GIMMICKS AND POLITICS
The government continues to function even without the JVP, as Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe has no intention of becoming the Prime Minister when he thinks that he could become the President in a few months. Why become the Prime minister at this stage, become unpopular in six months and lose the Presidential election seems to be the thinking of the leader of the opposition. However it is very likely that the UNP would insist that the Presidential elections should be held towards the end of the year ignoring the so called second oath the President has taken. However, this a legal cum political problem and would be decided by the Commissioner of Elections. As the faction that loses by the decision of the Commissioner is likely to go to courts, the question would be finally decided by the Supreme Court.
While the UNP is getting ready for the Presidential Elections, the SLFP seems to be in a state of disarray. The President has already announced that the next Presidential candidate of the SLFP would be Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse. It may be that she has decided to lead the Parliamentary election campaign and become the Prime Minister or even the leader of Opposition. She tries to give the impression that she is prepared to "serve the people" even as the leader of the opposition, but it is very unlikely, and unless she could become the de facto leader of the government she would go back to live in London or reside in some other country.
The JVP may have been hasty in deciding to leave the "Sandhanaya" as they could have continued to agitate against the establishment of the JM alias PTOMS alias TRB (Tsunami Relief Board) while remaining within the government. Very likely they were responding to the campaign by the JHU, and as both the JVP and the JHU are addressing the Sinhala electorate, in spite of the formal appeal to the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities by the former, the JVP had to outdo the JHU. The JHU having first asked why the JVP was not leaving the government is now attacking them for leaving without fulfilling all the promises given to the public. It is clear that the JHU duo who have been together since their JVP days consider the latter as their main enemy and would go to any extent to attack the rival party. The JVP should not respond to the gimmicks of the JHU, which according to many who know the inside of the party is now split again. Rev. Ellawala Medhananda Thero has been not in the limelight for sometime and the Bhikkus in the JHU apart from Rev. Ratana and his followers are following a different political line from that of the duo who have gradually taken control of the party.
Leaving the JHU to engage in its gimmicks the JVP should concentrate on politics. Though gimmicks could be a substitute for politics in a short interval of time, it is politics that matter in the long run. The JVP now has to find a way of re-establishing the "Sandhanaya" even in a different form to prevent the establishment of the JM. Though the President attempts to play it down the JM, in whatever name it is established would be the stepping stone to Eelam. The letter of the President to the secretary of the JVP is of contradictions and by assigning a government official to sign the document pertaining to the JM the government cannot pretend that it is an unimportant document. The fact is that the LTTE would not sign unimportant documents or documents of insignificance with the government.
The LTTE has not given up the demand for an Eelam and as far as they are concerned Sri Lanka is a separate country and a state. If they are prepared to recognise Sri Lanka by name it shows that they have gain confidence during the last three years or so during which the MoU was in operation to call Sri Lanka as such. The MoU equated the LTTE with the government of Sri Lanka and now the former has confidence to enter into agreements with the latter. The LTTE also knows that even government officials sign agreements with other governments on behalf of the GOSL and it is not necessary for the President to sign documents with the LTTE anymore. We all know that whatever the President may say the JM if established would not be confined to region that comes within two kilometers nor to an year, and would transform into the ISGA and then to the Eelam.
It is reported that the LTTE is demanding that the world bank and not the treasury should be the custodians of the JM funds. This fact alone shows that the LTTE is considering the GOSL as an equal partner. They are not prepared to accept the treasury as the agency through which funds are distributed for the simple reason that the treasury is an establishment of the GOSL. The LTTE wants a "neutral body" that does not come under the control of the GOSL to handle the funds. The President has said on many occasions that the LTTE is not imposing any conditions on the GOSL as far as the establishment of the GOSL is concerned. We do not know what her definition of a condition is, but as far as the people of this country are concerned this is a condition. The fact that the LTTE is demanding that so many members nominated by them should be in the JM is also a condition though the President may not realise it. The GOSL could be persuaded by the western Christian powers who are hell bent on wiping out the non Christian cultures from the world to accept this condition in the name of peace. As far as the Sinhala people are concerned peace as imposed by the western powers is no peace at all.
The President addressing a conference held at the BMICH of the Maha Sangha, obviously organised by the government had said that the alternative to JM is war. The President like the NGO pundits and others working for dollars and pounds is trying to scare the people with the "war stories". The President has also told the Maha Sangha that there are no officers in the armed forces who are prepared to fight a war. While there may be some officers who are after commissions, as these "commissioners" could be found anywhere from the cabinet to the "mudalali" of the village boutique it is not a surprise to find them in the armed forces, there have been officers, given a half chance would have finished the LTTE by now.
It is mainly the GOSL under pressure from the west, as well as from India during the Vadamaarachchi days, that has prevented the patriotic officers from "finishing" the job. The LTTE is not an organisation that cannot be defeated, and it is only the propaganda by the west and their henchmen and henchwomen that has made the LTTE an "invincible" outfit. Why does not the President come out with the pressure exerted by the western powers on the government to make concessions to the LTTE. According to the news bulletin of the Rupavahini the Minister of Finance who was with the UNP for many years before he joined the SLFP, has implied that the western powers would not give the money that they had pledged if the JM is not established. All these are conditions imposed by the west and the LTTE on the government, though the President has said that there are no such conditions.
The President who has told the Maha Sangha on the "commissioners" in the armed forces has not taken any steps to expose them and/or to remove them. However, she has had no hesitation whatsoever in removing Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera as the Navy Chief in Trincomalee. Is it because the Rear Admiral was involved in commissions that the President removed him? We do not know the exact reasons for his removal but the President who is working overtime to establish the JM should explain why Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera had to be removed, especially as the incidents connected with the Buddha Statue are still fresh in the minds of the people.
Did the LTTE, the notorious Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), it is neither the first nor the last mission to come to this country from the west,that does not have the powers of a class monitor in primary school when it comes to the LTTE, the western powers or their agents the various NGOs apply pressure on the President to remove the Rear admiral? Of course, the President could say that she is not bound to tell the public the background to the removal of this officer, but the people would be forced to remove Ms. Kumaratunga from the post she holds at the next Presidential Elections for working against the interests of the Sinhala people. The Sinhala people are bound to consider the removal of the Rear Admiral as an act against their interests.The politicians should realise that the Sinhalas are now closer to eighty percent of the population and sixty percent of the Sinhalas voting in unison could easily change the complexion of politics in the country.
It is with this fact also in mind that the JVP should work out its strategy. It is yet to recognise the significance of the Sinhala people and the Sinhala Buddhist culture of the country. The invalid Marxist "theology" (it is a theology without a God though it may sound contradictory- Marxism is in the final analysis based on the Judaic Catholic Chinthanaya) still haunting the minds of the leaders of the JVP, and however much the party tries they would not be able to replace the SLFP as the party of the Sinhalathva. The SLFP on the other hand is burdened with so called leaders who are mainly from other parties such as the SLMP, UNP and the Marxist parties, and whose aspirations are different from those of the Sinhala electorate that votes for the party. Either the SLFP has to change its leaders or the JVP has to drop the remnants of invalid Marxist theories. The National Movement or the "Jathika Vyaparya" unlike twenty years ago now has its own theories and concepts, and with the western bankrupt social sciences that includes Liberalism, Marxism, "Postmarxism", "Postmodernism", not being able to compete with the theories of the former, in the near future the Sinhala people would be in a position to set an example to the others in the world fighting western Christian colonialism in culture, politics and economics. A JVP that has dropped its Marxist remnants and an SLFP that has dropped its "parachute" leaders could defeat Tamil racism which is only a stooge of western colonialism.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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