By Dayan Jayatilleka –
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
The outcome of the Aragalaya had a dual character: the progressive aspect, which was the ouster of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and the reactionary aspect, the installation by the outgoing Gotabaya of Ranil Wickremesinghe and his confirmation by the Pohottuwa majority in parliament.
This dualism was due to the absence of any structured political coordination between the 4 major foci of the struggle. These 4 nodes remain unconnected:
1. Non-party civic activists
2. Multi-party/cross-party disaffected citizens
3. IUSF-FSP
4. JVP (SYU)
How do we define the Left in Sri Lanka today?
* Those who support the Aragalaya and oppose neoliberal Ranilnomics belong on the Left.
* Those who oppose the Aragalaya and support Ranilnomics belong on the Right.
* Those who once supported the Aragalaya and opposed Gotabaya but now support his and the Pohottuwa’s chosen successor Ranil and defend the unjust and socially predatory Ranil-IMF agenda, belong on the Right.
Left Victory
The Left in Sri Lanka is closer than it has ever been to leading the country. This is borne out by public opinion polling which consistently puts Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) the JVP-NPP leader ahead of the competition at a presidential election and his party or bloc, the NPP-JVP ahead of the competition at a parliamentary election.
The mystery is that AKD and the JVP-NPP aren’t doing everything it can, or even the minimum things it can, to increase its slim lead and get to the magic 50% mark. In every other situation everywhere in the world in which the Left has come within striking distance of electoral victory, or indeed victory of any sort, the natural reflex has been to seek to close the gap through tweaking its own policies and profile so as to elasticize its appeal while reaching out and building political partnerships, alliances, blocs, in a word, political relationships, that bring it home to victory.
This has been the lesson of Pink Tide 1.0 and 2.0 which has seen the democratic Left sweep Latin America twice in the past quarter century. It has also been the experience of the Marxist-Leninist left in Nepal.
The Jana Aragalaya Vyaparaya (JAV) or People’s Struggle Movement (PSM) is to the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) what the NPP is to the JVP. While it is unrealistic to expect the JVP and FSP to form a bloc, an NPP and JAV/PSM bloc would be a game-changer. An opening dialogue would unleash powerful synergies.
That is precisely what the JVP-NPP is not doing. I was discussing this paradox with an incisive young friend who earned a postgraduate degree in international relations in a First World university before he became the business magnate he is. “If the JVP and the FSP united it would give rise to brilliant synergy, but the JVP believes in competitive advantage, not cooperative advantage. It would rather lose, persisting in comparative advantage than win, switching to cooperative advantage” he opined.
Political Genetics
Where did this self-limitation, this chronic inability to form inter-party/cross-party political relationships come from? Why is it persisted in even at the risk of losing the elections?
More puzzling, why is it indulged in even though it prevents the JVP-NPP’s ability to wrench an election from the reluctant Ranil Wickremesinghe?
Why is it adhered to even though it hamstrings the JVP-NPP’s ability to protect its trade unions from the vicious labor legislation that is imminent, and/or the sell-off of the state sector of the economy which houses many of those unions?
The reason, the cause, lies in the genetic structure, the genetic code of the JVP. Those political-ideological genes are the source of the JVP’s strength and its weakness. To seek the real reason, one has to return to the JVP’s roots, its paternity.
Rohana Wijeweera was the most significant or consequential left leader this island ever produced. He grasped what Georg Lukacs, writing of Lenin, described as “the actuality of the revolution”. Though he had several contemporaries who had the same idea and strivings, without Wijeweera, revolution would never really have come on the agenda of Sri Lankan history. His real strength was a combination of two attributes. Firstly, the ability to apply and adapt—which in his case, tragically involved great distortion—Marxism-Leninism to the specifics of the Sri Lankan reality and the sociology of the underprivileged Lankan youth. Secondly, the ability to organize and instill in his followers the zeal to organize.
No Wijeweera, no JVP; no JVP, no real challenge to the Sri Lankan capitalist system and capitalist class. No Wijeweera, no real challenge to the Sri Lankan state. No JVP, no FSP offshoot, and no really effective Left on the island. No effective Left, no alternative or counterbalance to the capitalist politicians or the savage neoliberal cutbacks. No JVP and FSP and no counterforce, or even voice, for the disadvantaged masses, the youth from the poorer classes and generations educated in the state universities.
There is a flipside, or as they say, the matter needs a dialectical approach. If not for Wijeweera’s strengths, no JVP challenge to the System, but if not for Wijeweera’s weaknesses, those challenges would not have been so distorted as be successfully beaten down. Look at the track record. Two significant armed uprisings, both smashed militarily, punctuated and followed by desultory-to-modest electoral performance so far.
Compare and contrast that with Latin America where the Left either managed to use its military strength to force negotiations and the re-opening of the system which permitted electoral participation culminating in victory and re-election, or even in cases of utter military devastation, retained enough of a moral-ethical halo, to win Presidential elections.
What is the reason? While Wijeweera’s strength lent the JVP determination and resilience, his chronic weaknesses also imposed structural limits on its success.
His paranoia made him see any competitor or dissenter as an enemy who had to be dealt with violently. This aborted any possibility of united fronts, alliances, and blocs, i.e., any partnership or more plainly, political relationships. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The enemies he and the JVP made on the Left through lethal violence, turned out to be the decisive factor in the JVP’s crushing military defeat in 1989.
This paranoia, though in a greatly reduced form, has been carried on to the next generation through the JVP’s DNA. It is mercifully, far more diluted in the breakaway FSP. However, the FSP, while much less sectarian, is not entirely immune either. In a Southern European or Latin American context, an FSP-type party would have united either with other left parties (that’s how Syriza and Podemos were formed) or worked within the SJB and/or FPC.
