SAVE MAHINDA AND THE SLFP FROM CHANDRIKA
It is clear that Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga does not want to see that Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse becomes the next President of the country. It appears that she is at present thinking along the line that if she cannot become the President for a third term, then let the SLFP lose unless Mr. Anura Bandaranaike is nominated as the Presidential candidate of the SLFP. The SLFP it appears has to have a Banadaranaike as the leader, according to the views of the Bandaranaikes.
It is true that Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike founded the SLFP, and then not longer after the assassination of the founder, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike gave the leadership to the party, until she was replaced by her daughter. Neither Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga nor Mr. Anura Bandaranaike had been a member of the SLFP continuously, as at various stages they had left the party either to join other parties or to form new parties. In 1992 Ms. Kumaratunga who was in self exile was brought back by the westerners and the Christian west funded NGOs, and to a lesser extent by some members of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party and Bahujana Nidahas Pakshaya. It is said by the NGO intellectuals and others that it was Ms. Kumaratunga with her charisma who led SLFP into election victories in the recent past.
However, is there any substantial truth in this statement? Ms. Kumaratunga who had no first hand experience of the country for more than twelve years could not have brought the SLFP into power overnight. In the early nineties there already had commenced protest movements against the government of Mr. Premadasa, and we are reminded of the "Paada Yaathra"s and other protests organised by Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse. Ms. Kumaratunga was a stranger to this movement having "parachuted" with the aid of the western forces. She did not know what was happening, as she had been a member of the Bahujana Nidahas Pakshaya just prior to "parachuting".
The "vijathika balawegaya" or the non national forces that "imported" Ms. Kumaratunga to Sri Lanka had other objectives. They probably knew that after seventeen long years the UNP was facing defeat and wanted to make use of the SLFP to deliver the goods to the LTTE. It could be said that a certain editor of a weekend Sinhala rag sheet , who had no love for the Sinhala Buddhists was in the Rosemead Place with the idea of changing the SLFP policies. The SLFP that had been a liberal party was metamorphosed to a nationalistic party in fifty four - fifty five period, and the "vijathika balawegaya" was working overtime in the early nineties and even prior to that to transform the SLFP to an anti Sinhala Buddhist Party. They propagated the myth that only a leader like Ms. Kumaratunga could make sure that the SLFP won at the elections and first made her the leader of the PA. Gradually she was made the leader of the SLFP, and soon she was in the process of changing the policies of the SLFP. She who does not know the history of the country nor that of the Party that her parents led, together with some third rate "intellectuals" with Marxist backgrounds of various shades, whose knowledge of dialectics was confined to the nonsense that Engels had stated in his "Dialectics of Nature" (anyone interested could read Marxvaadaye Daridrathavaya - Poverty of Marxism- and Apohakaye Rupikaya - Formalism of Dialectics - to understand the inconsistencies of Marxism) , and who had never had any independent ideas of their own, changed the policies of the SLFP. The constitutions of the Sri Lankan political parties vest so much power with the leaders (or the party secretaries following the model of Stalin), the rank and file have no say in deciding the policies of the party. The policy of the political party is that of the leader, and using that privilege, Ms. Kumaratunga assisted by the westerners and their agents, was able to make the SLFP a Sri Lanka Mahajana Party.(SLMM). The party was told that in order to win it was necessary to attract the "minority" vote and the SLFP soon stood for what the UNP stood for in respect of its policy towards Tamil racism. The Lium Fox agreement cemented this policy situation, and it became compulsory for the SLFP under Ms. Kumaratunga to carry on with all the work of the UNP with respect to Tamil racism and vice versa.
There is nothing that Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga could do for the SLFP to come to power. The Marxist parties in the alliance, as Mr. Anura Bandaranaike once said, could have their conventions in three wheelers. Not only that, they do not have a following in the country. The membership of a party and its following are not the same. The SLFP may have not more than one hundred thousand members but the party polls much more than that at elections. The trouble with the Marxist parties is that they cannot attract much more than the votes of their members, and some times the family members of the party members. However the Marxist parties, being now only the agents of western Christian modernity , with the assistance of the western bourgeoisie are in a position to "advice" Ms. Kumaratunga. If one goes through the 'advisors" of Ms. Kumaratunga, one would find bourgeois elements, the Marxists, the Liberals and Ram Manikkalingams, anyone but a Sinhala Buddhist activist.
Ms. Kumaratunga came to power through the PA and the SLFP not because of her charisma but due to the spade work that had been done by people such as Mr. Rajapakse. However, she with the assistance of the western powers, went round the country, trying to convince the people that it was the new policies of the SLFP that made it to win. It has to be emphasised, contrary to what some junior ministers and some party "leaders" have to say, that the policies of the SLFP wee changed AFTER the SLFP came to power and not before that. The so called minority vote was given to Ms. Kumaratunga when she contested the Presidential elections, and not to the SLFP at the Parliamentary elections. In spite of anti Sinhala Buddhist activities of Ms. Kumaratunga the SLFP led Sandhanaya won at the last general elections mainly because of the majority of the Sinhala Buddhists voting for the "alliance".
