THE MIND OF MANO AND THE PATTERN OF PATTEN
The presidents, prime ministers and others need advisors as the former are not supposed to know everything that comes under their purview. They are also entitled to select their advisors personally, not depending on the party machinery. It is argued that it enables the leaders to select advisors based on their capabilities and not on party loyalties. It sounds good as an ideal but is it the ideal position? What happens if the advisors selected are not in tune with the party? If the advisors are on a different wavelength then the advise that they give cannot be in agreement with the party line. In the case of political parties such as the UNP, and of course those in the west such as the Republican, Democratic, Conservative and Labour, the chances of this kind of disagreement is very small as the advisors, the leaders and the party members belong to the same civilisation and share the same Chintanaya. However, very often, the advisors and leaders of political parties such as the SLFP belong to a culture different from that of the rank and file and the wish of the party members is not reflected in the advise received by the leaders. This is not a phenomenon peculiar to the SLFP but is associated with most of the so called nationalist parties in Asia and Africa.
Asia and Africa received the concept of a political party from the west and due to the western cultural hegemony, the people in these countries have been forced to imitate the concept of the advisors as well. The nationalist parties in Asia and Africa, at present, have no alternative but to follow the western political parties and the non national political parties that are active in their respective countries. Very often the leaders of the nationalist parties come from the non nationalist families and would have been saddled with a western education given at foreign schools or local schools established by the colonial masters with pioneer principals coming from the "mother countries", and at similar universities. These leaders embrace nationalist policies sometimes genuinely, sometimes as a means of coming to power or are occasionally planted by the colonial masters in order to implement an agenda prepared by the western countries. Whatever the reason may be the leaders of the nationalist parties in Asia and Africa are often divorced from the nationalist inspirations of the people in the respective countries. The members of the nationalist parties through the half baked western education that they receive at the schools and sometimes at the universities, have to look up to leaders who have received a "better" western education, in traditions and attitudes more than in the contents, as it has been instilled in their minds that "better" schools give a "better" education, assuming that education is an objective enterprise. The western education teaches to consider itself as objective and the people have been brainwashed to "think" that the advisors selected from those who have received a "good" education are able to represent the views and ideas of the former.
Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga who has been "appointed" by the western non national forces to lead the nationalist SLFP is vacillating between the nationalist forces and the non national agents. The advisors she has selected are not from the villages where the party has its mass base and the rank and file is not in a position to question the wisdom of these know alls. The advisors of the president, in general, would not have been members of the SLFP and they either do not know how the rank and file think or are against the views of the ordinary members. A glaring example in this regard could be seen with respect to the alliance that the SLFP wanted to form with the JVP. It is said that the person who is vehemently opposed to the SLFP - JVP alliance is one Mr. Mano Tittawela. Now the SLFP rank and file would not have heard of a person called Mano Tittawela though he may be well known among the business people in the country. He has no mass base and if he were to contest an election he would have to depend on the existing part machinery. However, as an advisor to the president he is more powerful than even some of the former ministers in the PA government. Does Mr. Mano Tittawela represent the views of the ordinary members of the SLFP? Obviously he does not and what right he has got to advise the president and in turn why should the president appoint such a person as an advisor and listen to his opinion.
It is clear that all the non national forces are against an alliance between the SLFP and the JVP, in spite of shortcomings in both parties. However that is exactly what the nationalists want and among the advisors of the president there does not appear to be anyone who represents the views of the rank and file. The advisors who come from a non nationalist background want the SLFP to form a so called working relationship in the form of an MoU, if not an alliance, with the UNP. When what the country needs is a broad alliance of the nationalist forces including parties such as Sihala Urumaya and the Bhoomiputhra Party the advisors to the president want the SLFP to turn away from such an alliance. It is clear that Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga herself is not very much in favour of an alliance between the SLFP and the JVP, though she has been pressurised by the nationalist forces to enter into such an alliance.
The USA has issued a statement regretting the temporary withdrawal of Norway from the process of Eelamisation, widely given publicity as the peace process. However, one should realise that Norway would not have taken the decision to withdraw without consulting USA and UK and the other western powers that matter. If one were to understand Tamil racism in Sri Lanka as a phenomenon that originated without external forces then one is mistaken. There would not have been a Tamil racism in this country if not for the western forces, first the Dutch, then the British, and now the Americans, British and the rest of Anglo Saxon countries in the world, and the Scandinavians. Anybody who ignores this vital factor would not come to the correct conclusions with respect to the course of action that the nationalist forces should follow. All the western forces want to satisfy the aspirations of the Tamil racists and deprive the Sinhalathva its rightful place in the country. The westerners may be talking of peace and peace processes, mediations and facilitations but behind these "rasa bola" (sweet) words one could easily see the bitter truth of western intervention in the affairs of the country.
