Victor Ivan


Majuwana Kankanamage Victor Ivan was a Sri Lankan journalist. He was a Marxist rebel in his youth and later became the Editor of the controversial Sinhalese newspaper Ravaya. He served as the Editor of Ravaya for 25 years consecutively from its inception. Victor was an investigative journalist, political critic, a theorist, social activist and also an author of several books.
Ivan was the seventh accused in the main court case arising from the Youth Insurrection in 1971. The panel of judges described him as the most colourful character of all suspect respondents. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment at the end of the inquiry. During his imprisonment he abandoned the doctrine of the JVP as well as that of Marxism. While rejecting the doctrine of violence he became an ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi adopting the philosophy of non-violence expounded by him.

Background

Ivan was born on 26 June 1949. He was educated at St. Aloysius' College, Galle and St. Anthony's College, Kandy. Ivan died on 19 January 2025, at the age of 75.

Insurrection

Ivan was a leader of the 1971 insurrection of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and used the nom-de-guerre Podi Athula. He was unable to take part in the insurrection as he was badly wounded months before while making bombs for it and had to undergo surgery at a private hospital in Colombo.
The leaders' prosecution at the 1971 April insurrection trial began on 12 June 1972, at the Queen's Club, located at the Baudddhaloka Mawatha, before the Criminal Justice Commission composed of Chief Justice H. N. G. Fernando Justice A. C. A. Alles, Justice V. T. Thamotheram, Justice H. Dheragoda and Justice T. W. Rajaratnam. Those pleading not guilty were brought in batches before the commission. The main case consisted of 41 suspects which included Mr. Ivan. They were considered to be the main architects of the uprising and the youth rebellion. Ivan and several other rebels were found guilty and were punished with imprisonments.
In 1977 he was released with others on an unconditional pardon given by the Jayawardena Government. Later he joined LSSP and unsuccessfully contested the Galle by-election. He later recalled that the insurrection had been a "foolish dream".
While in prison, Victor Ivan wrote two books: the first was entitled "The Challenge of Tenant Farming", which explored the feudal character of taxation on cultivations and the tenant farming system in Sri Lanka, and its adverse impact on productivity.
The other was on the History of the JVP and the 1971 Insurrection. In that he claimed that the prevailing discriminatory caste system in Sri Lankan society had been an important contributory factor to the 1971 insurrection. Later, he wrote another book titled "Social background of Youth Rebels of Sri Lanka" in which he argued that the caste system, apart from being a major factor in the youth insurrections in the Sinhala South, had equally become a crucial factor in the youth insurrections triggered by Tamil youths in the North as well. This is a new dimension that Victor Ivan added to the intellectual stock of reflective analyses of the social issues of Sri Lanka.
Until then, society in general, and even the social scientists, considered caste a taboo and an issue not to be discussed openly. The insights that he made persistently on this subject eventually resulted in the social scientists in Sri Lanka too, sharing his view and admitting that the caste constitutes an important factor affecting the social crisis the country is faced with today. The report submitted by the Presidential Commission appointed in 1990, pursuant to the suppression of the second JVP insurrection in 1989, to investigate the factors that had caused the youth insurrections admitted that the caste system had played a crucial role in the Sinhala and Tamil youth uprisings.
Ivan in his book "Pansale Viplawaya" published in Sinhala in 2009, which has been translated into English titled "Revolt in the Temple-The Buddhist Revival up to Gangodawila Some Thera –" has made an in-depth analysis of this proposition explaining the impact of caste discrimination on Buddhist political trends that emerge intermittently in Sri Lanka. In another book written by him on "Caste, Family & Politics" Ivan makes a deep analysis on how the caste system has impacted the politics of Sri Lanka since independence to date.

Journalism

Victor Ivan entered the field of journalism in 1986, at a time when the country was in turmoil with the outbreak of violent youth insurrections triggered by the Sinhalese in the South and the Tamils in the North. Ravaya, the monthly magazine that he launched soon became popular among the readers and turned out to be the magazine of highest demand at that time. Revelation of the presence of radioactive substances in the products of the Nestlé company in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster was one of the most remarkable articles published by the magazine Ravaya.
The magazine Ravaya maintained a critical and analytical approach. It had an average monthly sale of 40,000 copies. With the surge of JVP insurrection, almost all media organisations cautiously refrained from reporting things that were not in favour of the JVP as well as the security forces that were fighting against the JVP. Thus, when all other media agencies remained silent, Ravaya adopted a bold policy of expressing its views openly. It followed a policy of criticising the excesses committed by both parties – the JVP and the security forces.
During this period, a large number of media people were assassinated by the JVP and the security forces alike on account of their taking the side of either of the two parties. Those who were sympathetic to the JVP came under severe wrath of the security forces and vice versa. The rebels proscribed the 1988 presidential election declaring it illegal and demanding that the voters boycott it. The JVP adopted a policy of assassinating those who defied their orders. Victor Ivan, through Ravaya, appealed to the people to ignore the orders of the rebels and exercise their right to vote.
The strategy of the JVP was to prevent the unlikely change of the government and create a favourable atmosphere for the candidate of the governing party to win the election and obtain the support of the defeated opposition parties in their pursuit of propelling the youth uprising into a successful end. But Victor Ivan openly declared that if the JVP prevents the government change by force, it will undoubtedly result in the wholesale extermination of the rebels themselves by the government. It so happened that the ruling party won the election and eventually the JVP was crushed.