Tamil Question
Wijeweera had a chronic inability to formulate a Marxist solution to the Tamil National Question—that is, apart from writing a 350-page book (his report to the underground party congress in 1985) which had more consecutive pages criticizing me by name than Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Though the JVP and FSP have abandoned his ‘social chauvinism’ – which Wimal Weerawansa is continuing—and are laudably anti-racist parties, they too have baulked at embracing the standard Marxist and Left formulation of ‘regional autonomy’. Instead, the JVP wobbles while the FSP still flirts occasionally with ‘self-determination’ — which Wijeweera was correct to reject, and I was wrong not to. The result of this Wijeweera legacy has been a political paralysis of both the JVP and the FSP on the Tamil Question which prevents any kind of North-South political bridgebuilding or even an extended conversation.
Surplus Violence
Electorally, the biggest liability of the Wijeweera period is the character of the violence of the second uprising in the late 1980s. Both the JVP and the FSP have been unable to get beyond the old justificatory narrative of “the UNP framed us and banned us, so we had no choice but to fight back”. That narrative is often supplemented with “the Indians projected power onto our soil, so we had to resist it arms in hand”.
Taken separately or together, the justificatory narrative fails to deal with the issue of barbarism as manifested in targeting. What does the UNP’s ban on the JVP or the Indian airdrop and the Accord have to do with the very first political assassination by the JVP in the 1980s, namely the slitting of the throat of Daya Pathirana, the leader of the radical left Independent Students Union, who had signed a petition in 1984 calling for the removal of the ban on the JVP, and was murdered on December 15th 1986, many months before the Indian intervention?
The problem is not with the JVP taking up arms but the use those arms were put to. Is there no way for the JVP and the breakaway FSP to reaffirm the legitimacy of its recourse to arms with a self-criticism of the lethal targeting of unarmed rivals and non-compliant civilians targeting which made bitter enemies of other radical leftists who then proved to be the critical variable in the JVP’s defeat? Why not a self-criticism of the needless and ultimately suicidal decision to continue or resume the civil war when a real chance had arisen to negotiate an honourable solution and even enter the government when the newly elected, non-elite, populist President Premadasa invited it to do so?
The failure to make a public self-criticism about aspects of its armed struggle reduces the level of public trust that the JVP-NPP could otherwise count on because of the economic crisis. In some areas there are horrific memories of JVP violence and persecution of the people (snatching ID cards, imposing curfews, strictures on funerals etc.). These votes could comprise the margin of victory or defeat and yet the JVP is unwilling to do its due diligence to secure them.
Erasing Theory
Finally, there is the perhaps the most important drawback of the Wijeweera legacy that the JVP and FSP share and should cut clean away from if the Left is to win or even survive Ranil’s counter-revolutionary offensive.
After 1973 or perhaps 1976, Rohana Wijeweera sealed the JVP off from the rich, complex legacy, theoretical and strategic, of the post-Lenin international communist and revolutionary movement. It happened this way. After the defeat of the April 1971 insurrection the incarcerated JVP cadres and those underground and on the run began to read. The reading led to calls for self-criticism and efforts at self-criticism. These were met with violence directed at the dissenters by Wijeweera’s faithful in the jails.
Being the very smart guy he was, Wijeweera knew this was not enough. He then engaged in a massive diversion operation. He diverted attention to the support extended to the Bandaranaike government by the ruling Communist parties of Russia and more dramatically China and went on a huge binge against the international communist movement. His lawyer the celebrated Trotskyist Bala Tampoe was giving him considerable reading material, chiefly the writings of Ernest Mandel.
Ever the utilitarian, Wijeweera switched from his 1973 position of endorsing independent-minded Communist parties non-aligned between Russia and China, i.e., Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, to a complete rupture which took the Trotskyist position that international communism had been incorrupt only up to the first four Congresses of the Communist International (Comintern). In short, it pretty much had all gone wrong after Lenin, except for the positions of the ‘Left Opposition’ (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Radek, Preobrazhensky) against Stalin.
Wijeweera being Wijeweera, he dumped this ‘ultra-internationalism’ when the party was unfairly banned by the UNP and went underground. He then switched to its opposite position, adopting ultranationalism in his 1985 book, denouncing any and every form of political devolution down to the District Development Councils which the JVP had itself contested.
Original Sin
What is most pertinent to the situation today, is that in order to facilitate a free hand for himself to swing from one position to its opposite, Wijeweera maintained the cut-off point at Lenin and there too, suppressing his ‘Two Tactics’ (1905). This meant that decades of Marxist and revolutionary thought after Lenin was de-legitimized, denounced, or ignored; unavailable to and discouraged among JVP leaders and members. Wijeweera reserved for himself the right to toss in the names of Fidel, Che, Miguel Enriquez (founder of the Chilean MIR) et al, without ever quoting at length from them, still less discussing, debating and assimilating their ideas. It was simply name-dropping.
Mao, Gramsci, Dimitrov, Togliatti, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Amilcar Cabral, Carlos Fonseca, Joe Slovo. None of these were read at length or discussed in depth. The entire conceptualization of United Fronts and the Popular Front, in their many variations, was effaced. This is the real reason that the JVP does not engage in united fronts with other political parties. This is the real reason the JVP will be mentally unable to do so until it exorcises this ghost of the negative side of Wijeweera’s political paternity.
The treasure house of Marxist thought was shut to the JVP by Wijeweera and never really reopened by him or his successors. The FSP is much more open, but it is like the man who escaped Plato’s cave and is blinking in the sunlight. As Plato explained, in a reference to the fate of Socrates, when such an escapee goes back to his fellow prisoners and tries to explain the outside world to them, they are likely to kill him because all they know are the shadows flickering on the walls of the cave.
Meanwhile, the badly defeated Latin American left was deeply studying Gramsci, supplemented by Althusser and Poulantzas. That was the secret of its successful comeback. Though some of those parties had been founded after the JVP and defeated militarily, they were elected to the presidency in their countries well before the JVP found its political and electoral feet.
