THE ONLY WAY FOR THE PA - II
The Anti Sinhala forces that worked against the SLFP led governments after the 1962 coup adopted a different strategy. Instead of direct confrontation with Sinhala nationalist movement they began to work with them. In addition to the formation of the JVP with the children of 1956, the SLFP was infiltrated and the anti Sinhala forces tried to weaken the nationalist movement within the party. Factions such as Janavegaya and later breakaway groups like Sri Lanka Mahajana Party were formed. It so happened that both these groups were pink socialist groups and had two sons in law of Mrs. Bandaranaike at the helm.
The Tamil racists from the very beginning tried to fulfil their ambitions through the UNP governments. Having failed in their attempts the non nationalist forces by 1990 had decided to use the SLFP led governments to achieve what they wanted. The first step in this direction was to oust Mrs. Bandaranaike from the leadership of the party and have somebody with a pink socialist background and a sympathy to Tamil demands as the leader of the party. Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga fitted into this role and she was brought down to the country from her self exile in London. First she was made the leader of the PA and then subsequently the leader of the SLFP as well. Ms. Kumaratunga who is of the opinion that the Tamils have grievances, though upto now she has failed to spell them out, had wanted to solve the so-called ethnic problem through abdication of power in the northern and eastern provinces to the Tamil racist parties. People like Dr. G. L. Pieris who were with the UNP or were sympathisers of the UNP until the beginning of 1994, all of a sudden realised that the UNP was undemocratic and joined the SLFP. The TULF on the advice of Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam decided to support the SLFP.
The PA went before the public in 1994 to bring relief to the people from the 17 year curse (dahath avurudu shapaya) of the UNP, to bring down the cost of living through the human face of the open economic policies and to bring peace. Of course they did not tell the masses how they were going to bring peace and people were never told of a package. However, a few of us including Ven. Bengamuwe Nalaka Thero, Mr. S. L. Gunasekera, Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera and Mr. Dinesh Gunawardane and the MEP were able to warn the people of the impending package and campaigned against the PA. The PA having come to power started to work on the package but unfortunately for the Tamil racists and the infiltrators in the SLFP, the PA was not able to do much about it for a number of years. The nationalist forces in the country got together and were able to defeat the plans of the NGO's, the western powers and some Bishops with the help of the SLFP rank and file who were faithful to the original policies of the party. The SLFP is the party of Sinhalthva and social justice in the eyes of thousands of party members and sympathisers and the leadership was not able to convince them to adopt the line of the pink socialists.
The non national forces towards the end of the ninetees had realised that they could not achieve what they want with the PA government and they gradually shifted towards their trusted ally the UNP. Some of the so called free media journalists who had not only worked for the PA but who had been instrumental in bringing Ms. Kumaratunga to the forefront in early ninetees were the first to go. Of course they did not mention the failure of the PA to introduce the package as the reason for their defection. Instead they started talking of human rights and democracy, which according to them had deteriorated after PA came to power.
It was during this time that Mr. Lium Fox visited the country. He was able to get Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe and Ms. Kumaratunga to sign a pact known as the Fox agreement. The agreement was mainly on the talks between the government and the LTTE led by the war criminal Prabhakaran and up to date the western countries have supported this agreement. Even the Norway intervention in the internal affairs of the country at the "invitation" of the Sri Lankan government is based on this agreement. Knowing that Ms. Kumaratunga would fail in her attempts to abdicate power to the Tamil racists in the northern and the eastern provinces the non national forces had decided that Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe should finish off the job starting from where Ms. Kumaratunga stops. If Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe came to power at the last presidential elections, as the non national forces wanted, by now the legislative power would have been abdicated to the Tamil racists in the northern and eastern provinces. However it was not to be so and the UNP was defeated at the presidential elections as well as the parliamentary elections.
From day one of the second government of the PA the non national forces and the manipulators in these bodies have tried to bring down the government. Towards this end they have been able to use many politicians in the PA, including some ministers. The so-called independent commissions are an eye wash in a country like Sri Lanka. One has only to think of judiciary that is independent according to the constitution. If one thinks that the proposed five independent commissions are a "kokatath thailaya" (panacea) for the problems of the country then one is mistaken. The issue that would decide the fate of the government is not its tract record on human rights, democracy, the management of the economy or the cost of living. As far as the manipulators are concerned these are secondary and tertiary problems in Sri Lanka though the people may think otherwise. With or without the five independent commissions there will be corruption (dooshanaya) and these are issues brought forward to hoodwink the masses. In 1994 as well as today the "dooshanaya" and "bheeshanaya" are for the people to talk about. The real issue as far as the manipulators of governments (Even under the best forms of western democracy the people only vote at elections. It is the manipulators who run the governments.) is the Tamil racist problem and how to accommodate the demands of the Tamil racists. In essence it is a question of establishing a confederation in the northern and the eastern provinces. As far as the manipulators, who invariably belong to the non national forces, what has to be decided is not who would eradicate "dooshanaya", "bheeshanaya" or even "shaapaya" but who is capable of establishing a confederation by abdicating legislative power to the Tamil racists in the northern and the eastern provinces and denying the rightful place being given to the Sinhala nation, the Sinhala language, the Sinhala culture and the Sinhala history.
