Setting governance on a firm footing
What the three branches of the state are supposed to do, and what Sri Lanka’s actually do. Victor Ivan’s answer is to hand the constitution to the people, with citizens’ initiatives and referendums built into it.
Recreation of the State
The promised remedy: Victor Ivan’s blueprint for rebuilding the state — a judiciary with the power of judicial review, a reformed legislature and executive, and an end to the plunder of public property.
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.
Withering of expectations and prospects of new ones
The younger brother is president, the elder is prime minister, and the powers do not sit where the voters think they do. Victor Ivan argues that changing the occupants will not change the system.
Turning disaster into a blessing
Sri Lanka’s debt, its import bill for dhal, chillies and milk, its fuel and vehicle costs — Victor Ivan argues the disaster is also the opening, if the public rather than the parties takes the lead.
Dilemmas of Sri Lanka
Whatever his history, Gotabaya Rajapaksa now governs those who voted against him too. Victor Ivan turns from the presidency to stray dogs, crop-raiding wildlife, milk and meat — and argues for an agrarian revolution.
Securing a People’s Constitution
With a People’s Constitution now in several manifestos, Victor Ivan sets out what the model actually requires: a constitutional assembly drawn from every sector of society, and an honest review of what went wrong before.
Ours is a failed state
Victor Ivan measures the failure of the state by what has happened to rural life — the collapse of peasant agriculture, the plunder of land, and a school system that sorts children by their parents’ means.
Avoiding essential reforms
The surface fire is out; the fire under the ashes is not. Victor Ivan compares Sri Lanka’s failure to build a nation with Gandhi’s approach in India, and asks why the necessary reforms are still being avoided.