*Dayan Jayatilleka is author of ‘The Great Gramsci: Imagining an Alt-Left Project’, in On Public Imagination: A Political and Ethical Imperative, eds. Richard Falk et al, Routledge 2019
Nathan / July 16, 2023
“The problem is not with the JVP taking up arms but the use those arms were put to.”
Can the same thing be said about LTTE. Yes and No.
JVP took up arms for the right reason, but were short on rationality.
LTTE took up arms for the right purpose, but threw away rationality.
/
Nathan / July 16, 2023
The Aragalaya was a ‘mix’ of both. What chances of success was there?
Retooling is a must if the Aragalaya were to succeed.
/
old codger / July 16, 2023
“the justificatory narrative fails to deal with the issue of barbarism as manifested in targeting. What does the UNP’s ban on the JVP or the Indian airdrop and the Accord have to do with the very first political assassination by the JVP in the 1980s, namely the slitting of the throat of Daya Pathirana, the leader of the radical left Independent Students Union,”
This time, Dr. DJ writes something I can agree with. Even now, the JVP’S media spokesmen avoid the topic of the JVP’s own contribution to the brutalization of society and destruction of public property.
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
I think it is worth listening to Harini in this interview.
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUvaiAHpYls
–
I wish I could listen to her if she would explain us how JVP led NPP would make wonders in terms of SINHALA BUDDHIST monks and the harm being done by them.
/
Naman / July 16, 2023
I am not sure the voters are ready to support a leftist government. We do need elections held for both Provincial councils and the parliament as soon as a brand NEW constitution is passed by REFERENDUM. A constitution that will eliminate the crooked uneducated ones to take part in any form of elections. Clergy should not take part in politics as well as politicians not to make use of them. We need to stop the pensions for parliamentarians and ex-Presidents or PMs.
/
nimal fernando / July 16, 2023
By becoming Centre ……. or even mildly Right …… and bourgeois
–
While still wallowing in pretensions of poverty, hardship, underprivilege, sons/daughters of the soil ……… and above all pretending to solve all the problems of their “fellow” working-class …….
–
Why is Native …….. always a sucker for all these pretentions?
–
–
Man would’ve come a long way ……. when he can see through pretentions …….. and he himself has shed pretentions ……
–
Some are already there …….. and waiting for the others …… to catch up ……….
–
–
Btw ……. I didn’t mark Dayan’s PhD: he would’ve never passed …….. to shower hapless Lankans ……. with the shallowest of the shallow-thought …….. nonsense
–
In another society someone would’ve been kind enough to shoot him …… to put him out of his misery
/
nimal fernando / July 16, 2023
“How The Lankan Left Could Win “
/
Native Vedda / July 16, 2023
nimal fernando
–
I always wanted to ask but never did?
Do you fund Saffronistas (in any way or form) who carry out anti social activities ?
I have been thinking(?) where do these professional beggars (Buddha wanted them to beg for alms) find resources to spend on activities mostly prohibited to them in Vinaya?
–
Have you ever thought of becoming a Monk?
The Sinhala/Buddhist diaspora must be supporting them or the Sinhala/Buddhist bourgeoisie in Sri Lanka. I suspect they are being funded by foreign countries.
/
nimal fernando / July 17, 2023
Native,
–
Forget the Buddhist monks …….. they are not the ones who are setting the example/agenda now; Ranil is. ………. And you will use every trick in the book to deflect the responsibility from Ranil!
–
You guys don’t ……….. or pretend not to see what’s right in front of your eyes!
–
Few days ago, I was having a discussion/argument with another Lankan …… who said Lankans don’t do this and don’t do that ……. they don’t have a sense of community, care for each other, throw things on the street, hate the minorities, selfish, unpatriotic ……. and all the rest under the sun.
–
But the way the Aragalaya “behaved” showed it wasn’t true. ……. There was a sense of community, they cooked for others, collected garbage and cleaned after themselves, there was camaraderie among the different communities/ethnicities ……. and all the rest we desire in a good society.
–
For a fleeting moment of time in our history that was the dominant “culture.”
–
……….. which Ranil with great skill and JR-trained cunning came and supplanted with the same old same old robber-culture. Ranil with his mega-loans didn’t save the people/country ……. but saved the old robber-culture and the icons of that culture.
/
nimal fernando / July 17, 2023
continued
–
Native, the biggest roadblock to progress in our society is not the Saffronistas or the Rajapakses or the uneducated peasantry (they have no choice: they are trapped from the day they are born) or any of your other favourite bogeymen …….. but the insincere/hypocritical English-speaking “educated” ……… go look in the mirror! :))
–
If the cap fits ……..
–
Native, you can be better than this ……. dont waste your potential …… like Dayan! :)))
/
Native Vedda / July 18, 2023
nimal fernando
–
“In another society someone would’ve been kind enough to shoot him …… to put him out of his misery”
–
So you miss Thiruvengadam Velupillai Prabaharan”
/
deepthi silva / July 16, 2023
Typical of these types of pedants to talk or reviving the “left” when in the rest of the world these are dead theories, Russia, China, Vietnam, all have walked away. In little Sri Lanka, these little men are talking of reviving Marx !
They want a poor working class and peasantry on a permanent basis , to whom they can give “leadership ” to !
Today, working class tourists from Europe come to SL as tourists in 5 star hotels and our high class hoteliers bow low before them to earn dollars !! The world has changed. Many of our left leaders studied in Europe and misunderstood the whole thing !
Just because you have a qualification from the West does not make you all knowing. Learning is not ability. They are two different things. Singapore, China, Vietnam they have proved their ability .
We have proved that a little learning can be a burden
/
Leonard Jayawardena / July 16, 2023
Hear, hear!
