ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨත්වය පරිපූර්ණ කිරීම
Judging by the weapons taken and the infrastructure found, Ivan writes, another decade of
the LTTE would have been past imagining — and both the wars and the peace talks had
strengthened its de facto state rather than dissolving it. Mahinda Rajapaksa is therefore
the greatest of the country’s leaders since independence; but the greatness is not complete,
and completing it means opening every window to a national argument about what Sri Lanka
should now become.
ප්‍රඥාවෙන් ප්‍රශ්න බේරාගමු
අප රටක් වශයෙන් සිටින්නේ තීරණාත්මක තැනකය. එල්ටීටීඊය ආරක්ෂක පවුරක් කරගෙන සිටින සිවිල් ජනයාට බරපතළ හානියක් ඇති නොවන ලෙස එම ජනතාව අතර සැඟවී සිටින එල්ටීටීඊ නායකයන් හා කාර්යධරයන් යටත් කරගැනීම හෝ විනාශ කිරීම සිදුවන්නේ කෙසේද යන සංකීර්ණ ප්‍රශ්න කෙරෙහි ලෝක අවධානය යොමුවී තිබේ. ඒ ගැන ලෝක මට්ටමෙන් කෙරෙන වාද විවාද ඇති අතර, ලෝකයේ පවතින එම උද්වේගකර […]
ගියරය වෙනස් කිරීමට කාලය පැමිණ තිබේ
The war for territory is won, and Ivan argues the country must now change the voice it
speaks in. A degree of defiance suited a government fighting against international
obstruction; facing a humanitarian problem of this size and needing the aid to solve it, the
same tone will not do. There is nothing here to hide, and the way to more help is patient
listening and patient explanation.
ආවේගයෙන් ක්‍රියාකිරීම අත්හැරිය යුතුය
With six square kilometres left and under one per cent of the objective outstanding, Ivan
argues there is no case for haste. The decision to stop air and artillery attacks and free
the remaining civilians with light weapons is the right one and should not be misread as
abandoning the operation; and with an Indian election under way and the reconstruction bill
to be met from abroad, the country should be opening doors rather than closing them.
මහින්ද කොයිබටද?
Whether by luck, practical sense or sheer resolve, Ivan writes, Mahinda Rajapaksa will enter
history as the leader who turned modern Sri Lankan politics. But defeating Prabhakaran
militarily is not enough: he must be defeated politically as well, which means bringing the
country’s Tamils to accept that life within the Sri Lankan state is better and fairer than
life in his separate one. A great leader is not satisfied with half a greatness.
දෙමළ ප්‍රශ්නය ජයගැනීම
The price of defeating the LTTE is not yet countable, Ivan writes, but the harder question
is what follows: how to heal a community that has paid an enormous forfeit and now carries a
defeated mind. The Tamils hold an old language and an old civilisation, and cannot be
governed by force against their will; the road out begins when Sinhalese hearts set down the
victor’s pride.
දෙමළ හදවත්වල ඇති තුවාල සුව කිරීම
The war is over and what it has left is harder than what it settled: one community in the
country now feels itself defeated, and the Tamil diaspora with it. Ivan points to the
Khalistan insurgency, put down in the mid-eighties and followed quickly enough by political
redress that a Sikh is now prime minister of India, and to the rebuilding of German and
Japanese self-respect after 1945. He sets out what can be done at once without new
legislation, and what the camps will require.
දුම්රිය ගමන හා වේගය
A commuter’s letter about the two and a half hours from Galle to Colombo sends Ivan through
the history of travelling speed, from the ox cart at eight miles an hour to trains that now
exceed three hundred. Sri Lanka had the best railway in colonial Asia and has since
shortened rather than extended it; nine hundred level crossings on a thousand kilometres of
track are what hold the trains back. He recalls Lalith Athulathmudali’s expressway joining
Hambantota to Jaffna, and finds the same instinct in the Yal Devi announcement.
පෞද්ගලික වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාල ප්‍රශ්නය ගැන වැඩිදුරටත්
Replying to a Peradeniya medical student who objected to his earlier column, Ivan asks why
selling medical services is acceptable if selling medical education is not, and sets World
Health Organization figures for doctors, nurses and pharmacists per ten thousand people
against those of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Korea and Europe. Two per cent of Sri Lankan
children who start school reach a degree, against forty in Korea; the state holds a monopoly
on universities it cannot fund, and twenty-two billion rupees a year leaves the country with
the students it turns away.
තවත් ප්‍රභාකරන් කෙනෙකු බිහිවීමට ඉඩ නොතබමු
Written during the final phase of the civil war, this article reflects on the imminent collapse of the LTTE and the resulting leadership vacuum within the Tamil community. The author argues that Sinhalese leaders now bear the responsibility to treat the Tamil people with compassion and justice. It serves as a strong plea for post-war reconciliation and the creation of a united, equal Sri Lankan identity to prevent the rise of future violent extremism.