By Dayapala Thiranagama –
Dayapala Thiranagama
The impulsion towards nationalist sentiment in politics, has in our view, exceedingly profound roots in the life style of the modern man, which makes for homogeneity of a single high culture within any political unit, and which condemns those not masters of the said culture, or unacceptable within it to a humiliating, painful second class status (Ernest Gellner, Nationalism, pp.102-03, 1998).
Introduction
A revolutionary mood gripped Sri Lankan youth in the mid-1960s, particularly our universities. There were half a dozen or so revolutionary groups that had sprung up but the movement later known as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), led by elusive and charismatic Rohana Wijeweera was unmistakably in the ascendant. It was the most successful, serious and determined organization amongst Sinhalese youth.
Their bases at universities were very active and they publicly argued in support of the oncoming revolution. It was more of a moral persuasion than political, either you were going be a part of the revolution or against it. If you are against it you are noted and you will be on their death list. For me they had publically announced the death sentence because I had publically challenged them. Your friends all of sudden becoming enemies and the enemies of the revolution would be severely punished. The revolutionary wave was so powerful the JVP had just outnumbered other revolutionary groups in the university for the first time. The JVP leader in Kelaniya University declared at their student council election victory in 1970 that they were the future. He spoke passionately and persuasively, but he was doomed. One year later, he died attempting to free Rohana Wijeweera from Jaffna Prison. The movement he allied his name to the party no more successful than he was. Forty-five years later, they are banished from the terrain they wanted to occupy, a purely Sinhalese, Buddhist polity. It was a vision of a working class revolution that excluded minorities and even portrayed the hill country Tamil working class as fifth columnists and reactionaries loyal to India.
Photo- Rohana Wijeweera and Lionel Bopage taken from Welikada Prison for sentencing- Courtesy – CMU
On the 5th April 1971 midnight the revolution began in earnest and it was confined to the areas where the Sinhalese lived. The simultaneous attacks on police stations went in line with the plan that had been drawn up years before as part of the revolutionary strategy.
Between 187-89 the JVP’s armed wing murdered left wing leaders and also trade unionists and activists. Built on a foundation of Sinhalese chauvinism it remains hostile to dissenting political opinions and even the existence of human beings within Sri Lanka of other cultures and religions.
This exclusionary nationalism is deeply embedded in the JVP’s DNA, marking their political practice even today. It leaves them with the dubious and contradictory position of upholding majoritarian ethnic nationalism while at the same time adhering to a ‘proletarian internationalism’. Their answer to the great question of post-Independence Sri Lankan politics, the rights of ethnic minorities is simply to wait for the socialist revolution. Their political vision is untouched by the need to widen their electoral coalition, persuade voters or make any compromises with the real problems and challenges facing Sri Lankan people. Dissecting the JVP’s ideological and political articulation explains why.
Roots of Ethno Nationalism
Since its inception the JVP has been trapped in this conundrum of irreconcilable and contradictory political positions. The prime responsibility of this theoretical muddle rests with its creator, inventor and undisputed leader Rohana Wijeweera, whose hold on the party is such that it is difficult to challenge his authority 27 years after his assassination by Sri Lankan security forces.
The long shadow Wijeweera casts over his party illustrates Gramsci’s view that even sometimes it is essential in understanding the formation of a political party, its conception of the world and life, its present and future through even sometimes the political biography of a single personality.
Rohana Wijeweera’s real name was Nanadasiri but he adopted ‘Rohana’ when he began his political appearance in public. The name ‘Rohana’ epitomizes the victory of the Sinhalese over Tamils in the Sinhala Buddhist ideological and political formation. King Dutugemunu of the Rohana kingdom defeated the Tamil king Elara after capturing Anuradhapura according to the Sinhala chronicle Mahawamsa. This choice of name and his instruction to his Christian wife just before he was captured in 1989 not to change his children’s religion (as recently revealed by Chtirangani Wijeweera) are very revealing about the influence Wijeweera’s faith and beliefs played in shaping his party. It is even more revealing when a ‘Marxist’ party bases its political programme on the basis of exclusion and racism, enshrining the discriminatory demands of the majority ethnic community at the heart of its agenda.