When you read people like Dayan J., you realize that some are incurably leftist and rationality plays little or no part in their thinking in relation to politics.
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
LJ,
.
“Hear, hear!
When you read people like Dayan Jay, you realize that some are incurably left-wing and that rationality plays little or no part in their thinking about politics.”
–
I’m a bit skeptical, suddenly it occurred to me how consistent DJ is with his statements in his articles ??????????????? I have no doubt, I am not alone with these thoughts about him.
If we look back at how this writer has behaved in his life so far, it is not at all consistent with what Gramci or others have posted. To good effect, he may have used references to world literature in his letters. This writer is one of CT’s traitors. I will never forget the great betrayal this writer did on the Nugegoda stage, remember?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocpkRwzuFaY
–
The real problem of this nation is the educated people who are tamed by the nation’s rogues.
Glp,
DJ
Ranjith Bandara
Thissa Witharana
Rajiva Wijesinha
Malin Seneviratne
Jayasumanaya fake professor
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
Prof. D Silva,
–
No matter what anyone said or did, the “struggle aka aragalaya of the past year” were led by the wealthy classes in Colombo and the suburbs. The organising trajectory made it very clear to anyone who observed it at the begining.
This is the truth. JVPrs and Frontline dogs made every effort to grab its ownership however, it backfired in the end.-
–
Many parties today make every effort to provide the birth certificate and its basis.
However, it began with the brutal rule of Gotabaya and later the cabinet. We know very well how he ruled this country with some of his minions like Nisshanka Senadhipathi who the media doesn’t say a single word about today.
–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlFbIvdHVek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdUlPS6m3s0
–
I thank again for those colombo affluent classes and we are all indebted to them.
/
Native Vedda / July 17, 2023
deepthi ^ silva
–
“Just because you have a qualification from the West does not make you all knowing.”
–
Come on, give him some respect.
Dayan hates Ranil.
You hate Ranil.
Both Dayan and you could have a fruitful relationship.
/
deepthi silva / July 17, 2023
You and chaps like OC are so local and limited ! You see the whole world through your victimhood eyes or wog speaking in English eyes or Ranil or Rajapaksa eyes !
When I criticized Ranil this jack in the box like OC accused me of voting for Rajapaksa ! For him it is either that or this !
I think of all these brown skinned WOGs as undiscovered fraudsters .Saw what Ishwaran of Singapore was up to! They simply don’t have integrity ! Even ability, Singapore is what it is because of the Chinese hard work.
Not that I hate Ranil. I just don’t want a fraudster posing as a vast man , a know all and a honest man, His genes are that of a devious manipulator without an inch of conscience. . Ranil is a simple confidence trickster who has made use of all the advantages his birth in this sick society has given him. Every day this man who the country has not given even one percent of their vote abuses every decency in a democratic system
Dayan J is also like Ranil
/
old codger / July 17, 2023
DS
“You see the whole world through your victimhood eyes or wog speaking in English eyes or Ranil or Rajapaksa eyes !”
“At least next birth try to be Aryan born !”
Says the person who hates brown skins……
Just for information, what colour is your skin? Is it as thick as your cerebrum appears to be?
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
OC,
There is no doubt that Ms.Deepthi Silva is used to Botox injections, as are some of the foolish women from Colombo who have vague idea about melanomas.
They maintain today that “lips are the look of coconut husks”. Look at that of Gold bisquit queen from Medamulana – that will clear your doubts.
/
deepthi silva / July 17, 2023
Brown skins whose claim to fame is their smattering of English ! (OC ! ! )
Pompous asses who argue with women by sexual insults and threatened violence ! (LG,vedda,SJ, ajith !)
I may be brown by definition( but fair and lovely ) but I dislike Pukka sahibs .
Any way no argument that you guys have a vendetta just because you lost badly.
/
Native Vedda / July 17, 2023
deepthi desperate silva
–
“Pompous asses who argue with women by sexual insults and threatened violence ! (LG,vedda,SJ, ajith !)”
–
How could you make four major mistakes in just one sentence?
1.Pompous asses
2. argue with women
3. sexual insults
4. threatened violence
and
5th a vendetta just because you lost badly
Are you mad?
We don’t even know the meaning of the word vendetta perhaps this is the first time I heard the word,
–
“I may be brown by definition( but fair and lovely ) but I dislike Pukka sahibs .”
–
Are you looking for a partner/husband?
There are a few matrimonial sites available on the web.
Have a good day.
/
leelagemalli / July 18, 2023
NV,
.
S/he claims to be a medical doctor.Just these days, when our stupid politicians behave so irresponsibly, I expected a few words of comfort regarding allergic reactions and low quality drugs.
i think we should rather push DS to a therapist sooner than later.
:
Sadly, not a single word about the adverse reactions that seem tob e killing innocient youth in the country these days. Instead DS is busy with various other subjects. He describes them to be ” massive subjects” … ?
–
/
deepthi silva / July 18, 2023
“He” describes …. Are you blind as well !
/
deepthi silva / July 18, 2023
Now we know why you are called a Vedda !
/
Native Vedda / July 19, 2023
deepthi desperate silva
–
“Now we know why you are called a Vedda !”
–
No you don’t.
/
Mahila / July 19, 2023
NV,
“Are you looking for a partner/husband?”
Reminds me of “MERV THE PERV”, infamous Minister!!!???
/
old codger / July 18, 2023
DS,
“Pompous asses who argue with women “
But you did say you were a little boy in your childhood. PLEASE make up your mind, or get a doctor to do it for you.
/
leelagemalli / July 18, 2023
wow,
.
“Any way no argument that you guys have a vendetta just because you lost badly”
–
This person with gender identity crisis seems to know nothing but his words. He claims to be a medical doctor…. CT readers over to you, if the level of medical doctors (produced by SL) behave like this ? can we ever rely on them ?
