{"id":246863,"date":"2026-04-11T23:16:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T17:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=246863"},"modified":"2026-04-26T01:13:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:43:40","slug":"the-npp-government-is-more-than-a-jvp-offspring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-npp-government-is-more-than-a-jvp-offspring\/","title":{"rendered":"The NPP Government Is More Than A JVP Offspring"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Rajan Philips<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Rajan Philips<\/p><\/div>\n

The NPP Government is more than a JVP offspring: <\/b>It is also different from all past governments as it faces new and different challenges<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

No one knows whether the already broken ceasefire between the US and Iran, with Israel as a reluctant adjunct, will last the full 14 days, or what will come thereafter. The world\u2019s economic woes are not over and the markets are yo-yoing in response to Trump\u2019s twitches and Iran\u2019s gatekeeping at the Strait of Hormuz. The gloomy expert foretelling is that full economic normalcy will not return until the year is over even if the war were to end with the ceasefire. That means continuing challenges for Sri Lanka and more of the tough learning in the art of governing for the NPP<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The NPP government has been doing what most governments in Asia have been doing to cope with the current global crisis, which is also an Asian crisis insofar as oil supplies and other supply chains are concerned. What the government can and must do additionally is to be totally candid with the people and keep them informed of everything that it is doing \u2013 from monitoring import prices to the timely arranging of supplies, all the details of tender, the tracking of arrivals, and keeping the distribution flow through the market without bottlenecks. That is the only way for the government to eliminate upstream tender rackets and downstream hoarding swindles. People do not expect miracles from their government, only honest, sincere and serious effort in difficult circumstances. Backed up by clear communication and constant public engagement. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But nothing is going to stop the flow of criticisms against the NPP government. That is a fact of Sri Lankan politics. Even though the opposition forces are weak and have little traction and even less credibility, there has not been any drought in the criticisms levelled against the still fledgling government. These criticisms can be categorized as ideological, institutional and oppositional criticisms, with each category having its own constituency and\/or commentators. The three categories invariably overlap and there are instances of criticisms that excite only the pundits but have no political resonance.<\/p>\n

April 5<\/b>th<\/sup><\/b><\/span> Anniversary Nostalgia<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

There is also a new line of criticism that might be inspired by the April 5th<\/sup><\/span> anniversary nostalgia for the 1971 JVP<\/a><\/span> insurrection. This new line traces the NPP government to the distant roots of the JVP \u2013 its April 1965 founding \u201cin a working-class home in Akmeemana, Galle\u201d by a 22-year old Rohana Wijeweera<\/a><\/span> and seven others; the short lived 1971 insurrection that was easily defeated; and the much longer and more devastating second (1987 to 1989) insurrection that led to the elimination of the JVP\u2019s frontline leaders including Rohana Wijeweera, and brought about a change in the JVP\u2019s political direction with commitment to parliamentary democracy. So far, so good, as history goes.<\/p>\n

But where the nostalgic narrative starts to bend is in attempting a straight line connection from the 1965 Akmeemana origins of the JVP to the national electoral victories of the NPP in 2024. And the bend gets broken in trying to bridge the gap between the \u201cfounding anti-imperialist economics\u201d of the JVP and the practical imperatives of the NPP government in \u201cgoverning a debt-laden small open economy.\u201d Yet this line of criticism differs from the other lines of criticism that I have alluded to, but more so for its moral purpose than for its analytical clarity. The search for clarity could begin with question – why is the NPP government more than a JVP offspring? The answer is not so simple, but it is also not too complicated. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, the JVP was a political response to the national and global conditions of the 1960s and 1970s, piggybacking socialism on the bandwagon of ethno-nationalism in a bi-polar world that was ideologically split between status quo capitalism and the alternative of socialism. The NPP government, on the other hand, is not only a response to, but is also a product of the conditions of the 2010s and 2020s. The twain cannot be more different. Nothing is the same between then and now, locally and globally.<\/p>\n

A pragmatic way to look at the differences between the origins of the JVP and the circumstances of the NPP government is to look at the very range of criticisms that are levelled against the NPP government. What I categorize as ideological criticisms include criticisms of the government\u2019s pro-IMF and allegedly neo-liberal economic policies, as well as the government’s foreign policy stances \u2013 on Israel, on the current US-Israel war against Iran, the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean, and the apparent closeness to the Modi government in India. These criticisms emanate from the non-JVP left and Sinhala Buddhist nationalists.<\/p>\n