This process was accomplished through the formulation of its famous five classes of which the most controversial ‘Indian Expansionism’ castigated the Upcountry Tamils of Indian Origin as a reactionary entity and therefore were deemed as not worthy of taking part in the revolution. In line with the Indian Expansionist notion the Upcountry Tamils were seen as loyal to India and not to Sri Lanka. After the revolution it was to be decreed that they must return to India. The Up Country Tamils the most deprived socially, economically and educationally in this country were excluded from the revolution. This preposterous decision not only doubted their loyalty but also threatened their very existence as a community. This discriminatory and reactionary notion was further strengthened when they rejected doing any political work among the Tamil community who live in the North and East of the country.
That is why the April insurrection erupted only in the South of the country and not the upcountry areas, the North and East. The revolutionary epicenter had been firmly located in the South and the tremors, which emanated from it did not reach those areas. There was, however, an isolated and unsuccessful attack on Jaffna prison in order to rescue Wijeweera who had been imprisoned there at the time.
Wijeweera’s conclusion that the Upcountry Tamils of Indian origin were a reactionary entity loyal to India was not an isolated argument. He developed a similar political stance to the wider Tamil community. The Tamil community has been continually oppressed and their democratic aspiration trampled violently whenever they claimed for equality within a united Sri Lanka. By the time the JVP was founded the Sri Lankan traditional Left had abandoned their struggle for the democratic aspirations of the Tamils in the North and East. However, the JVP was highly critical of the old left for their failures in abandoning the revolutionary struggle of the working class but never criticized the traditional Left for abandoning the struggle for the democratic aspirations of the Tamils. The JVP’s political stance in relation to both the Upcountry Tamils of Indian Origin and the Tamil community in the North and East has developed ethno nationalist framework that has systematically ensured the interests of the majority community against a plural democracy in Sri Lanka.
The war against devolution
The JVP rebellion between 1987-89 showed how far it had divorced itself from fighting for the oppressed – they announced the formation of the Patriotic People’s Movement (PPM), which was essentially the JVP’s armed wing. This ‘Patriotic’ movement hunted down and killed those who supported the 13th amendment, devolving power to the Tamil community in the North and East. It murdered Left regional party leaders & trade unionists and activists without mercy. They declared war on the Government because it had introduced a devolution package to resolve Tamil grievances.
The government at the time annihilated the entire JVP leadership and murdered their armed cadres – but they were able to regroup themselves in the early nineties to reclaim their ethno-nationalist politics. The re-formed JVP became the militant representative of the Sinhala Buddhist political revival that came to the fore after the 1956 political upheaval. They supported the war in the North and East and opposed the possibility of having a negotiated settlement, even today after the total annihilation of the LTTE. At the very beginning of the Tamil liberation struggle progressive militant organizations were looking for friends in the South to form an alliance but the JVP’s political positions in relation to Tamil liberation did not permit such an alliance. Such an alliance could have transformed political culture in Sri Lanka.
Instead, it was civil organizations and NGOs who advocated for an end to war and the importance of human rights. The JVP was not part of such a discourse and their efforts were focused on advising successive capitalist Governments on how to win the war. Even though the JVP was subject to some of the most repressive measures by the state, including judicial killings between 1987-89, they did not speak up when the security forces carried out the same kind of repressive policies on young Tamil people. This is not simply because they lacked the intellectual resources to assume such a role, but also because it would have been against their own interests.
The JVP still opposes any devolution of power to the Tamil community and do not believe there is a solution to minority grievances until the formation of a true socialist government. Without a deeply embedded democratic culture such assertions are hollow and frequently lead to yet more repression – as witnessed the world over.