Magazine converted to a newspaper

After the defeat of the JVP by the security forces, Ivan upgraded the magazine Ravaya to a tabloid-size weekly newspaper. Since then its scope was widened. Ravaya no longer remained a publication confined to the critics only. It expanded its perspective becoming a newspaper committed to exposing the corruption and wrongdoing taking place in the country. The average sale of the newspaper Ravaya increased to the level of 80,000 copies per week. It became a visionary guide and the force that inspired the opposition political parties and political movements which had become frail and weak at that time.
Ravaya led the political campaign that brought Chandrika Kumaratunga back to the political scene and ultimately raised her in to power. But Ivan declined to accept any position offered to him by Chandrika after she was elected the President of the country. Later, he became a vehement critic of the rule of Kumaratunga. The consequent disputes that arose created an atmosphere that saw Ivan come under death threats from the rule of Kumaratunga.
Upon her retirement, President Chandrika Kumaranatunga got the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers to vest a valuable piece of state-owned land in her name. Ivan filed a case against her on this corrupt transaction. The court ruled that the land in dispute be revested in the state. Ivan wrote a book titled "Chaura Rajina" in Sinhala about Chandrika Kumaratunga and the period of her rule. The English translation of it was published under the title "The Queen of Deceit". The book created an enviable sales record in Sri Lanka. More than 50,000 copies of it were sold in a very short time.

Author work

Ivan was the author of several books including;
  • The challenge of tenant farming 1979 – අඳ ගොවිතැනේ අභියෝගය 1979
  • The insurrection of '71 1979 – 71 කැරැල්ල 1979
  • 1989 – අර්බුදයේ ගමන් මග 1988
  • The Tamil challenge 1989 – දෙමළ අභියෝගය 1989
  • The social background of the young rebels of Sri Lanka 1993 – ශ්රී ලංකාවේ නූතන කැරලිකරුවන්ගේ සමාජ පසුබිම 1993
  • From the peace pact to the impeachment 1993 – සාම ගිවිසුමේ සිට දෝෂාභියෝගය දක්වා 1993
  • Principles and Techniques of Chess 1994 – චෙස් මූලධර්ම හා තාක්ෂනය 1994
  • Violence, Non-Violence and Revolution 1999 – ප්රචණ්ඩත්වය, අවිහිංසාව හා විප්ලවය 1999
  • Freedom, national integration, and family struggle in politics 1999 – නිදහස, ජාතික ඒකාග්රතාව හා දේශපාලනයේ පවුල් පොරය 1999
  • An unfinished struggle 2003 – නොනිමි අරගලය 2003
  • Sri Lanka: A lost paradise 2006 – කදුළු සලන පාරාදීසය 2006
  • The revolution in the temple 2006 – පන්සලේ විප්ලවය 2006
  • The queen of deceit 2006 – චෞර රැජින 2006
  • 2010 - පෑන අහිංසකද? 2009
  • චෞර රාජ්යය 2010
  • ප්රභාකරන් පරාජය කිරීම 2010
  • මට පෙනෙන හැටි 2010
  • දේශපාලනයේ පවුල හා කුලය 2011
  • ලංකාව ගලවා ගැනීම 2011
  • දෙමළ අභියෝගය 2012
  • අවසානය කුමක්ද? 2012
  • ජීවිතයේ ප්රබෝධය, මරණයේ අසිරිය 2013
  • අර්බුදයේ අන්දරය, 1815 - යටත් විජිත යුගයේ සිට 2009 - ඊලාම් යුද්ධයේ අවසානය දක්වා

    Parliamentary Privileges Act and Criminal Defamation Law

Ivan challenged the validity of two laws passed by the Parliament that caused great fear in the minds of the media people. This initiative created the appropriate background for investigating both these laws, although there are claims that the laws were abolished but there's no reliable source that the parliamentary privileges Act was abolished. He challenged the legality of the Parliamentary Privileges Act in regard to a case filed against him under the provisions of the said act. There were three other similar cases filed against him under the same Act at that time. He boldly challenged the legitimacy of the law itself and argued successfully that though the parliament is entitled to safeguard its privileges, the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry has no right to sit in judgment against people and punish them without having a proper trial procedure approved by law which is an essential prerequisite for instituting legal action and imposing punishments. In view of the wide publicity given this fundamental objection that he raised against the law itself and the pressure exerted by the opposition parties and the international organisations, again there aren't any reliable source or cited articles that the parliament was compelled to abolish the parliamentary privileges law and stop the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry sitting on cases against media people and imposing punishments on them, although Although Sri Lanka did repeal criminal defamation in 2002, but there's no reliable source that the parliamentary privileges Act was abolished there are claims but not verified.
His next legal battle was against the Criminal Defamation Law which was in operation against the media people. There were 11 cases filed against him under this law. Perhaps he may be the only journalist in the world against whom such a large number of cases had been filed under the Criminal Defamation Law. According to his interpretation the use of the Criminal Defamation Law against the media people is suggestive of the Attorney General exercising his discretion against people on political grounds which is contrary to the rule of law. In the circumstance, Victor Ivan filed a fundamental rights case against the Attorney General challenging the validity of the practice adopted by him in filing court cases against him under the Criminal Defamation Law. He made the Attorney General a respondent both on an official as well as on a personal level.
Ivan lost the case and he made an appeal to the committee for Human Rights in Geneva under the UN Convenant on Civil and Political Rights against the verdict of the Supreme Court. The Human Rights Committee in Geneva conducted an inquiry on his appeal and reached the verdict the fundamental rights of Victor Ivan had been violated and ordered to pay compensation for the damage caused to him.