviewing office-holders could deform the 17th Amendment.
රවට්ටන්න යන්නේ කාවද?
The politicisation of institutions that should be independent is a main cause of the country’s decline, and the 17th Amendment was meant to hand key appointments to a respected Constitutional Council. The editorial notes that the opposition draft provided for eight members, including five eminent persons chosen jointly by the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, but the government, backed by the JVP, now proposes seven members including a presidential nominee, giving it a majority. This, it says, merely dresses up the old system.
17 වැනි ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය
Ivan welcomes the JVP–PA agreement to enact the 17th Amendment’s Constitutional Council and four independent commissions by 24 September, and describes the council’s makeup and the fourteen offices it would fill. He lists further posts that should come under it, faults the draft for leaving current office-holders in place and for having no complaints procedure, and says the Bribery Commission, the Auditor General, the Attorney General and the Elections Commissioner must be held to redefined duties.
පරිවාස වැඩපිළිවෙළ කෝකටත් තෛලයක් නොවේ
The editorial says the country now has a People’s Alliance government steered by the JVP: the bottle is Chandrika’s but the wine is the JVP’s. If the JVP’s probation programme at least secures the five independent commissions, an idea that came from civil society, that is a gain. But as a pact between only two parties, it cannot resolve the economic collapse, the war, political instability or the politics of hatred, and its benefits will be temporary.
ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ පරිවාස වැඩපිළිවෙළ
Ivan questions whether the JVP can win the five independent commissions by giving oxygen to a dying People’s Alliance government. He recalls its seats on the rigged North Western Provincial Council and support for PA provincial administrations, and gives the numbers: the government fell from a majority to 109 against 115 after Rauff Hakeem’s group left, and JVP support brings it back to 119. He argues that the pact’s ban on peace talks, privatisation and price rises clashes with the IMF standby agreement and risks another LTTE attack like Katunayake.
Pitfalls of probationary Govt.
Will the JVP, which is trying to supply oxygen to a weak government, get what it is asking for, the five independent commissions among it? The probationary programme has good things in it and things that could make the crisis worse.
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.