කොළඹ නගර සංවර්ධන විවාදය
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Colombo development programme is heavily criticised by the opposition, and at first sight what Ivan sees is a good change that can be felt: the city is cleaner than it has ever been, the rubbish heaps along the main roads have stopped, and not only Colombo 7 where the rich live but Borella and Wanathamulla where the poor live are clean, with the traffic much eased.
ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ අර්බුදය
Will the split that has opened inside the JVP hasten the decline it was already travelling towards, or will it renew the party and make it strong again? Six sections follow, on Kumar Gunaratnam, on correct Marxism, on the JVP’s social background, on commitment, on the absence of a forward vision, and on what should be done.
සමනළ වැව හා හම්බන්තොට වරාය
When giant development schemes are made by decisions taken on the political power of politicians alone, disregarding expert advice, the destruction a country can suffer is enormous. Some geologists, irrigation engineers and civil engineers had heavy criticisms of the accelerated Mahaweli scheme, and it was begun in disregard of them.
ප්රමිතිය නොසලකන ජාතියක්
What has come out about the great railway accident at Alawwa on the 17th shows that those responsible gave no thought to the standards that must be considered when trains are bought and put into use. We have heard of motor cars made with fibreglass; we had not heard of railway power sets made with it. A car carries very few people and a train carries thousands.
යුද්ධය හා ජනවර්ග අර්බුදය
Written for the Tamil-language Veerakesari at that paper’s invitation, and it begins by placing its author: the man writing to a Tamil paper about what the Tamil people face after the war is not a Tamil but a Sinhalese — and not a Sinhalese born in a Sinhala area but one born in Batticaloa, who drove his pen to build Sinhala opinion in recognition that a grave injustice had been done to the Tamil nation.
රෝගීන් ගසා කෑම
The health minister has ordered that laboratory tests for patients at government hospitals with laboratory facilities may not be sent out to private hospitals. If the decision was taken with all the other problems it may create in mind, it can be called a very important step for the health service.
ග්රීස් යකුන් පිළිබඳ ඇත්ත කුමක්ද?
The grease devil story pushed people in some areas into acting on impulse. It was said at first to be the work of mental patients — which cannot be, since the work of mental patients does not happen in various parts of the country in the same period. Rumour may have played its part, and there is evidently something in the stories, because in several areas people caught men who were then arrested.
දෙමළ ජනයාගේ ප්රශ්න දෙස සාධාරණව බැලීමේ වැදගත්කම
Reducing the number of members for the Jaffna electoral district may be constitutional, but doing it at a moment when the settlement of the Tamil people’s problems is unfinished cannot create a good feeling among them. What matters more to the country now is creating conditions in which people can work from common agreement.
වගා සංග්රාමය
Whatever it is officially called, the government has begun the second stage of its cultivation campaign. In the first stage a small packet of fertiliser with a few kinds of seed was given out among people interested in home gardening, and it was heard from various places that the seed was not good and that only a small part of it germinated; in the second, fruit and vegetable plants were given.
අර්බුදය ඓතිහාසික දෘෂ්ටියකින් දැකීම
Political outlook is an important factor in whether political struggles bear fruit. Ivan is not a Marxist, and he accepts the idea that theory guides practice: there are political struggles in this country and they happen without a meaningful forward vision, and that is why the fighters have become people running on the spot.