The current government is taking steps to build reconciliation with the Tamil community in the North and East. These efforts are fraught with difficulties and will require major policy decisions to meet the democratic aspirations of the Tamils. The government is taking steps to introduce a new Constitution. The JVP appears very lukewarm and refuses to understand these initiatives. In a recent debate Mr. M.A.Sumandiran a moderate Tamil United Front (TNA) MP argued this situation in following words. ‘I heard the Chief Opposition Whip, my friend, Hon. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who stated that the problems faced by the Tamil People is not that of the Constitution, but day to day affairs, economic difficulties, lack of job opportunities and the like. Our people face all of that and more, particularly after the cruel war that they had to face for such a long time. Recovery from that has been very, very difficult. For lack of political will, for various other reasons, our people face an enormous amount of day-to-day problems. But that is not the fundamental issue faced by our people, and I am sad that a party like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna which expounds such progressive thoughts and ideas on other fronts, is not able to see this” (Thoughts on Resolution to Form Constitutional Assembly,Colombo Telegraph 15.01.16). The JVP has never been able to recognize the Tamil community has specific issues arising out of language, religion and culture within a majoritarian Sinhala Buddhist state formation and the critical nature of the political violence Tamil people had to endure since Independence. These specific issues demand specific solutions.
The JVP and their breakaway group the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) have great suspicions of anything that originate from in India in line with the legacy of Rohana Wijeweera and their continuing adherence to a nationalist politics. This has been shown very clearly in relation to the recently announced Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India. The JVP and FSP with other racist Sinhala outfits including Mahinda Rajapaksa’s joint opposition have opposed this even before seeing the full details or what the Agreement contains. Their opposition is not based on an opposition to neo liberalist trade liberalization but the fact of having any kind of agreement with India.
Conclusions
While the left should stand for the needs of ordinary people and social and economic justice for all, the JVP scapegoated vulnerable communities. While arguing for a socialist revolution, the JVP divided up the working classes of Sri Lanka by ethnicity and religion. While claiming to speak for Sinhalese working class people, they covered their hands in the blood of Sinhalese left wing leaders, activists and trade unionists.
The JVP cannot claim to be a party of proletarian internationalism as long as they are unable to distance themselves from Sinhala ethno nationalism. They have never questioned and confronted their recent history. Those who have done that remain as individuals outside their party structure. Even after their most recent split in 2011, the electorally insignificant Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) still hang on to Wijeweera’s Sinhala racist notions. The worst is that the JVP carders had fought in the ethnic war alongside with the Sri Lankan security forces as reliable information indicates.
In Sri Lanka, politics has frequently been a matter of life and death and the gap between grand rhetoric and real action can be vast. Now, as our country looks to politics to build a new country, free from the cycle of violence that has engulfed us for too long, the JVP are still sitting on the sidelines. Now is the time for the left to provide intellectual, political and moral leadership. But all the JVP can say is to ask us to wait for the socialist revolution. Those of us who witnessed their attempts to capture power can only be grateful they have thus far failed to bring about their revolution – as it is clear that their answer to the national question is killing fields and gulags. More than anyone else the minority communities in this country have understood their bitter lesson that the so called liberators are oppressors – irrespective of where they come from, the North or South.
ruvanw / April 4, 2016
While this is true, the new JVP leader has tried hard to change it. He has made some bold statements during the election campaign in support of minorities that other mainline party leaders were afraid to do – even the then united opposition backing the current President.
I think it is harder than we think to make a radical change within the JVP especially owing to the fact that any shift in that stance would be playing into the hands of the FSP who will capitalise on it to capture the university students allegiance away from the JVP.
And this in a situation where the JVP has lost serious ground within the universities to the FSP will be untenable for any leader of the JVP.