.
Sahibs
Aryan
Pompous asses
Brown skinned WOGs
Saw what Ishwaran of Singapore was up to
/
deepthi silva / July 18, 2023
Oh Leela you are a scholar !!
But certainly no English gentleman. Wrong parents !
/
old codger / July 19, 2023
DS ,
You called SJ a pompous ass?
“Pompous asses who argue with women by sexual insults and threatened violence ! (LG,vedda,SJ, ajith !)”
Now you’ve done it.
/
Native Vedda / July 17, 2023
old codger
–
“Just for information, what colour is your skin? Is it as thick as your cerebrum appears to be?”
–
Are you looking for her gray matter inside her brain?
/
Mahila / July 19, 2023
DeepthiDeS
“I think of all these
1. BROWN skinned WOGS AS UNDISCOVERED FRAUDSTERS .
2. SAW WHAT ISHWARAN of Singapore WAS UP TO!
3. THEY SIMPLY don’t have INTEGRITY !
4. EVEN ABILITY, Singapore is what it is because of the CHINESE HARD WORK.”
Surely,
A. (1) Above you haven’t seen yourself in a mirror, since disembarked Old Blighty!? WOGS!
B. (2) Above SL None Guilty, Case Fails, Inept Prosecution, Jurisprudence is Despicable!?
C. (3) Above How many British Ministers found corrupt favouriism (last 10 years)
D. (4) Know Chines alone outcome? ‘Driven to the wall’, LIKE 2022 in SL!!
Be that as it may,
Singapore is today, by singular fact – ‘UNITY & HARMONY’ with which all communities work respecting mutually!!???
UNITY IN DIVERSITY PERFORMS THE MIRACLE OF SUCCESS!
Success ABOUNDS when ‘NOT PERFORMING SKULDUGGERY’ like Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans???
That SKULDUGGERY and ENMITY, stands out prominently like the “SWORD of DEMOCLES” for any good to happen, in this THRICE BLESSED LAND!!!???
WORSTOF ALL, than INTEGRITY, HONESTY, HARDWORK by individuals they don’t respect EACH OTHER MUTUALLY IN AN EQUAL AND RECIPROCAL Manner!!!???
Such crude animals, whither success, Integrity, Honesty!!???
Would EVER REMAIN NOTHING BUT A MIRAGE FOREVER!!??
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
Is that a marriage proposal to DJ?
..
Good lick to DJ.!!!🫠
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
Correction :
Good luck😉
/
deepthi silva / July 17, 2023
Oh Leela You are so full of hate !
Don’t blame me for you been born like that ! At least next birth try to be Aryan born !
/
old codger / July 17, 2023
DS
“You are so full of hate !”
“You see the whole world through your victimhood eyes or wog speaking in English eyes or Ranil or Rajapaksa eyes !”
“At least next birth try to be Aryan born !”
Says the person who hates brown skins……
Just for information, what colour is your skin? Is it as thick as your cerebrum appears to be?
So you do like Hitler. So sorry your local Hitler was made of cardboard.
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
Professor Deepthi Silva,
.
When will you grow up?
Why don’t you try to learn the definition of Aryans and its proper use in European media? It is still a banned term. The saddest reality is that you live in the UK.
.
In fact, Germans are ashamed to use this term since World War II to this day: modern Germany is a thousand times better than Sri Lanka full of Sinhalese-racists. They are human compared to our Sinhalese racists who constantly spread hatred against minorities. Remember, they were one of the main donors at the time, your mafia boss extorted money from the tsunami victims.
:
Should our human beasts be proud of WEARING SUCH IDTENTIES? your kind of idiots are suitable to return to montisori for your basic awareness.
.
/
deepthi silva / July 17, 2023
Leela ,are you OK ? The doctor asked you to take the tablet everyday .If you don’t you may end up ranting and shouting . Aryans, Germans, WW2- can you handle these massive subjects ? Maybe without the tablet you feel like a major historian and social critic !
/
leelagemalli / July 18, 2023
Prof. Deepthi Silva,
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_race
.
Aryans, Germans, WW2- can you handle these massive subjects ? That is how you feel… let others to share their thoughts. That will teach you the basics for sure.
–
Give us a break Deepthi, you need go back to your kindergarten. I dont think it is worth wasting my pen for a stupid person of your nature. Get well soon.
/
Leonard Jayawardena / July 17, 2023
NV:
“Dayan hates Ranil.”
This is at least partly explained by the latter’s association with the Capitalistic class. Could it also be due to some form of monomania or idee fixe arising from a hereditary animosity?
/
Native Vedda / July 17, 2023
Leonard Jayawardena
–
“This is at least partly explained by the latter’s association with the Capitalistic class.”
–
This sort of class affiliation applies only to those who strictly adhere to principled positions. Given the history of his very close association with Premadasa and
and Mahinda one should know capitalism is not abhorrent to him. In fact he works for those who offers him a good job.
–
People who were in the know claimed to have seen Douglas on one side and Dayan on the other side, whenever Premadasa/Mahinda met with unfriendly foreign dignitaries. It was like two Rottweilers guarding their masters dutifully.
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
Sri Lankans obviously do amazing politics. SB supporters like DS speaks from two sides.
–
They hate Ranil, but without him, hundreds would have died without fuel, other essential necessities and medicine. This nation never learns from the past. They only behave emotionally. What a stupid nation?
/
Jack / July 16, 2023
Second uprising of JVP was a big mistake. They use violence to overcome suppression of rural youth. In fact country was gradually progressing toward liberal society. Pre education was introduced, agriculture sector was developing by scientific means and public transport system were in order.
They unleashed their violence against ordinary public servant in the village like Grama sevaks and ordinal police person. That is why that current JVP-NPP had to wait more than 3 decades to show to the people that they will not take this path again.
