THE END OF THE JOURNEY
There are many among the English speaking Sinhala people who are happy that the SLFP and the JVP failed to form an alliance. However, the feelings are not the same among the majority of the Sinhala speaking Sinhala people including the rank and file of the SLFP. The fact that the Sinhala speaking Sinhala people wanted this alliance was amply demonstrated at the recently concluded fifty second conference of the SLFP. Though the leadership tried to ignore, the rank and file had applauded even at the mention of the word JVP. The rank and file had jeered when the old representative of the old left referred to "balaya bedeema" (devolution of power).
There are some who wanted to project the image that the alliance was only an election "gundu". These people were of the opinion that the JVP (and the SLFP) wanted this alliance purely for election purposes and they even went on to congratulate Ms. Chandrika (Bandaranaike) Kumaratunga for not entering into an "opportunistic" block with the SLFP. They wrote even editorially of a principled Chandrika Kumaratunga. It is not difficult to analyse the politics of these English speaking writers and others who come from the upper middle class. Even for a moment they did not realise that if Chandrika Kumaratunga is a principled person then so is Wimal Weerawansa. The JVP did not want to sacrifice their position on so called devolution of power merely to enter into a pact with the SLFP. In fact according to Tylwin Silva the JVP is prepared to recommence negotiations if the SLFP is prepared to change "its position on devolution". However, it is wrong to say that it is the position of the SLFP on devolution. It is the position of the SLMP of Vijaya Kumaratunga on devolution that has been forced down the throats of the SLFP by the Keerawellas and other NGO agents through Chandrika Kumaratunga.
There is a difference between the English speaking Sinhalas and the English speaking Tamils. The English speaking Sinhalas are more alienated from the ordinary Sinhalas than the English speaking Tamils are from the ordinary Tamils. The LTTE is one of the most barbaric organisations that have sprung in the history. They are a brutal, fascist outfit who have committed crimes against the mankind, if I were to use a phrase popular among the enlightened people who write in English. They are continuing with the murders, conscription and "establishing camps". (What happened to the camp in Kinniya? How are the monitors getting on? What is the "government" doing about it except the prime minister writing letters to the president assuring her that the camp is not forgotten. What is the president who is supposed to be the commander in chief of the armed forces doing? As Mr. Wimal Weerawansa has said in Sinhala on so many things she is only talking about it - katin bathala kola hitawana was the words he has used.) . However, that has not prevented English speaking Tamils such as Siva Pasupathy who became the attorney general of a country supposed to be denying the Tamils their rights (Could he have become the attorney general of Australia?) and Soranaraja who is a product of free education that is funded mainly by the ordinary Sinhala people (some English speaking Sinhala journalists are also products of the same free education), from supporting the LTTE.
However the English speaking Sinhalas whose cultural ancestors surrendered the leadership of the country in the nineteenth century to the English speaking Tamils, thus satisfying their masters who came from England, would not be tolerant of the JVP even fourteen years after killing Rohana Wijeweera. The JVP to my knowledge has not taken up arms since then and the Sinhala speaking Sinhalas especially from the area of Mahinda Rajapakse who has become a prisoner of the NGO "experts", have confided in the leaders of the JVP and elected sixteen of them to that august body called the parliament given to us by the English themselves.
The English speaking Sinhalas though not tolerant of the JVP and its leaders are in company with the present LSSP leaders and admired those of the past. It is not the Marxism of the JVP that is opposed by the English speaking Sinhalas but the culture of the JVP. It is neither the gun culture as the JVP is not armed now but the culture of the common man who smell of trees (gus ganda) according to some of these elite Sinhalas. The Marxists of the LSSP and the CP, meaning of course the leaders, came from the same families as the other elite and they went to the same schools and the universities here and abroad. They met each other at the big matches, weddings and other social functions and there was not much of a difference between the cultures. It is the "gus ganda" (meaning the culture) of the JVP that is not tolerated by the English speaking Sinhalas. I think the JVP should cultivate more of this "gus ganda" and abandon the Marxism altogether and embrace political theories created in this country. If I have any differences with the JVP it is due to Marxism that they still claim to follow and not because of the "gus ganda".