Mr. Hakeem the inexperienced Muslim leader without a mass base was easy to be manipulated. The problem with Muslim politics is that they are fighting the wrong "enemy". The Muslims in this country have had no problems with the Sinhalas except for the incidents that led to the 1915 riots. The Muslim identity has been respected throughout history and the Sinhala kings had taken steps to see that the Islamic culture was preserved in Sri Lanka. On the other hand the Muslims, unlike the Tamil racists had recognised the significance of the Sinhalthva in the country and some Muslims have ben Sinhala speaking. The Muslims have had problems with the Tamil Vellalas from the very beginning. The British who created Tamil racism by appointing a Tamil member and a Sinhala member to the Legislative Assembly in 1833 did not appoint a Muslim member. This issue was taken up later by Muslim leaders such as Messrs. Siddhi Lebbe and Azis towards the end of the nineteenth century. Mr. Ponnambalam Ramanathan who represented the Tamils in the Legislative Assembly then claimed that he (a vellala Tamil) represented the Muslims as well. His argument was that the Muslims were Tamils who practiced the Islam religion. The concept of Tamil (speaking) people had been formed in the nineteenth century and the Tamil racist leaders even then had no respect for the Muslim identity.
Later on the problems in the eastern province cropped up mainly because of the Tamil racist homeland concept. The Muslims who form a substantial community in the eastern province become a small minority in the combined eastern province and the northern province. The Muslims realised this and there was a necessity to fight Tamil racism in the eastern province. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress was established in essence to defeat the amalgamation of the eastern and the northern provinces. However having formed the SLMC Mr. Ashraaf wanted to become a Muslim Thondaman and a Muslim Chelvanayakam simultaneously. The very concept of Tamil speaking people that undermines the identity of the Muslims has been used to turn the Muslims against the Sinhalas, who had helped to preserve the Islamic culture in Sri Lanka. The Muslim leaders in the SLMC were encouraged to demand more and more from the government. Mr. Hakeem was an Oliver Twist in the cabinet. It may be that he did not know that he was playing in to the hands of the manipulators. In any event Ms. Kumaratunga had no alternative but to relieve Mr. Hakeem of his ministerial duties thus precipitating the present crisis to the satisfaction of the manipulators.
The PA is in the present plight due to the contradiction between the policies of the leadership and those of the SLFP. The SLFP, the party of Sinhalthva and social justice, that respects the cultures of the other communities living in Sri Lanka has been hijacked by the SLMP of Mr. Vijaya Kumaratunga. In the words of Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera, the headless body of the SLFP has been given the head of an ass. It is high time that the present leadership of the SLFP recognised and respected the original policies of the party. That is the only way for the PA and the SLFP. The PA is mainly the SLFP and the MEP. It is these two parties that stand for the Sinhalathva and the social justice. The Marxists though vociferous and heard due to the important positions that they hold in the media, print as well as electronic, have no mass base. One has only to analyse the preferential vote (manape) obtained by them in the last parliamentary elections to realise this. The PA and Ms. Kumaratunga came to power at the elections held last year and the year before because of the Sinhala, in fact the Sinhala Buddhist, vote. Irrespective of the policies of the leadership, the SLFP and the PA vote bank is in the Sinhala Buddhist electorate. (The Marxists have no vote banks and they should have no problem in going back to their 1964-1974 positions on the Tamil racist problem). If the SLFP and the PA try to go against the wish of the Sinhalas specially the Sinhala Buddhists it will spell disaster for them.
It is clear that the manipulators (the western powers, the NGO's financed by the western Christian countries, some Christian and Catholic Bishops) are trying to undermine the Sinhalthva and have now turned towards the UNP to achieve their objectives. In essence the present series of events unfold in the background of the Fox agreement. To use a term of Dr. David Bohm who formulated the concept of implicate order in connection with Quantum Physics, Fox agreement provides the implicate order. The present events are only irreversible "measurements" by external observers.
A so-called national government or an all party government is the worse scenario not only for the PA but for Sinhalthva as well. I know that many Sinhalas would rejoice at the prospect of forming a national government. However they should know that the manipulators have different ideas and the national forces should work to defeat their plans. A so-called national government would satisfy the Tamil racists by abdicating power in the north and the east and would finally establish a "pure" UNP government having got the PA and the SLFP to do the dirty work. If they form a so-called national government the SLFP could look forward to a very bleak future in the opposition for at least twenty five years after the next general elections.
(concluded)
Professor Nalin de Silva
>
>
>