Compare to rulers at the time of second uprising currently we are ruled by thieves , murderers and family of mercenaries.
/
leelagemalli / July 17, 2023
Jack@.
“That is why that current JVP-NPP had to wait more than 3 decades to show to the people that they will not take this path again.”.
.
What guarantee have they given? .
.
Who was behind the 🔥 of the properties last year? .
/
Ajith / July 16, 2023
How The Lankan Left Could Win ?
We are talking about winning the elections to govern Sri Lanka, not solving the proplems of the country. Sri Lanka was ruled by the Europpean govenments (Dutch, Portuguese, British) for more than 500 years and still ruled by the principles of west by Sri Lankans. The people are used to this system and it is not easy tasks for the Left politics to change that system. We have seen the the fall left systematically and graudually over seven decades and only few are elected now even after they gave up their left principles into the hands of right wing politicians. Gotabaya’s victory in 2019 was because of the Easter Bombing and racism.
The Aragalaya was partly success because of the failure of the Gota Rajapaksa regime in terms of governance of economy. Aragalaya was successful not because of the left or people’s change but it is because of the West, particularly USA. Aragalaya is not a single movement and it doesn’t have a single leadership and now west is in the process of changing the economic enviornment in favour of their man in the driving seat and driving away the JVP out of the seen. Is it possible for JVP to challenge Buddhist Fundamentalism? Buddhist Sinhala Fundamentalism plays single factor in deciding who wins the elections. That has not changed.
/
leelagemalli / July 18, 2023
Ajith,
.
What is the purpose of talking about leftists’ winning more in a country, all against the majority poverty stricken people.
–
In order to brainwash the majority fools, they deliberately manipulated CBSL statistics. Those who lived under poverty in South, UV and North eastern provinces continued their poverty struggles at a stretch. JVP crying babies were existent but they stood with Rajapakshes.
:
Are those leftist constituent parties of UPFA not responsible to allow ” politically greedy Rajapakshe” to ruin this country, being seconded to so called chinese investments ? poLITICAL prostitutes such as Wimal sakkliwanse was abused by Rajapakshes to brainwash and polarise their so called ” Mahinda Chinthanaya”: As of today, Mahinda Chinthanaya has turned to be a ” doggy chinthanaya” which created the unprecedented in this country.
–
Not long ago, almost everyone was clear, who stood on the way not allowing ” last straw” which is IMF be realized in terms of reiviving economic setbacks deliberately made by a politically greedy family. Vasidewa’s last breath would not be normal for sure. I dont have any respect for the man today.
/
Simon / July 16, 2023
The writer has taken great pain in detailing the “Aragalaya and Wijeweera Legacy”. I would urge him to give his thoughts on the following LEGACY this Nation and the Country have gone through up to NOW.
1. 1965 – Vaga Sangramaya – Revolution on Agriculture
2.1970 – Janatha Rajaya – The Peoples Government
3.1977 – Dharmshta Samajaya – A Just Society
4.1994 – Saamaya and Samurdiya – Peace and Prosperity
5. 2004 – Yali Pubudamu Lanka – Rise up Again Lanka
6. 2005 – Suba Anagathayak – A Prosperous Future
7 2010 – Asiyave Aschchriya – A Miracle of Asia
8.2015 – Yaha Palanaya – A Just Adinistration & Government
9. 2019 – Saubagye Dekma – Splender and Prosperity
10- 2022 – Bankoloth Ratak – Declared Bankruptcy on April 12th.
The END RESULT – A BANKRUPT NATION and a COUNTRY. Now ruled on the DICTATES of Foreign Lending Powers of the world.
/
Douglas / July 16, 2023
I come as Douglas (earlier Simon) My comment continued:
I have given the various phases of “Splender” that this Nation and the Country have been promised and brought down to the precipice of hell. All our Leaders and the Academician community including you (your conscious will shout out that) have done that splendidly well. Of course, I am not excluding that “LEFT” stalwarts, including Wijeweera of JVP from that accountability and responsibility.
Now we are given another carrot – The “Splendid” year of 2048. By WHOM? No other than the same set of “Right” and “Left” politicians. We have to say NO MORE to them.
A NEW BREED is a MUST. I am confident, that NEW BREED will emerge.
/
leelagemalli / July 16, 2023
Simon/Douglas,
What a tightrope walk?
I’m just used to calling Simon as Simon. I don’t think your KADAMANDIYA people would agree
/
Douglas / July 17, 2023
My Dear LM: The “Kadamandiya” people know me well, irrespective of the name I use. I think you too know me well. So it is no “tightrope walk” at all. After all, what is in a name? I think you have heard of “Nama/Rupa” in Buddha Dhamma teachings all of which are Illusory.
So let us continue the dialogue.
/
leelagemalli / July 18, 2023
D,
welcome you as Douglas.
.
Anyway, It’s a bit strange to call you Douglas. Even weirder when I put it as “Mahathmaya Douglas.”
By the way, your comments on “Aryans” may be important. That funny lady in the UK feels that I have a vague idea of Aryans and the subjects of her self-expression.
–
And you must have your reason to change your username.
Hopefully the National ID hunters won’t turn it into a mess.
.
And for your info, I was visiting Unawatuna two weeks ago. Wasn’t there for long. However, I love Ahangama and Unawatuna Beach. I loved the place. It was just a distance of a HOO sound away from your house. I also had the opportunity to exchange a few words with the Kadamandiya people. They were nice enough to show me around. But I am not familiar to that place. Decades ago, our paternal cousins had several hotels (small hotels) in the area.
/
Douglas / July 18, 2023
Dear LM: Thanks. I used the name “Douglas” many years back on this page and changed it to “Simon” in honor of my pet dog who passed away exactly four years back. I would change it again to honor someone dear. Time will tell.
