THE SLFP - JVP ALLIANCE
The long awaited alliance between the SLFP and the JVP would have been signed by the time this column appears in print. The usual celebrations would have taken place and the customary statements would have been made to the public. The JVP leader Mr. Somawansa Amerasinghe was expected to come for the signing in ceremony and he the faithful follower of Mr. Rohana Wijeweera, must be a happy man at the turn of events. Leaving aside the ceremonies and celebrations what does the alliance symbolise in Sri Lankan politics?
Some fifteen years ago the term Children of Fifty Six was coined for the theme of the Bandaranaike Memorial Lecture. The children of nineteen fifty six were identified and it was said at time that some of them had become children of T-56. An alliance of children of fifty six, including the children of T-56 was advocated in that lecture given in 1989. Most of the children of fifty six are in the present alliance and are looking forward to rebuild the country. The new alliance may or may not succeed but it is an important step in the struggle against western political cultural and economic colonialism. Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge may never accept that the major portion of the supporters of the alliance come from the Sinhalas especially the Sinhala Buddhists. The percentage of Sinhala Buddhists among the supporters of the alliance would be much greater than the national Sinhala Buddhist percentage indicating where the support for the alliance is.
When one considers the fact it took about an year for the SLFP and the JVP to form an alliance, having gone through not just one but many series of discussions, one has to come to the conclusion that there were and are many agents of western colonialism who are against an alliance between the SLFP and the JVP. In fact some ambassadors for powerful countries had gone to meet leaders of the SLFP to advice against an alliance with the JVP. It is not all who think of the alliance as an instrument to liberate from colonialism. Undoubtedly there are some elements including very high ups in the alliance who welcome the agreement between the two parties simply because there is no alternative to it from the point of view of coming to power. However, a political alliance has its own dynamics, though not independent of the people associated with it, and would change both the parties in the coming years. The SLFP in the recent past has been following the policies of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP), from which a change is necessary. Though the SLMP broke away from the SLFP, the policies that the party adopted were very much against the children of fifty six. Founder members of the SLMP, such as Messrs. T. B. Illangaratne and V. W. Kularatne understood this with the passage of time and they had no alternative but to leave the party.
As the SLFP has to abandon the policies of the SLMP, the Marxist remnants in the policies of the JVP have to be dropped. The SLFP as a party is influenced by a pinkish Marxism and a western Liberalism, whereas the JVP until recently has been a Marxist party, though the puritan Trotskyites in the Sri Lankan left would never concede that the JVP has been following the same original "Gurus" that they themselves have been imitating. At least the Marxist JVP had some originality that the puritans lacked. The centre of gravity of the alliance would certainly change over the years, changing the policies of the constituent parties as well.
The alliance, as far as I can see, should have only one objective. The people who would support the alliance want freedom from western colonialism that has been the instrument of oppression for nearly five hundred years. As we have said on number of occasions there are three components in western colonialism, of which the political and the economical constituents are known to some extent. However, the cultural component is not familiar to many people as culture has to be understood using western theories and concepts which themselves are cultural products. Knowledge is part of culture and through cultural colonialism the whole of western knowledge is thrusted on us. A so called educated person is one who has absorbed knowledge through the schools and universities that distribute concepts, theories and ideas constructed in the west. The so called third world is poor not in wealth, defined according to western social sciences or "sampath" as understood in Asian cultures, but in "modern" theories and concepts. What is meant by "modern" here is not western but what has been created in the last few centuries. The knowledge is assumed to come from the west and our knowledge that was created before the Europeans conquered these countries is referred to as traditional or local knowledge. While the knowledge created in the west based in the western culture and their chintanaya is introduced as THE knowledge which is objective and "scientific" the "traditional" knowledge or "local" knowledge is considered to be unscientific, subjective "mythology". The western colonialism is such that they even prescribe what the rest of the world has to do in order to become free from colonialism! Marxism is one such prescription that the western countries did not adopt to overthrow capitalism in their countries but that was exported to the rest of the world as the panacea for all the problems.
More than forty years ago Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera said that the future of the country belonged to the educated rural youth. The JVP had not been born then as a political party and he did not define an educated youth. It is very likely that he was referring to the youth in the villages who, through the free education scheme introduced by Dr. C. W. W. Kanannangara, were being exposed to the knowledge imparted by the central schools. In the sixties there was not even a rudimentary idea of "Jathika Chinthanaya" and no other education could have been visualised. Those with a social consciousness among these youth who were the children of fifty six were attracted to Marxism and there was a tendency to mix a variety of Marxism with nationalism in a very superficial way. During the last thirty years since the first uprising of the JVP, the party has gone through a cultural journey and has begun to think differently. The present youth is not the educated rural youth that Dr. Amarasekera would have had in mind as they have been exposed to an education other than that is provided by the schools and the universities, for which he himself has contributed. However, the JVP has a long way to go along the new path, but the fact that it has already commenced the journey makes it different from most of the other parties in the "left" with which the SLFP has formed alliances. The other "left" parties, except for the MEP that took a nationalist line very early, stuck to Marxism of some variety or other and have been left out for all practical purposes.
