JVP on track to becoming a political non-entity

JVP leaders have to their credit two failed uprisings (1971 & 1988/89) as well as being rejected politically in the 1982 presidential election where JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera contested.

It is poignant to know how they benchmarked their failures against the unnecessary loss of lives most of whom were innocent youth mesmerized by false notions of a Marxist philosophy! It is possibly in this context that they decided to make a u-turn in politics departing from “ethnic autonomy” and aligning itself with easy to galvanize people precepts like “patriotism” “liberalism”.

What is evident is that while the party remains Marxist its leaders enjoy the liberty of fine-tuning their credo along what is likely to generate voters to vote with them. This does not however deny that most of its members are poisoned with hard core Marxism and the simple reason that they permit “liberal” changes is purely to ensure they do not see drastic changes in their vote base. In other words they are invariably Marxist “opportunists” and their Marxist vocals are as shallow and hollow as they themselves are. It behooves us to wonder how many of these JVP leaders are actually full time members of the party and how many of them actually play dual roles conniving with capitalist political parties?

Thus correlating Marxist thoughts and ideology to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna may not be the wisest way to describe its present actions however it necessitates that we attempt to view its actions by the theory it is professing to follow.

We are all sensitive to the reality that Marxism is being challenged and dominated by capitalist systems and it is within these realms that parties such as the JVP aspire to sustain its ideology whilst all the while attempting to keep abreast of the attractions that come with capitalist systems. No Marxist party however can steer its followers to times of the early 19th century. 21st century Marxism can no longer push to one side the details of how the non market economy of the future is to be organized. In Marx’s day this was permissible, but certainly not now.

The tragedy of the JVP lies in its unwavering passion to destroy and its opaque resolve to purely criticize all types of governance with no constructive solutions for any of the issues that prevail in the country. Their ultimate choice has always been to resort to violence and destruction and their antics have proved reason why the public are unwilling to trust in their form of governance. We do not require to be continuously reminded of the 1971 and 1989 periods where a trail of destruction and loss of life was solely attributed to the JVP. None of the world’s Human Rights Organizations, diplomats that presently cry foul over trivial issues raised even a whimper for these Sinhala youth, no UN rappateurs descended upon the island to explicitly decry the state of affairs or even warn the Government that stern action would be taken against the country for the sorry state of affairs.

The silence of the Western world and UN in particular foretells the bias with which these nations, their governments & world bodies actually function. 6577 innocent lives perished as a result of JVP atrocities during the dark period in 1988/89. Both JVP insurrections together possibly put to death close to 100,000 innocent Sinhalese youth who believed in JVP ideology – how many of these dead youth are even remembered by the JVP leaders today?

Some of the cold blooded murders committed by the JVP

2 Catholic Priests
5 School Principals
27 Trade Union Leaders
39 Buddhist clergy
147 Student Union Leaders
162 family members of armed forces
209 armed forces personnel
342 police personnel
487 Public servants

The destruction caused to public property by the JVP

2 Electricity Boards
2 Sugar Factories
13 Electrical poles
15 Bus Depots
24 Train Stations
69 Electrical cables
123 Transformers
553 State Buses
680 post offices

The present JVP today is in a state of denial. Its ability to stand alone as a single political party has resulted in diluting itself to forging deals with political parties for its own sustenance politically. As such we saw the manner it aligned to the CBK Government, the manner in which it saw fit to join the ultra capitalists & form a member of the UNF alliance and now presently wooing the UNP to continue the UNF alliance for the General Elections as the likelihood of JVP withering into political oblivion seems not too far in sight.

It is no surprise that we notice a decline in JVP support base. The JVP passengers are those like the leadership who choose to veil themselves with Marxist philosophy but function to the dictates of western aligned political parties. It is not difficult to predict that the JVP is in store for some reality checks come 8th April 2010 and for this reason and this reason alone we see JVP leaders in vigorous moves to prop up “hero Fonseka” so much so that they have compromised their party symbol to a trophy.

It reflects the desperation of the JVP leaders and clearly depicts the anxiety that must be on the forefront of their minds in the likelihood that voters desert the JVP, Fonseka and the trophy and choose instead to follow the elephant. The strategy of the UNP has indeed worked well…while aligning itself to a mass opposition alliance for the Presidential election, it clearly embarrassed the ideologies of these partners in the face of the public and now the UNP boldly declares it is planning to go it alone resurrecting the elephant symbol. We did predict that the likely scenario of an uncommon alliance projecting itself as a Common alliance would meet this fate.

For the public the general elections should pose a very simple choice. The present political system cannot be changed and this merits that the public choose political parties that will have a mandate to enable some constitutional changes to take place provided they obtain a majority status.

The people should decide whether they propose to have faith in a political party like the UNP or the UPFA. But, voters must be conscious of the trust they can place upon the two main political parties and this can be distinguished in terms of delivery to the people, which party actually considers the welfare of the people, which party has successfully delivered while in power and more importantly which party will ensure that the integrity of the country is never compromised.

The grand opposition coalition was anyway predicted to crumble but if its sojourn has ended so soon it obviously means that the main player (UNP) of that coalition never meant it to last anyway and it was formed purely for its own survival and to camouflage its obvious loss. Not many believed this possibility but now many are beginning to understand the dynamics of how the UNP played its card to coerce Fonseka as a pawn against the incumbent President and brainwashed him into believing that he would become the next President of Sri Lanka.

Voters never had very far to look to decide their choice – it was always the choice between what was being promised and what had been delivered. The political pandits obviously never considered this when analyzing the possible outcome of the election. President Rajapakse had delivered – the war against the LTTE was over, the country was never compromised and its unitary status not lost or given up, travel to areas that were once a dream was now possible, tourist arrivals are increasing, hotels are doing extremely well with local tourists enjoying the new freedom of movement, roads, bridges, power plants have emerged, fishing industry is picking up, agriculture is improving and investors are now keener to invest than before. Of course an area that will need significant improvement is the corruption and the bureaucracy at most public institutions.

Hardly within 8 months of that proud news that Sri Lanka was able to militarily defeat FBI’s “world’s worse terrorist outfit” we are all stupefied at the outcome and the manner in which elements have been able to put two heroes against the other to battle out an election.

The reality is that Fonseka was purely used as a pawn by all parties – for the JVP it was a perfect means to showcase itself and command greater respectability as well as force the UNP to join its “Common Alliance”. Much of Sri Lanka’s progress has been deterred not only due to the LTTE but a large part of the country’s situation solely falls on the door of the JVP. Their juvenile antics were displayed every decade since the 1970s, the 1980s being a blood bath and the 1990s seeing them first aligning to the CBK Government and then working towards toppling it. The same heroics were adapted for the Mahinda Rajapakse Government as well and come this election it is worthy for the people of Sri Lanka to finally show the JVP that it is time its lies, deceit and destruction is not wanted and that the JVP as a movement either must change its entire philosophy or enter the hall of shame forever.

- Asian Tribune -