If the JVP took up arms in the past it was due to the Marxism that they followed. It cannot be denied that Marxism legitimises killings of political opponents in the name of the revolution. Some Marxists may argue that Marxism is opposed to terrorism but the fact is that once revolution is legitimised as the means of establishing a workers' state that is, after all, historically inevitable according to Marxism which is scientific as claimed by none other than Marx himself, it is futile to split hairs on terrorism and other forms of armed uprisings. The LTTE on the other hand is not a Marxist party pseudo or otherwise and has taken up arms not in the name of a revolution, but to destroy Sinhalathva. Pasupathys and Soronarajas who have no objection to the terrorism of the LTTE are welcome by the English speaking Sinhalas though they have an inborn hatred towards the JVP. There is no creature like the English speaking Sinhalas on this planet. In the nineteenth century they served the British Raj better than anybody else in the "empire" and to satisfy their masters they handed over the leadership to the English speaking Tamils. Today they are no better and are in the process of handing over the northern and the eastern provinces to the LTTE and Tamil racism. They opposed from the very beginning an alliance between the SLFP and the JVP that could have defeated Tamil racism. When I refer to the English speaking Sinhalas it is their representative wing that make decisions, rather who follow the decisions taken by the British and American masters, I have in mind. There are exceptions and unfortunately they are not at "correct" positions.
Why did Chandrika Kumaratunga said no to an alliance with the JVP when the rank and file of the SLFP would have welcomed such an eventuality? Is it her principles? Chandrika Kumaratunga has only one principle and that is to find out ways and means of becoming the next prime minister by abandoning the executive presidency. It is not her opposition to the system introduced by JR Jayawardhane that makes her an opponent of the presidency but her inability to become the next president as the Jayawardhane constitution prevents her from doing so. Some SLFPers are concerned as to why I have criticised Chandrika Kumaratunga and not Ranil Wickremesinghe in these columns in the recent past. The answer is very simple. Ranil Wickremesinghe leads a party that is the agent of western colonialism in this country and he leads it without violating that principle. I do not expect anything good for the country from that party and I have never voted for the greens and I do not think that I will ever do so. I have criticised the UNP on many occasions but as at present I am more concerned with the politics of Chandrika Kumaratunga. In any event unlike those SLFPers I do not expect anything from the SLFP if and when it comes to power and as such I am free of all shackles.
Though the UNP is the party of the non national forces it is not the case with the SLFP. It is the party of the Sinhalathva and it was the party that led the "pancha maha bala vegaya" under the banner of the MEP. However Chandrika Kumaratunga is not leading the SLFP the way it should be led. She is only following the policies of the Mahajana Party of her husband and is betraying the SLFP. She is not leading a pancha maha bala vegaya but is being led by a "pancha papa bala vegaya" comprising the NGOs, Suddas (international community), Tamil racists, anti Sinhala Buddhist clergy and the commissioners (those who take commissions). The old left is not included in the list not because they are not "papa" but due to the fact that they are not a "bala vegaya". However, they are on the same wave length as the SLMP of Vijaya Kumaratunga, that itself is not a "bala vegaya" though the widow of the leader of the SLMP has been made the "leader" of the SLFP.
We are witnessing the "gamanaka avasanaya" (end of the journey) of the SLFP. The party that was created as a liberal party in 1951, through a metamorphism became the party of the Sinhalathva around 1954. Since 1993 it is being led by Chandrika Kumaratunga who was imported from England by the non national forces to lead the party the way they want it to be led. The NGOs and the "international community" lead the SLFP not only through Chandrika Kumaratunga but through Mahinda Rajapakse as well. The SLFP before Chandrika Kumaratunga was made the leader had no policy called devolution of power. Mr. SWRD Bandaranaike in 1926 may have said something about federalism but then he wanted a federal "province" for the "up country Sinhalas" as well, and so much for the knowledge of the country of the Oxford educated barrister. Chandrika Kumaratunga, the pink socialist, who is being led by the "pancha papa bala vegaya" talks of devolution as the panacea for all the problems. The SLFP has turned away from its power base and sooner than later the JVP will win the support of the traditional SLFP sympathiser. Why should power be devolved to the northern and the eastern provinces? The two provinces are different from Tamil Nadu as we have often argued. More than fifty percent of the Tamils in the country live outside those two provinces and in the eastern province the Sinhalas and the Muslims together are in a majority. The myth about the "traditional homeland" has been debunked and there is no ,merit whatsoever in that argument.
The Tamils who dominated the centre in the nineteenth century due to the weakness of the English speaking Sinhalas wanted to continue their dominance in the centre. Once they realised that with the introduction of universal franchise it was not possible to do so they wanted the northern and the eastern provinces for themselves. The present day terrorists are a creation of the English speaking Tamils and that is why the Pasupathys and Soronarajas are helping the terrorists. The latest humbug is the so called two nations in one country concept. This is nothing but a deceptive to establish a confederation that would pave the way for an Eelam. Could those "think tanks" behind this concept define what a nation is and explain whether the Tamils in India, UK, Canada, Malaysia are also considered as nations. The learned professors who met in Paris could write a tutorial on that. In Sri Lanka Tamils have got everything except a state. The ex attorney generals and professors of law who were educated at state expense now want a state in Sri Lanka that they cannot get anywhere else. Having associated with the English speaking Sinhalas they know that it is not difficult to grab a state from those weak kneed ladies and gentlemen who have no roots in the country.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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