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Nathan Kataragama / April 4, 2016
//While the left should stand for the needs of ordinary people and social and economic justice for all, the JVP scapegoated vulnerable communities. While arguing for a socialist revolution, the JVP divided up the working classes of Sri Lanka by ethnicity and religion. While claiming to speak for Sinhalese working class people, they covered their hands in the blood of Sinhalese left wing leaders, activists and trade unionists.//
Nice lines. With a few substitutions, you can explain the Tigers, too!
While the struggle should have been about opposing the systematic alienation and discrimination leveled at the Tamil people, the LTTE used vulnerable communities in the Vanni and the East, using their children as cannon fodder. While arguing for the advancement of the Tamil speaking people, the LTTE divided them by ethnicity/religion, culminating in the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim community in Jaffna. While claiming to fight for the Tamils, they covered their hands in the blood of progressives, intellectuals and other groups of Tamil rebels whose stated objectives were the same.
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YakkalaSimon / April 4, 2016
Tigers and JVP shared the same elements of ethnic identity. Sadly, for the new United Front Regime which was barely 10 months old, the JVP uprising based on class envy and hate and also some indoctrination and idealism caused many problems. Their foolish haste to enact Land Reform policies the silly way they were enacted is an example. Pieter Keunaman’s Housing policies another example of socialism gone wild. They may have been necessary but the way they were implemented destroyed a strong upper middle class. Sinhalese had their wealth through land as they were not investors or bankers specially in a stifling socialist economy. A lot of sinhala Mudalali class people who backed the SLFP were destroyed when they lost their land. Muslims were fine because they were traders and yes indeed the upper class Tamils also suffered because they too were tied to their lands and their heritage and identity was land.
True, the world was in a socialist tizzy spin back then. But the Land reform policies were the most iniquitous of them all. There was no logic except to favor some of the leading Political leaders who had thousands of acres of land. So if you were over 18 as an emancipated adult, you got to keep 50 acres. So if you were say a family of 4, with 2 kids over 18, they had 150 acres. Fifty for the parents and 100 for the 2 kids. So if you were “unlucky” that your kids were under 18 then you were shit out of luck. So a family with 4 kids and parents got only 50 acres. Meaning less than 10 acres per person in the family. It also disenfranchised wives who had land of their own when they had to decide how to sacrifice land. A simple policy would have been like 30 acres per person. And not to destroy productive tea, rubber and coconut plantations. What has happened to Tea since then?
JVP was full of class envy and hate even in the 1987-89 period. They banned people from wearing skirts. Mostly they were from the less privileged castes in places like Galagedera as well as the South. Even in 1971 they were already of the PolPot mentality. Bopage is lucky to escape. He is one such evil person who was full of hate for the ruling class. They would have executed the leaders and grabbed everything. Look at how Wijeweera lived. We are glad Wijeeweera and Prabakaran went to meet their ancestors the way they did.
Look at Wimal Weerawansa and Somawansa. All full of inferiority complexes and full of envy until they were able to grab riches. Not even the so called Sinhala Radala families behave the way they all behaved or the way the Rajapakses behaved.
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YakkalaSimon / April 4, 2016
YOU ARE WRONG; You seem to only have an academic knowledge of the 1971 revolution. Where do you think Kegalle was? where do you think Mawanella was ? where do you think Galagedera was? All those were KANDYAN areas; yes the impact was less because it was a Ruhunu so called lower castes movement. Barely a single Govigama was in it. But because of the oppressive nature of Wel Widanas, the patronage system, the Anda govi system(farmers who rent land) there were quite a few in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ratnapura areas. The servant boy we had in our house was a JVP plant from Ratnapura. He was caught later and was a spy. The nanny was from Medawachchiya;later arrested for having a Galkatas.
So while there was no mass movement, there had plenty of strong cells in the Kandyan provinces in the oppressed caste areas like what is called the Padu people sadly.(Semasinghe knows this). How do you think Kegalle station was overrun? So many police stations were attacked in the Kandyan areas.
