Anarchy must be averted
Blackouts, queues and no plan. Victor Ivan argues that Sri Lanka is constitutionally primitive, and that an interim constitution is the only way to keep the collapse from becoming anarchy.
The struggle of the youth, what will be the end?
The New Year dawned with the Central Bank declaring bankruptcy. Victor Ivan puts the hard question to the protesters: if GotaGoHome succeeds, what exactly will have changed?
Overcoming the crisis
A programme in two phases: go to the IMF, bring the Government into a reform process, pass an interim constitution, and complete the new one by referendum. Written as the queues were forming.
Seeking a path to get out of the morass
A proposed way out of the trap: an interim constitution, a constituent assembly, and the observation — from Colvin R. de Silva — that removing even an insane president would take more than two years.
Transforming Gota to a Botha
Answering a critic in Anidda who called the People’s Constitution a myth, Victor Ivan turns to South Africa: P.W. Botha’s successor negotiated a transition from a position of strength, and Sri Lanka’s president could do the same.
Defeating the spurious constitution
Against the constitution being written by a committee the President appointed. Victor Ivan sets out what a participatory constitution would require and how a mass agitation could win one.
Lawful public uprising!
The first of three parts. Victor Ivan builds a case for a lawful uprising out of republicanism, the sovereignty of the people, and a 1991 UN Human Rights Committee judgment from Canada.
Agenda for transformation
Written out of Victor Ivan’s last conversations with Mangala Samaraweera: a numbered basic document of reform principles and a system of governance to replace the one that failed.
Crisis and the nation’s survival
Some disasters are avoidable. Victor Ivan argues this one still is, and that going to the IMF — even on its conditions, even if that means selling SriLankan Airlines — is part of how.
Paving the way for a transformation
A social-media questionnaire on how to choose a leader turned into a public argument, so Victor Ivan sets out the philosophy behind it: a transitional constitution, a constitutional assembly, and power returned to the people.