මුදල් අර්බුදයේ නොපෙනෙන පැති කිහිපයක
Ivan examines the floating of the rupee and its fallout: importers ruined by paying at the new exchange rate for goods sold at the old, daily price rises, and likely shortages at the Sinhala New Year. He traces the drain on reserves to war purchases, duty-free vehicles and bulletproof BMWs for politicians, crony privatisation, Air Lanka’s aircraft and fuel subsidies, and falling aid, and doubts that exports, heavily dependent on imported inputs for garments, can close the gap.
පාන් වෙනුවට කේක්
In a television interview the President denied an economic slide or real price rises and claimed a bank driver earns Rs. 60,000 while a minister gets Rs. 19,000. The editorial corrects her figures, noting ministers earn about Rs. 29,815 tax-free and that some have built mansions since 1994, reads her remarks on executive power as a warning, and likens her message to Marie Antoinette’s.
ආර්ථික අර්බුදය හා රාජාණ්ඩු දේශපාලනය
As prices soar, the government has used police against a JVP protest while fishermen strike and the UNP turns to agitation. The editorial blames poor governance rather than external factors, citing the flour subsidy before the 1994 election, misdirected Samurdhi payments, unmetered electricity users, lost port revenue after the President moved to the Fort residence, the French locomotive deal and a Rs. 2,500 million new presidential palace, and calls for an open democratic system.
Economic mess? turn the searchlight inwards
The government is trying to put the economy right with extreme measures that have driven prices up and laid an unbearable burden on the poor, and it wants the liquidity crisis understood as something external that it could not control. The internal factor it will not admit is mismanagement.
Exorcise the evil system
Sri Lanka signed the United Nations convention against inhuman and degrading treatment in January 1994 and passed an Act to give effect to it in November of the same year. What has happened since to the people the Act was written for is the subject of the column.
ජනතාව කබලෙන් ළිපට
Prices of gas, diesel, kerosene, water and electricity are rising, bus operators want fares raised by up to 33 per cent, and the GST net is to widen. The editorial argues that rulers must tighten their own belts first, pointing to ministers with five or more vehicles, new furniture and foreign tours, and costly new residences for the President and Speaker, and warns that the public will not bear the burden patiently.
ජලයටත් මිලක්
The editorial warns that laws are being prepared in secret to make both urban consumers and farmers drawing from tanks, canals and rivers pay for water. The Water Resources Board Act No. 42 of November 1999 and a cabinet paper of 28 March 2000 vest all water in the state, and bills to license water use are due in Parliament. Ministers deny it and the President’s policy statement of 11 November was silent, while huge sums go on bullet-proof cars for rulers. It asks what the elected representatives will do.
රටට අරාජිකත්වයක් අවශ්ය නැත
The editorial warns that if the parliamentary election is not free and fair, people will lose faith in the political system and the result will be anarchy. It rejects the government’s claim that six elections under it were fair, citing more than 100 armed booth captures in the 1997 local polls, the North Western provincial poll, and notes that no one was punished. It condemns attacks on the Elections Commissioner and the rejection of an EU call for an independent commission, and urges civil society to secure a fair poll.
Playing it right in the political arena
Unlike Jayewardene and Premadasa, President Kumaratunga did not come to power after long effort and sacrifice; she came to it by fortunate circumstance. What she did come to power on was a democratic political discourse — and this column measures her against it.
විසඳුමක් අවශ්ය වුවත් එය සමග සෙල්ලම් කරන්නට යාම භයානකය
Ivan argues that peace in a long war fuelled by mutual hatred requires a serious, systematic effort, while politicians talk of peace mainly to please donors. Playing with the problem can make it worse, as the collapse of the Indo-Lanka Accord and the southern bloodshed showed. Before talks, the government must build a political climate through reforms that reduce hostility among parties and revive democracy.