Ms. Kumaratunga is against any SLFP - JVP alliance, though she wanted the SLFP to enter into the "Sandhanaya" last time and also during the "parivasa government" days. She does not like the stand that the JVP took over the PTOMS, a miniature of a confederation, which gave additional evidence for the LTTE to establish a separate state in the future. Though the "Sandhanaya" campaigned at the last general elections on an anti Norwegian slogan, Ms. Kumaratunga did nothing to send the Norwegians home. It is also known that she did not see eye to eye with late Mr. Kadirgamar on the policy towards the Norwegians, and also on PTOMS. Now Ms. Kumaratunga, probably on the advise of Ram Manikkalingams and Dhanapalas who were not the best of friends of Mr. Kadirgamar, want to replace Norway with the UN. This is the ultimate "internationalisation" of the Tamil racist problem, that will do no good for the country. It will only satisfy those who think of becoming the General Secretary of the UN, and getting lucrative positions connected with the UN. Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga will go into the history not only as the person who did the most damage to the SLFP, but the politician who did the most damage to the sovereignty of the country. It is such a person who is trying to oppose the campaign of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse.
She does not want the support of the JVP. She does not like the Sinhala Buddhists who are the backbone of the SLFP. We had no difficulty as far back as 1992 in recognising Ms. Kumaratunga for what she was, and worked out our strategies accordingly. We are of the opinion that contrary to the wish of some others a so called candidate of the Sinhala Buddhists would not be able to attract sufficient number of votes not to win but to end up as a strong third party candidate. What has to be done is to save the SLFP from Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga.
The SLFP policies were changed by her overnight after the SLFP came into power. These policies are not approved by the vast majority of the voters who vote for the party. They vote for the SLFP, simply because in their eyes it is the party of the Sinhalathva. The SLFP has to change its policies, according to the wish of the millions who vote for the party, and not the few "intellectuals" who could be seen at Temple Trees. There are some Professors of Economics who have become specialists in Education overnight, thus giving some idea of their expertise in Economics as well, who are against nationalistic policies. These are servants of western Christian modernity, which is symbolised by the statue David of Michelangelo and the theory attributed by the western historians of Science to Copernicus, being symbols of individuality over society, and abstract theorisation, who know only to worship at the altar of Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya without knowing what that Chinthanaya is. This country needs an economy based on Sinhala Buddhist Chinthanaya, it has to be emphasised that there is no objective economics as such though some "intellectuals" who live mentally in the early twentieth century with respect to western Philosophy of Science tend to believe so, but unfortunately we do not have many economists who could work out the theories of such economy. Therefore it is up to the others to create this economy that would be a national economy. Since the day Colebrooke Cameron changed the economic structure of the country we are in need of an economy that would satisfy our needs and not those of the westerners.
Incidentally there are some "intellectuals" who think that we became a "unitary" state only after the so called reforms introduced by the duo Colebrooke and Cameron. These "intellectuals" who cannot see beyond their western Christian cultural noses, and who refer to a feudalistic Anuradhapura, should be reminded that "eksesath raajya" had been in existence since the days of king Devanampiyatissa at least, and definitely after king Dutugemunu. There is no basis for a federal state in this country, even according to the Indian model, as the country cannot be divided on ethnic or religious or linguistic or any other basis. As we have very often said, Sri Lanka is different from India, as no so called minority group is concentrated in a particular province as is the case in the states of India. More than fifty percent of the Tamils in Sri Lanka live outside the Northern and the Eastern provinces combined, and in the eastern province the Tamil population is about thirty percent. In the Northern province the domination of the Tamils is mainly due to the ethnic cleansing carried out by the LTTE. In India more than ninety percent of the Tamils live in Tamil Nadu, and more than ninety percent of the population in Tamil Nadu is Tamil. The SLFP of Ms. Kumaratunga who does not the history or the geography of the country may have dropped the term unitary, but Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse should not be dictated by an outgoing President who has lost all support except that of few junior minsters who are very much junior in their thinking, to pick the term unitary. The SLFP before Ms. Kumaratunga was in favour of a unitary or eksesath" Sri Lanka and the natural and the logical way for the SLFP is to go back to the policies of Mrs. Bandaranaike who was ousted unceremoniously by the "vijathika balawegaya" in the SLFP led by Ms. Kumaratunga. The SLFP has to evolve as the party of the Sinhala common man who has a love for the country and not as the party of the "intellectuals", Dhanapalas and Manikkalingams. If Mr. Rajapakse wants to win the Presidential Elections he has only one way. He has to convince the electorate that he is different not only from Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe but from Ms. Kumaratunga as well. He can do that by not being dictated by the juniors of Ms. Kumaratunga and by saving the SLFP from her. If Ms. Kumaratunga has given the green light to Mr. Rajapakse after the crucial meeting of the SLFP central committee on Sunday then it has to be considered as a temporary victory for the latter.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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