සරත් සිල්වා රගපාමින් සිටින්නේ ද ලෙනින් රත්නායක රග පෑ භූමිකාව ම ය
Ivan retells how magistrate Lenin Ratnayake, dismissed earlier from the Insurance Corporation for fraud, hid his past behind a pious image, won support from monks, lawyers, local councils and Attorney General Sarath N. Silva, and was finally found guilty by the Hector Yapa inquiry. He argues that Chief Justice Silva is staging the same performance through bodhi pujas, Bar resolutions and a Malwatte statement, and sets out allegations about Silva’s private life, misuse of power in related litigation and a loan he never repaid.
ආගමික නායකයන්ගේ මැදිහත් වීමක් අත්යවශ්ය ය
The editorial welcomes the Inter-Religious Council formed by Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Muslim and Christian leaders to press politicians to put the country right. It argues that politics, not religion, now determines every aspect of life and is leading to ruin through rigged elections, politicised institutions and ethnic mistrust, and asks religious leaders to back deep reform of the political system rather than bless those who win by fraud.
Who was responsible for the Mawanella disaster?
There is a saying that if you go to sleep with dogs you wake up with ticks, and the government is in that position now. What happened at Mawanella, and who let it happen, is followed here from the local politics up to the immunity of the President.
ජනවාර්ගික ආවේග පාලනය කිරීම
Managing ethnic, religious and linguistic passions is Sri Lanka’s greatest challenge, and adding a Muslim conflict to the Tamil one would bring chaos. The editorial argues that no post-independence ruler has shown the ability to do so, recalling how the UNP blamed the JVP for Black July 1983, and criticising the President for implicitly blaming the UNP, the JVP and the railway strike for the Mawanella violence.
මාවනැල්ලේ ඇතිවූ විනාශයට වගකිව යුත්තෝ කවරහුද?
Ivan argues that the government nurtured thuggish regional bosses such as Minister Mahipala Herath over educated figures like Jagath Balasuriya, and that the Mawanella violence began when his henchmen, long extorting locals with police protection, tied the cashier of the Sahira Hotel to the Premadasa statue and slashed his face. He cites other PA politicians evading arrest, including D.M. Dassanayake and Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, and the President’s refusal to reinstate Parry Liyanage.
Importance of democracy within a party
There is a real discussion in the country about broadening democratic freedom and the reforms it needs, and almost all of it is about how to reform the state. The parties, which are the state’s main instrument, are doing nothing to strengthen democracy inside themselves.
Ranil’s dilemma: Party or himself
The government avoided defeat on the budget without finding out who was adding to the four members of Thondaman’s group who had agreed to vote it down, and without uniting its own ranks against a repeat. The instability that produced is the setting for a question about the opposition leader.
වලව් මාලිගා විවාදය
Ranil Wickremesinghe attacked the Rs. 2,500 million presidential palace and its imported oak, marble and chandeliers; Mangala Samaraweera replied that the Bandaranaikes, born in walawwas, need no palaces. Ivan distinguishes royal palaces from the walawwas of radala nobility, notes that the Bandaranaike and Jayewardene fortunes rested on land granted for helping the British in 1815, 1818 and 1848, citing James Rutnam and Kumari Jayawardena, and says Horagolla is humbler inside than Temple Trees.
කමලාවතීගේ ජනාධිපති වේශ නිරූපණය
A woman who dressed as the President, including her injured eye, in a UNP march had her Raddolugama house attacked. The editorial recalls earlier impersonations of Jayewardene and the Premadasas, cartoonists’ caricatures and leaders’ nicknames, notes that the government itself used the covered-eye photograph and caricatured Ranil Wickremesinghe as Dracula, criticises the class disdain in the President’s response and compares the attack to earlier ones over mimicry of Pavithra Wanniarachchi.
අධ්යාපන ඇමතිට මල් මිටක්
The piece welcomes the decision to admit half of all Grade One pupils by computer lottery from January 2002. It describes how competition for popular schools has bred forged documents, a market in fake deeds and bribes to principals of up to Rs. 300,000 in Colombo, shutting out poor children, and urges that the lottery, drawn before parents, be implemented to the letter despite pressure from powerful quarters.