It hastened the foolish socialist reforms of the SLFP led government which destroyed the Sinhala upper landowning class including the very Radalayas the JVP envied and hated. But look at Wimal Weerawansa to see how these so called lower castes behaved. So many JVP types became rich via the Parliamentary system. Bunch of useless buggers with a huge class envious chip on their shoulders and full of hate. Bopage was lucky.
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Kataragama / April 4, 2016
//We are glad Wijeeweera and Prabakaran went to meet their ancestors the way they did.//
I disagree. They should have been put on trial and made to answer for the provable crimes they were responsible for. Just the same way several members of the security services and our political establishment should answer in open court for the torture, murder, rape and indiscriminate bombings they were responsible for.
Of what value is our 2.5K year-old civilization if we accept that an arrested / surrendered person can be murdered by those tasked with law enforcement?
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YakkalaSimon / April 4, 2016
What is the use of talking about 2,500 years of “civilization”. Where has that taken Sri Lanka ? Begging bowl in hand, utterly corrupt leaders and chaos. No use bragging about being Vellala or Govigama etc. We are judged by our own actions and not by accident of birth. What has Ceylon got to show for this 2,500 years of civilization in comparison to say even other nations like Cambodia which is now threatening to leap frog overrated, overpriced Tourism in Ceylon?
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Bandu Wijepala / April 4, 2016
No matter what you say Mr Thiranagama, the people of Sri Lanka will never forgive the past crimes of this mob known as the JVP.
In 71, they killed the low paid working class police officers and killed innocent middle class people (like Dr Costa and Ananda Jaysinghe), while ‘leaders’ like Wijeweera and Bopage were hiding or get arrested deliberately.
Between 1987-89 the took this violence to animalistic levels, killing innocent labourers, bus drivers, teachers and nurses simply for defying their orders and curfews. The mlechcha Saman Piyasiri Fernando coward who went as Keerthi Wijebahu (insult to the king), who wetted his pants when Tyrrel Gunathilaka arrested him, killed innocent people too many to mention.
The JVP has never been able to get more than 100000 votes in any islandwide election and these votes come from their families and relations only. They can only hold ‘mukku’ to other parties like they did with Mahinda Rajapakse and as they are doing now.
They never had any principles, and this time they even appointed Bimal rathnayaka and Handunnetti who lost the election to parliament.
So don’t try to whitewash this criminal gang as a revolutionary organisation. They don’t know if revolution bit on the backside!
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Non PhD / April 4, 2016
Those youngsters who wants to know about what was happening in political arena in Sri Lanka since independence in 1948, must read this piece by Dayapala Thiranagama.
CT has a moral duty to translate it to Sinhala and must post it so that majority of the majority can be more enlightened about the stirring up that is being carried out by the joint opposition.
The signs are not good for the recovery of Sri Lanka.
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sekara / April 4, 2016
I wish to add a few points on the politics of the JVP which Thiranagama has not touched on.
Rohana Wijeweera started political life in the CP. As he was reportedly expelled from the USSR where he was a student, when he joined the pro-Peking CP in 1965 he was, unwisely, made leader of its youth wing by Sanmugathasan.
I do not read much meaning into the nom de guerre ‘Rohana’ as itcould simply mean Ruhuna and thus just Southern identity.
RW had a Sinhala nationalist agenda which included buildng an anti-Sanmugathasan group around him within the CP(Peking).
He was badly exposed by his participation in the SLFP-led protest of 1966 January against the Tamil Language Act, where racist slogans were shouted.
More mischievous was his use of CP(Peking) resources to print pamphlets in support of the protest, whereas CP(Peking) considered that protest as an opportunist communal move pandering to racism among the Sinhalese. He was suspended from the CP(Peking) and was expelled following inquiry.
The JVP was not Marxist by any token. It used populist methods all along. It had a five-lecture programme to teach Marxism (a very original version of ‘Marxism for Dummies’).