Consider the case of Mr. Patten who has made obvious the pattern followed by the west. What is he doing in the country? One has to congratulate "The Island" for the bold signed editorial on Patten that appeared on Saturday the twenty second. Mr. Patten who is the commissioner of external relations of the european commission is scheduled to visit Kilinochchi on Wednesday to meet the fascist murderer Prabhakaran to wish the killer many happy returns on his birthday. It was a Mountbatton who divided India and now we have a Patten among us telling the president and the prime minister what to do. There are many agents of western colonialism in the foreign ministry as well as the defense ministry and Pattens are looked after well by these traitors who would be rewarded with "prestigious" international jobs when they retire from their work in association with the worst betrayal in the history of the country. The president should take steps to see that Patten goes back to england or to some other place in europe. The west wants the UNP and the SLFP to come together not to defeat Tamil racism and Tamil separatist terrorism in the form of the LTTE. They want the president and the prime minister to join hands to sell the country to Prabhakaran the murderer. It is possible that they may replace Prabhakaran with somebody else. The westerners are quite capable of ditching somebody whom they had supported with another person when the former is a liability. However that does not make the westerners angels. These hypocrites who make a hue and cry over the so called September eleventh are silent about Arantalawas, attacks on Dalada Maligawa and those in the vicinity of Sri Maha Bodhi. What would have happened if al Quaeda were to attack the Westminster Abbey? Unless we identify the western hypocrites as such we would proceed only towards our collective grave. Norway as we argued last week withdrew only to apply pressure on the president who in any event is a plant of the non national forces, in the SLFP. We should understand that an Eelam (or the stepping stone to an Eelam in the form of an interim governmental authority) could be "legally" given only if the "government" could muster two thirds majority in the parliament, and the west would prefer a "legal" method to some other alternative. This is possible only if the SLFP and the UNP form some kind of an "alliance" and Malik Samrawickrema - Mano Tittawela talks are mainly to look into the feasibility of forming such an alliance. It is the duty of the rank and file of the SLFP to question as to the credentials of Mano Tittawela and advise the president on her so called advisors.
It is not only Samrawickrema and Tittawela who work for an alliance between the two main parties. All the non national forces are with them and it has given the people an opportunity to discover for themselves who the betrayers are. These betrayers would ask the innocent question as to what is wrong in the UNP and the SLFP coming together to form a "national" or some other government. They would bring even the "development" of the country as an excuse to bring the two parties together. What is the development that these gentlemen, some of whom appear to be the correspondents of journals published in English abroad, advocate? These traitors will try to present a picture of economic happiness as a consequence of an alliance between the UNP and the SLFP.
The president cannot proceed in many directions. She is restricted by the NGO s as well as by the pressure from the nationalists and the non nationalists. The non national forces want the UNP to hand over the "government" to the prime minister in the form of a so-called national government. They argue that an alliance between the SLFP and the JVP is not in the interests of the former. They point out that in such an eventuality the JVP would eat into the vote base of the SLFP. However, on the contrary as a result of any "understanding" between the SLFP and the UNP, the SLFP would lose its mass base to the JVP. The so called advisors to the president do not know much about the SLFP voter and even if they knew anything about the so called mind set of those who vote for the SLFP, they are in the process of misleading the president in order to carry out the "peace process" in collaboration with the UNP that is backed by the western powers. The president who was with the nationalist forces when she took over the three ministries has now gone to the non national camp under pressure from the so called international community. She has taken a step backwards to please the western Anglican and Lutheran countries that collaborate to undermine the Sinhalathva the country. The problem in the country is due to the non recognition of the significance of the Sinhala Buddhist culture by the non national forces and the SLFP should force the president to select her advisors from those who are in tune with the thinking of the rank and file of the party. If the president continues to listen to the present set of advisors divorced from the chintanaya that has given rise to the Sinhala culture, then it would signal the end of the SLFP, and she would go into the history as the daughter who ruined the party of the parents.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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