The new alliance will have to start from where the "movement of fifty six" stopped or was forced to stop. As children of fifty six they would be required to improve on the programme of fifty six. Now what exactly was the programme of fifty six? It was nothing but the freedom struggle from western Christian cultural political and economic colonialism. The "pancha maha balawegaya" had realised by 1953 that they had not gained freedom and the Sinhalas especially the Sinhala Buddhists were the downtrodden and the most exploited. The freedom struggle was nothing but a continuation of the struggles against the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. During the British period there had been three major independence struggles led by Keppitipola Disawa, Veera Puran Appu and Gongalegoda Banda and lastly by Anagarika Dharmapala. While the first two were more against British political colonialism the latter took the form of a struggle against British cultural colonialism. Fifty six was a continuation of these struggles and the Sinhala Buddhists wanted their due place in the country. The Dutch had implanted not only a Tamil population in the Jaffna peninsula but Tamil racism against the Sinhalas. The Dutch officer in Jaffna had commissioned a Tamil to write a so called history book (Yalpana Vaipava Malai) with the objective of depriving the Sinhala kings, roughly the present Eastern province. The British baptised Tamil racism and made a Tamil Vellala family the leaders of Sri Lanka. The Sinhala traditional leadership was massacred after the 1817 -18 struggle and the leadership provided by people like Veera Puran Appu was annihilated after 1848, and the British made sure that the Sinhalas after that time had leaders given by them. Anagarika Dharmapala was a leader of the Sinhalas who was not appointed by the British , but the so called Sinhala leaders appointed by the British with the connivance of the latter made sure that the Anagarika Dharmapala left the country.
Nineteen fifty six brought certain changes and recognised the significance of the Sinhala Buddhist culture in this country. The Europeans not only recognise the significance of the Christian cultures in their countries but make sure that those cultures are the hegemonic cultures. Through cultural colonialism they impose their cultures on rest of the world and when we make use of their theories created in the Christian cultures (even Darwinism is based in Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya), we unconsciously become their agents. Marx who analysed capitalism and associated colonialisms never spoke on cultural colonialism. The changes that were made by the fifty six government were turned upside down after 1977, and at present the plight of the Sinhalas has become very pathetic.
The Sinhalas, especially the Sinhala Buddhists are very concerned about what is happening. They would like to reverse the anti Sinhala Buddhist measures that the successive governments from the Portuguese period to present day, except during the period from fifty six to about seventy two, have taken against them. It is not surprising to find that the NGO s funded by the west, the so called intellectuals who could only vomit the western theories and concepts, and the Tamil racists who are merely the agents of western Christian colonialism,shouting and protesting against the measures taken from fifty six to seventy two against western colonialism. As they have a hegemony over the academia and the media they are given prominence. One should expect all these elements to be against the alliance as it is not formed in the interests of western colonialism.
The new alliance is not the solution to all the problems that the country face at present. However, it is only a beginning and is the single most important development after the formation of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna in 1956. The alliance has formulated five broad themes or "pancha maha prathipaththi" as a basis for their agenda. It is not complete and in certain areas it is not specific. The policy on the Tamil racist problem has not been formulated clearly due to the obvious contradictions between the JVP and the SLMP line followed by the SLFP at present. This is an area that will come under close scrutiny by different sections of the community and should be worked out carefully. The Sinhala Buddhists are not exclusive as some so called intellectuals who imitate western theories for the benefit of their colonial masters would claim. It is the non Sinhalas who want to live outside the culture and the history of the country and in that sense they are following an exclusive policy. The Sinhalas do not object to any other community living in this country but the Tamils have been instigated by the British and now by the Americans through the Scandinavian countries not to accept the history, culture and language of the country. However, these very same westerners would insist on people living in their countries knowing their languages, histories and cultures. The Anglo Saxons in America want the others to know the history of the country as told by them, the British want the others in Britain to know English and even the Tamils from Sri Lanka who migrate to these countries including Norway have to live in western Christian cultures. It is significant in this connection to note that the Tamil racist Peter Schalk from the Upsala University who has come to Sri Lanka recently (this man was not issued a visa to visit India but can come to Sri Lanka) has said in a lecture given in Colombo that the LTTE discourages people worshipping in Hindu temples. The Sinhala Buddhists on the other hand have never made any obstructions to Tamil Hindus going to their temples. If the alliance is prepared to accept the history and the culture of the country and if they are determined not to imitate western theories and concepts, it would be a beacon of light for the masses who have been under western colonialism for nearly five hundred years.What the Sinhala Buddhists want is the recognition of the significance of the history, culture and language of the country and adoption of a Jathika Arthikaya (it is not a closed economy as some "intellectuals" claim - however, the details of a jathika arthikaya together with new concepts and theories have to be worked out) in a national cultural and political context for the benefit of the people.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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