Of the five one was “Indian Expansionism” which really targeted the plantation Tamil population. (This is something that apologists for RW who claim that he was not communal find hard to defend. Thiranagama has correctly reminded us of this dark side of the JVP.)
I should add that the JVP failed to attract workers at the time and hence despised the working class and denounced it as corrupt. It thus upheld the youth as the sole revolutionary force.
It, however, fired the imagination of the deprived Sinhala youth, based on a call for social justice as well as post-1956 communalism. It sorely failed to arm them ideologically, for it lacked ideology.
The JVP underestimated the capability of the state machinery, and was easily manipulated into launching a premature insurrection, amid internal conflicts and splits— not quite based on ideology.
The JVP learned little from the 1971 April fiasco. Mrs Bandaranaike was not vindictive, but the armed forces had committed its excesses before politics returned to command. Only a small number of JVP leaders were punished with long sentences under the CJC.
Political deals followed between the JVP and JR Jayawardena on the one hand and Bala Tampoe of the CMC on the other, who commendably defended the JVP accused in the CJC trials.
After the SLFP was humiliated in the elections of 1977 JRJ enabled the release of JVP leaders, a favour which the JVP returned with attacks on the SLFP and the Left until 1980, when the UNP trained its guns on the JVP.
The JVP since its re-emergence had an inner party struggle with Lonel Bopage et al. pushing the JVP in a leftward direction that was accommodative towards minorities. But opportunism got the better of RW and his allies and he JVP paid a heavy price once again in 1988-89 for its adventurism.
The JVP has earned little politically from its past.
It only knows that it cannot launch a revolution of any description in the foreseeable future. Its electoral success through clever manipulation of the UPFA to secure 39 seats (out of 109 UPFA seats) was also its undoing.
Its efforts to dominate the government forced it to leave the UPFA in June 2005, but it returned to the fold under Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom it helped to become President in November 2005, only to be outmaneuvered by MR soon after.
The JVP suffered two major splits, one to is right and loyal to the MR regime and another later, to the left with the FLSP posing a bigger political challenge.
But both the JVP and the FlSP remain victims of the Wijeweera legacy, mainly lack of clear ideology and a chauvinist past, although the latter has stronger left tendencies within.
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Non PhD / April 4, 2016
I would like to read the responses to the above article by some of the so called smart patriots listed below.
1. Dayan Jeyatilleke
2. Tissa Vitharane
3. Vasudeva Nanayakara
4. Dinesh Gunawardne
5. Weerawansa
6. HLDM
7. Malinda Seniveratne
8. Gomyn Dayasri
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Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka / April 5, 2016
“Jayatilleka’ not ‘Jeyatilleke’…:))
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Native Vedda / April 5, 2016
Non PhD
The self confessed war monger and failed war crime denier types:
“Jayatilleka’ not ‘Jeyatilleke’…:))
To make life simple why don’t you address him as Dayan Silva?
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YakkalaSimon / April 4, 2016
Yes they even murdered pregnant police women and family members of armed forces members in 1987 89 period. Bopage and that geriatric fool Somawansa escaped. No mercy for these envious murderous PolPot followers. When the Army started reacting the same way and attacking JVP/DJV family members they capitulated fast. Bunch of disgusting cowards. If Donald Trump does the same to ISIS they too will run.
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Bagehot / April 5, 2016
The author is still stuck (as most of us are) in 1988. However, how many people have the JVP (central, not idiots like the NFF and FSP) killed since 1990?
I’m unable to find a single case. Which is more than I can say for the other two parties.
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ramona therese fernando / April 5, 2016
Well….I wouldn’t put it down to racism too much.
Tamil concept of suffering is/was quite different from Sinhala concept of suffering.
Sinhalese with Buddhist egalitarian concepts were easily aggravated by their divisions in society. Sinhala JVP would have had an impossible time in trying to influence suffering Tamils to join them, due to Tamil acceptance of their lot in life as per caste-system.