That stretch of Unawatuna is fantastic and hope you enjoyed it. Those of “Kadamandiya” are always nice and honorable. The term “Kadamandiya” is also in honor of my village community with whom I associated since childhood. Sorry, I missed you. For your info. I am present with my son and daughter away from S/L enjoying the Summer of the Wetern World.
/
leelagemalli / July 19, 2023
So enjoy 😉 ur holidays. Yes I know the hearts and minds of Kadamandiya people. Talking to them brings me back to my childhood days, where cinnamon peelers and tea pluckers and others visited our ancestral place. Sadly all is now stolen by land and property stealers in that area. 😕
/
Mahila / July 17, 2023
Simon-the-Douglas, when are you transforming to becoming as Devananda??? All the best!!! Welcome, Good Luck in your new AVATAR!!!
/
Douglas / July 17, 2023
Dear Mahila: I am well aware that I cannot be anyone other than me and myself. Neither, do I try to be anyone else nor “AVATAR” because that would be futile and a foolish endeavor. To say the least, even “I” is a misnomer.
/
Mahila / July 18, 2023
Fully agree on ‘I’!!!???
No misgivings!!!
/
Native Vedda / July 17, 2023
Simon
–
Here is a video from which our people can and should learn many things that we have all been taught when we were very young or in nimal’s case many many many moons ago he took it for granted.
–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQGHvSPoxsE
Dr Ranil Senanayake on Analog Forestry | a Chat with Shenelle in Sri Lanka
–
/
old codger / July 17, 2023
Native,
You are very wicked. You post a video of Ranil S sitting on a couch with a young lady in shorts, and expect red-blooded males to learn about forestry?
I didn’t hear a word of what he was saying.
/
Native Vedda / July 17, 2023
old codger
–
“I didn’t hear a word of what he was saying.”
–
You dirty old man………..
/
deepthi silva / July 19, 2023
‘A red-blooded man sitting in front of a lady in shorts… ‘When a guy like you say these things which are sometimes said by some white guys at a bar, sounds weird. This your looks and historical culture such comments sound obscene.
I cant stand black men talking in white jingo, want to be admitted to white clubs society !
In the Indian culture do aging men talk in this way about women ?
Red blooded man ! Have you met someone who has blood of any other colour ?
A lady ? In India every female becomes a lady and every man a “gantalman ” !
SoOC vedda,Leela,SJ all call themselves “gantalman with red blood ! Ha ha , Just ask their wives about their blood !
/
old codger / July 19, 2023
DS
“You and chaps like OC are so local and limited ! “
“When a guy like you say these things which are sometimes said by some white guys at a bar, sounds weird.”
Perhaps you have never come across the word “consistency “?
“In the Indian culture do aging men talk in this way about women ?”
They do, but how would YOU know?
In the Sri Lankan culture, aging men wearing yellow robes are known to hire the services of several women at a time, but it is the women who get beaten up.
/
deepthi silva / July 19, 2023
OC Push you a little and then you show your true identity ! A pretentious T , posing off as a sophisticated global citizen but in reality a hateful, racists, with a small ego ! It is revolting when guys like you say degrading things about women
/
old codger / July 20, 2023
DS,
I will keep a sharp lookout for you the next time I visit a bar…
Thanks for the tip.
/
leelagemalli / July 20, 2023
Dear Readers,
.
How does Professor Deepthi Silva know about the aging Indian men?
.
we have lot more crucial topics to discuss at this critical stage of our country. But, why on earth does this Woman hang on with the kind of silly topics ????????ß
–
As a rich woman living in queen s country, why on earth doest DS do enough regarding the lanken women that are now kiddnapped in Russia ?
–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT7bE2urB10
/
old codger / July 19, 2023
DS
“Red blooded man ! Have you met someone who has blood of any other colour ?”
If you expect me to give you English lessons, you are sadly mistaken. That’s what IELTS is for.
/
deepthi silva / July 20, 2023
OC I know the meaning of “red blooded’ like south Indian actor Joseph Vijay !
Do you and your gang of cheering squad fight with British soccer hooligans in pubs when they hurl racist abuse at you want to be English types ?
Why are you so obsessed with English ? Does it make you feel better than the entranced devotees at Kovil ceremonies ?
By the way, will a true gentleman , or even an educated man ,comment in this greedy ( and desperate ) way about women ?
/
old codger / July 20, 2023
DS,
“By the way, will a true gentleman , or even an educated man ,comment in this greedy ( and desperate ) way about women ?”
You mean that bald guy who got caught with two women isn’t educated?
/
deepthi silva / July 20, 2023
I thought you knew , religion is for fools and frauds .
What do you talk about in pubs with your pint in the hand- religion ?
You want us to picture you as a sophisticated man, a drinking man, a ladies man ( From the way you keep harping on these things I get the feeling you are not any of this . We women have good self-preserving instincts. We can smell a rat miles away !)
Beside, will such a man keep company of Leelas and Veddas and spend all his time showing off commenting in a forum like CT !
By the way , in Europe today most people laugh at religion .
/
old codger / July 20, 2023
DS,
“religion is for fools and frauds .”
Why do you get upset then, when Sinhala Buddhism is criticised? Be consistent.
/
nimal fernando / July 17, 2023
“I didn’t hear a word of what he was saying.”
–
:))))
/
old codger / July 18, 2023
Nimal,
You too?
/
Douglas / July 17, 2023
Dear Native: Thank you for the link. It is very educative and an eye-opener. It would be a near impossibility to get this message across to the general public who have been brainwashed to be wage earners and bombarded with a plague of consumerism.
As a step towards this objective, I trust in the policy of taking the economy to the village. I am one who had this experience and it worked very well for me, my family, and the whole village community. Unfortunately, we have lost all that. The reasons are many but need to be revived.
Thank you again.
/
nimal fernando / July 18, 2023
“or in nimal’s case many many many moons ago he took it for granted.”