Strands of Nationalism<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

To digress briefly, there are several strands in the overall bundle of Sri Lankan nationalism. There is the liberal inclusive strand, the left-progressive strand, the exclusive Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist (SBN) strand,\u00a0 <\/span>and the defensive strands of minority nationalisms. Given Sri Lanka\u2019s historical political formations and alliances, much overlapping goes on between the different strands. The overlapping gets selective on an issue by issue basis, which in itself is not unwelcome insofar as it promotes plurality in place of exclusivity.<\/p>\n

Historically as well, and certainly after 1956, the SBN strand has been the dominant strand of nationalism in Sri Lanka and has had the most influential say in every government until now. Past versions of the JVP frequently straddled the dominant SBN space. Currently, however, the dominant SBN strand is in one of its more dormant phases and the NPP government could be a reason for the current dormancy. This is an obvious difference between the old JVP and the new NPP.<\/p>\n

A second set of criticisms, or institutional criticisms, emanate from political liberals and human rights activists and these are about the NPP government\u2019s actions or non-actions in regard to constitutional changes, the future of the elected executive presidency, the status of provincial devolution and the timing of provincial council elections, progress on human rights issues, the resolution of unfinished postwar businesses including the amnesia over mass graves. These criticisms and the issues they represent are also in varying ways the primary concerns of the island\u2019s Tamils, Muslims and the Malaiyaka Tamils. As with the overlapping between the left and the non-minority nationalists, there is also overlapping between the liberal activists and minority representatives.<\/p>\n

A third category includes what might be called oppositional criticisms and they counterpose the JVP\u2019s past against the NPP\u2019s present, call into question the JVP\u2019s commitment to multi-party democracy and raise alarms about a creeping constitutional dictatorship. This category also includes criticisms of the NPP government\u2019s lack of governmental experience and competence; alleged instances of abuse of power, mismanagement and even corruption; alleged harassment of past politicians; and the failure to find the alleged mastermind behind the 2019 easter bombings. At a policy and implementational level, there have been criticisms of the government\u2019s educational reforms and electricity reforms, the responses to cyclone Ditwah, and the current global oil and economic crises. The purveyors\u00a0 <\/span>of oppositional criticisms are drawn from the general political class which includes political parties, current and past parliamentarians, as well as media pundits.<\/p>\n

Criticisms as Expectations<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

What is common to all three categories of criticisms is that they collectively represent what were understood to be promises by the NPP before the elections, and have become expectations of the NPP government after the elections. It is the range and nature of these criticisms and the corresponding expectations that make the NPP government a lot more than a mere JVP offspring, and significantly differentiate it from every previous government.<\/p>\n

The deliverables that are expected of the NPP government were never a part of the vocabulary of the original JVP platform and programs. The very mode of parliamentary politics was ideologically anathema to the JVP of Akmeemana. And there was no mention of or concern for minority rights, or constitutional reforms. On foreign policy, it was all India phobia without Anglo mania \u2013 a halfway variation of Sri Lanka\u2019s mainstream foreign policy of Anglo mania and India phobia. For a party of the rural proletariat, the JVP was virulently opposed to the plantation proletariat. The JVP\u2019s version of anti-imperialist economics would hardly have excited the Sri Lankan electorate at any time, and certainly not at the present time.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the NPP government is also the only government that has genealogical antecedents to a political movement or organization like the JVP. That in itself makes the NPP government unique among Sri Lanka\u2019s other governments. The formation of the NPP is the culmination of the evolution of the JVP that began after the second insurrection with the shedding of political violence, acceptance of political plurality and commitment to electoral democracy.<\/p>\n

But the evolution was not entirely a process of internal transformation. It was also a response to a rapidly and radically changing circumstances both within Sri Lanka and beyond. This evolution has not been a rejection of the founding socialist purposes of the JVP in 1968, but their adaptation in the endless political search, under constantly changing conditions, for a non-violent, socialist and democratic framework that would facilitate the full development of the human potential of all Sri Lankans.<\/p>\n

The burden of expectations is unmistakable, but what is also remarkable is their comprehensiveness and the NPP\u2019s formal commitment to all of them at the same time. No previous government shouldered such an extensive burden or showed such a willing commitment to each and every one of the expectations. In the brewing global economic crisis, the criticisms, expectations and the priorities of the government will invariably be focussed on keeping the economy alive and alleviating the day-to-day difficulties of millions of Sri Lankan families. While what the NPP government can and must do may not differ much from what other Asian governments \u2013 from Pakistan to Vietnam – are doing, it could and should do better than what any and all past Sri Lankan governments did when facing economic challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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