Estate Tamils were actually quite thankful that they had jobs in the beautiful hill-country that actually gave them apartments to live in, compared to their slum status in mother India. Gosl provided health care and schooling for the Tamil workers. Nothing had been done for disadvantaged Sinhalese as they were not involved in the commercialized economy.
Compared to the disadvantaged Sinhalese, the Tamils had monetary networks via TN to secure them better (even if it meant thosai kadays).
Furthermore, because Tamils hardly understood Sinhalese, and vice versa, the two could hardly interact with each other. Tamils could only tearfully call out on the name of mother India when the JVP were trying to bully them into conscripting.
Sinhala JPV became fed up, and the whole thing turned ludicrously racist.
When JVP principles were finally realized by Tamils, Tamils eventually regrouped into LTTE.
We are in a different era now. Hope JVP will be there to execute the way of appropriate taxation, and Heritage and Socialist ideals (of both races), so Gosl won’t dare venture too far with inordinate aspiration.
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SJ / April 5, 2016
RTF
“Estate Tamils were actually quite thankful that they had jobs in the beautiful hill-country that actually gave them apartments to live in, compared to their slum status in mother India.”
How condescending of you!
Do you have the foggiest idea of where they were brought from and how?
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ramona therese fernando / April 5, 2016
SJ,
I know quite a bit because my grandfather(a Tamil from Trinco), was employed by Gosl as a doctor for the estate Tamils.
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / April 6, 2016
rtf,
Tamil Hindus- of all castes- accept suffering as ‘Thalaiy Eluthu’ -what is written on the skull- meaning preordained/fate/Karma. This belief is not limited to the so-called lower castes. Suffering is not caste-specific on matters that affect all. It becomes specific when the suffering is caste-related. Your grandfather may have been Tamil, but you know very little of Tamils and how they think.
Dr.RN
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ramona therese fernando / April 6, 2016
Dr. RN,
Hindu ‘Thalaiy Eluthu’ is worse off in the lower-castes. It is not meant to be a universal constant for all.
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Uthungan / April 5, 2016
The author has quoted TNA Parliamentarian Mr Sumanthiran who had effectively dismissed JVP’ AKD”s attempt to gloss over and explain unconvincingly that the problem of insecurity and day to day difficulties like lack of employment, housing etc., etc., faced by the Tamils is not due to any constitutional imbalance as these problems are endemic in the entire country.
If the JVP is to become as a serious political contender in the country and regarded with respect , it’s leaders should be careful to not make wishy washy outbursts like AKD, if the Party is to be taken seriously by the people of the country including Tamils.
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wimpy kid / April 7, 2016
I think the only thing that the JVP did was to overthrow ranil and bring back mahinda in 2005 and vice versa in 2015.
it puzzles me that there is a loud noise over kumar gunarathnam , what happened to lalith and kugan were far worse.
when somawansa asked Mahinda gahanna , mahinda asked labbenda. This reveals there was collusion between JVP and Mahinda.
I think the present JVP and fsp are capable of dealing with any devil.
By the way , i thought dayapala was a JVP member at that time.
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Liverpool Sudda / April 7, 2016
Dayapala Thiranagama
Spot on.You have hit the nail on the head.But were you not part of the gang that killed a police men at the US embassy in 1971 as part of the Maoist Clique?? Anyway the LTTE was more brutal so that’s a plus for the JVP.
Politically they are finished but how long will the death throes go take.How many more youth will they lead astray??
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Liberal One / April 7, 2016
Not much. The day of the die-hard JVP cadre is over. What remains are politically clueless young blood who thinks corruption is the only problem in the world and that JVP leaders are the cleanest. They won’t understand a quote of Karl Marx even if one hits them in the head.
These youth will end up voting UNP/SLFP led collisions when they mature.
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