–
I didn’t see the forest for Shenelle’s two trees.
–
–
“Shenelle” ( with a name like that, she wants to jump out of her Lankan-ness but unfortunately for her, her looks are typical Lankan: what a bummer! What’s wrong with a name like Kamala, Wimala, Manike, nimal? ) ……… Do Native’s Colombo-7 oh! so campy clique from the concrete-jungle …… have to go around lecturing villagers how to be villagers? :))
/
Native Vedda / July 18, 2023
nimal fernando
–
” …… have to go around lecturing villagers how to be villagers? “
–
(Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read, you begin with A-B-C
When you sing, you begin with Do-Re-Mi
Excerpt Sound of Music.)
–
Of course we need to start at the very beginning, how to be human being, love, respect, help, …. each other and be compassionate.
/
old codger / July 18, 2023
Nimal,
“have to go around lecturing villagers how to be villagers? :))”
I haven’t met any villager who wants to live without a smartphone and Internet. In the intervals between ogling Shenelle, did you notice a Kussiamma in the background? Perhaps that’s what villagers should be doing?
/
nimal fernando / July 20, 2023
Native, OC,
–
I have that exact same sarong Dr Ranil Senanayake is wearing. It’s a gift someone bought for me from Sansoni’s Barefoot.
–
If I wear a very expensive “trendy” sarong from Barefoot …… how far will it go to bolster my genuine villager credentials?
–
Why can’t people be what they actually are? …… Is it that difficult? :))
–
Don’t tell me the only genuine Lankan still left …… is travelling on an old Honda to find himself ……. to discover who he is ……….
/
Mahila / July 20, 2023
….Or the Hillman Minx seen racing around the Track!!???
/
chiv / July 17, 2023
Simon, thank you for a wonderful summery of Lankan BS. It’s all about catch phrases / word play, created by those crooks, just for their retarded racist audience. Maximum legacy was created by Rajapaksa brothers and no wonder retards were desperate to have more of their legacy. What a wording ?? Dharmshta = govt organized pogroms ; Saamaya = more violence ; Suba = poverty ; Asiyave Modaya,; Yaha Palanaya = pardoning rapist, murderer, court offender and staging Easter Mayhem; Saubagye = bankrupt, dysfunctional, failed.
/
RBH59 / July 17, 2023
The Wijeweera Legacy came through as the Government made the country to bankrupt and the reasons are already in the legacy. That is Legacy is not leaving something for people. It’s leaving something in people
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
WHERE IS THE TREE, ALL ARE SUFFERING.
/
Mallaiyuran / July 17, 2023
It would rather lose, persisting in comparative advantage than win, switching to cooperative advantage
It is unbelievable to watch people weaving destructive ideas like this to the worst of the Langkang society, well knowingly the end, though happily funded by IMF specifically for these ultimate goals, even after the country is bankrupt because of practicing this for 75 years.
Sinhala Buddhist unitively compete on anything if a beggar pulls off his Amude and sells it to the highest bidder. Does anything exist there as policy in the minds of the dastardly Sinhala Buddhist political society? If so, would the Grandchild of the Father of the Nation preside over the political party of Solomon West in the government?
There was a joke in a movie in which the comedian Nagesh acted. He called somebody as the Shakuni of Mahabharata and Kunii of Ramayana, infused together into one.” The current government is the worst of the UNP is skimmed and iced on the Rowdy Royal cupcake. Even if Allah, Jesus, Buddha, and Siva get together and attempt, they cannot create a nasty phenomenon like the current Langkang’s Appe Aanduwa.
/
Mallaiyuran / July 17, 2023
“Propagate anti-Tamil rhetoric and win the elections, like every Langkang leader did from 1948, starting from Don Stephen to Evil Emperor.
The foregoing is a line from a narcissist tick, which was crazy glued to Rowdy Royals while they were on the power that time, and while he pretended to be left, right, center, up, down, forward, backward……… This man was, one time, the housekeeper of another man, whose death was caused by people whom the Sinhala Buddhist treat as their immortal enemies, but they celebrated that killing with Kiribath and firecrackers. Then, do the Sinhala Buddhists need a policy to vote for a man/woman and do they look in him/her something as character? If so, then would Thero have written like that, or the Evil would be leading the country as the EP of it?
/
Mallaiyuran / July 17, 2023
But mind the magnificent foundational policy that is “Win it at any cost”, for the creation of Wonder of Asia can come out of nasty, notorious, narcissistic minds of the Thero the Cuban Communist Thero.
No physically swinging pendulum can swing like Thero that fast to any direction’s extremes but only a flickering light bulb could blink between light and dark that much. Old Rowdy king described himself as a non-fearing man of ghosts, otherwise would have built his house in the cemetery? Now refusing to leave the cemetery country even after reducing it below a barren land. This Cuban Communist tick, which was stuck to the Rowdy Royal family, wrote one essay for each member to describe how much he/she suitable to rule Langkang. But when he had to go against Hitler King, he said that he never recommended any one of them but only described their traits, to explain how those were excellent to rule Langkang. Now he is working on Anura.
/
Mallaiyuran / July 17, 2023
It is not that we are struggling to wash a left and sell it at the jewelry shop, like the Cuban Communist doing. We are aware that the left is ….. left. Anura is also from the same old Wilkinson factory. But this individual sword still has not passed through certification from the mechanized conveyor belt. That is why Thero mimicking the catwalker choreography on the runway to prove that it was he who, with his own hand, molded- heated, beaten and sharpened this Wijeweera’s godchild, Anura Kumara, the last left coming out in smithy shop of Langkang. Thero’s Cuban Communist Amude is not the sample rice pebble, but the original flavor of the Sinhala Buddhism.
Thero is not the one rice pebble in the pot, but Theros are pellets composing the pot of rice, the Langkang political community!
/