It is clear that the UPFA, with or
without the JNP led by Wimal Weerawansa, is going to win the Uva Provincial
Council Elections on 20th September. What has to be decided is the
majority that the UPFA would gain at the elections. The JHU is not in the
“battle field”, and the politicized national movement (Jathika Vyaparaya) is
now led by Mahinda Rajapakse. The people who are responsible to the present
state of affairs are none other than who politicized the national movement. Those
who complain that the President has ignored the national movement have to blame
none other than themselves, if that is the case. These people who have not been
able to understand the nature of the SLFP have changed their views so many
times during the last thirty years or so. The SLFP is the party of nationality
(jathikathva) for the simple reason that it has responded to the interests of
the nationality, except during the leadership of Chandrika Kumaratunga.
The national movement had been in existence even
before the days of Anagarika Dharmapala as a non political power group that may
be even called a pressure group. In the beginning of the twentieth century the Ceylon
National Congress was directly involved with politics, meaning power politics,
though the power wanted by its leaders was very limited. Anagarika Dharmapala
was not after political power and he was not interested in power of any sort. The
national movement of those who may be called
“bhasha premins” (lovers of language) was not after political power either, but were able to influence the SLFP that was formed later. The SLFP had been influenced by the national movement and victory in fifty six was a result of the latter being able to pressurize the party formed by Mr. S W R D Bandaranaike. However, it was clear that the people did not want the leaders of the national movement to engage in politics, as the political party formed by Mr. L H Meththananda could not appeal to the masses.
“bhasha premins” (lovers of language) was not after political power either, but were able to influence the SLFP that was formed later. The SLFP had been influenced by the national movement and victory in fifty six was a result of the latter being able to pressurize the party formed by Mr. S W R D Bandaranaike. However, it was clear that the people did not want the leaders of the national movement to engage in politics, as the political party formed by Mr. L H Meththananda could not appeal to the masses.
Those who
thought that they could use nationality to come to power have failed miserably
and very often have been confined to media circuses. The SLFP can be influenced
by being outside party politics, and this is something that they could have
learnt from Mr. Meththananda. However, some of the power hungry politicians
learnt the wrong lesson from Ven. Soma Thera whom they thought had established
a new political mass base. This does not mean that they had no idea of power
politics before Ven. Soma Thera entered the scene, but the Thera whose “mass
base” was confined to few electorates around Colombo municipality limits that
find most of the people “educated” in western concepts and theories from
Literary Criticism to Political Science not to mention Engineering and
Medicine, who had “migrated” from the villages, had given the wrong signals and
acted as a catalyst in the formation of political parties based on nationality.
It may not be too late to correct the mistakes of the politicized national
movement, but with its present leadership, it has an uphill task.
The TNA led by
the ITAK (or the Lanka Tamil State Party, the so called Federal party) has
decided to sacrifice Tamil youth again if possible, in order to retain their
hold in politics. The ITAK has changed the leader indicating that the party
wants to be more militant in the near future. The ITAK had never shown its true
colours to the Sri Lankans at any stage since its inception in late forties
long before the “Official Language Act”. The party’s future treasurer
Naganathan stated in the debate of the vote of thanks to the first “throne
speech” in the first Parliament words to the effect that Sinhala people had won
their independence and it was time for the Tamils to win independence from the
Sinhalas. The ITAK pretended to be a non violent party but instigated innocent
Tamils against the Sinhala people, claiming that they were against the
government only. The sathyagrahas were non violent only in name and were aimed
at violence against the Sinhala people.
It was the seeds
of hatred sowed by the ITAK that finally produced Prabhakaran and the LTTE
which was responsible for the massacres carried out against the Sinhala people
and the Sinhala Buddhist culture in Arantalawa, Kebitigollawa, Dehiwala,
Maradana and other palces including the premises of Dalada Maligawa and Sri
Maha Bodhi. The TNA now has declared that they will resort to non violence
activities in order to win their demands, most probably the so called rights of
the Tamils. This is nothing but a veiled threat against the Sinhala people as
the history shows that so called non violent activities finally ended with
violence against the former.
The TNA has also
said the problem can be solved within six months but they have not identified
the “burning problem”. They also claim apparently that power has to be devolved
to solve the problem of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. As we have argued over the
years around 60% the Tamils live outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces of
Sri Lanka and it is never explained how the so called problems of the Tamils
living outside those two provinces could be solved by devolving power to the
provinces. In any even the Eastern Province does not come into the picture now
as the people in that province work within the framework of the present
provincial councils to develop their province. It is the Northern Province
Provincial Council that is not interested in developing their province as
probably they are not interested in solving the “problems” of the Tamils in
Northern Province. The TNA that is being manipulated by the west through the
dispersed Tamils in their countries want to use the “problems” of the Tamils in
order to hang on to the privileges they are enjoying at the expense of the
Tamils in the Northern Province. Though the TNA is not involved in Uva
provincial council elections directly they may be trying to influence the Tamil
voters especially in the Badulla district indirectly against the UPFA in favour
of their ally the UNP through talks non violent activities.
The UNP is in
utter disarray having failed to get Sajith Premadasa and Ranil Wickremesinghe
on the same stage for the Uva provincial council elections. It is more than
clear there are factions within factions in the UNP and Sajith Premadasa has no
future in politics unless he is able to remove his opponents such as Ravi
Karunanayake, Mangala Samarweera from the UNP. As Ranil Wickremesinghe is also
trying to maintain his leadership at least until 2020 he is desperately
involved in a balancing act that is not going to help the party. The biggest
problem of the UNP is that the party unlike the SLFP is not prepared to be influenced by the
nationalist sentiments as from its inception the party has influenced by the
Anglo Saxons more than by the Sinhala Buddhists. Harin Fernando has no
alternative but to join the SLFP after the elections if he wants to continue in
politics.
The Peratugamins
have died a natural death against the wishes and expectations of those left
over leftists who were thinking of reviving the left movement through the
former. The common candidate is not to be seen and the JVP is hell bent in
using undergraduates especially in the Moneragala district to create
“bheeshanya” if possible. The JVP has no power base now in the country and they
are confined to the universities and few work places where they could attract
and organise some youth with their hate speeches. Hate is the manthra of the
JVP from the days of Wijeweera and at Moneragala one could see how the
undergraduates are being used as pawns in this hate campaign. The SLFP should
not over react to this hate campaign as the victory is theirs whatever the JVP does
in its swan song.
Nalin De Silva
12-09-2014