තමන්ගේ අය බලා ගැනීම
Sri Lanka’s democracy is more feudal than bourgeois: voters choose parties not for policies but because ‘our party will look after us’, and are rewarded with privileges when it wins. The editorial calls this corrupt system a cause of the country’s misfortune and a barrier to civil society.
චම්පිකගේ උගුලට ජවිපෙ අසුවෙයි
The JVP could no longer stay in the alliance because of a public statement based on a wrong calculation, made while competing at once with the SLFP and the Hela Urumaya. The piece follows the monks’ fast against the joint mechanism, the Treasury Secretary’s role, and the President’s meeting with Muslim MPs.
සංඝ ආඥාව – සුන්දර
The Sunday Lakbima’s front page announced that a Sangha decree would expel the President from Buddhism, and its editor-in-chief Sundara Nihathamani de Mel had to answer for it. Ivan compares Gandhi’s model of satyagraha with the Sri Lankan version, and weighs a ruler’s right to decide against the need to win public consent for agreements such as the ceasefire.
සුනාමි යාන්ත්රණය හා දේශප්රේමය
The joint mechanism is splitting the country in two. Its opponents say it gives a terrorist group formal recognition; the editorial answers that 60 per cent of the damage was in the North-East, and that those who stand for peace have as much right to be heard as those who call war patriotic.
පාසල් ප්රශ්නය හා කූට ලේඛන
A Royal College teacher’s admission of her child on a false birth certificate has filled the papers. The editorial agrees that forgery is a serious offence but notes that it has become normal in the race for school places, and argues for reorganising the school system rather than hunting down parents.
දේශපාලනය හා ධර්මය
Ranil Wickremesinghe’s 54-page booklet on politics and the Dhamma was launched with great ceremony. The note compares the thin record of books by Sri Lankan leaders, J.R. Jayewardene’s included, with India’s tradition from Gandhi onwards, and links that emptiness to the emptiness of the country’s politics.
රටක් ලෙස අප යමින් සිටින්නේ කොයිබටද? කන්දක් විළිලා වදන්නට යන්නේ මී පැටියෙක් ද?
Not even the tsunami has changed the country’s inefficient, corrupt course or its divisive thinking. The first shock released a flood of human kindness, but the editorial warns that thinking confined to the tsunami could deepen divisions, and calls for thinking on the scale of the moment.
ටෙම්ප්ටේෂන්
The contested Shah Rukh Khan concert ended in violence, two deaths and injuries, after protests that it should not be held on the eve of Soma Thera’s first death anniversary. The editorial calls it a disgrace tied to religious fundamentalism and warns that a country unable to solve its old problems keeps adding new ones.
මහා භාරකාරතුමෙනි ඉතින් ආයුබෝවන්
Ravaya called the Public Trustee, Sarath Seneviratne, a first-rate crook for more than six years and gave the evidence. Ivan explains why so many who claimed to defend Buddhism shielded him, how politically important cases are steered to hand-picked benches, and closes on a Supreme Court ruling that a monk MP could not be expelled because he was not a party member.
ජාතියේ ගෞරවය කෙලෙසන පාසල් ක්රමයේ වෙනසක්
Ivan argues that the school system turns the whole country into liars and pushes parents into fraud to win a Grade 1 place. He proposes a reorganised system of primary, secondary and A-level schools with equal facilities, addresses laboratories and maintenance funding, and sets out tables for each level.