Paradigm Shift Needed To end War And Bring Peace To All

September 29th, 2007

By Kusal Perera

There was an interesting piece of news a fortnight ago that quoted JVP - MP and Trade Union leader Lal Kantha as saying, although they have differences with the UNP he needs to say the Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickramasinghe has clean hands in politics. However their spokesman, MP Weerawansa said the JVP is propping up its own National Alliance against the UNP and would also campaign against corruption of the present government and the rising cost of living. Anura Kumara Dissanayake gave it further stress by saying that their own National Alliance would be the alternative to the present government when it is ousted from power and not the UNP once again. Nevertheless, the JVP did vote against the government, along with the UNP when the Tax Bills were up for vote and all indications are, they would again vote against the government and along with the UNP when the 2008 Budget comes up in parliament. News in the media also claimed the JVP will not submit its proposals to the Finance Ministry for budget designing as they did before.

What’s all this confusion? Why should the JVP oppose the government on corruption and cost of living issues only and oppose the UNP too? Why not oppose the government all-round without talking of the UNP? The JVP has every right to be ideologically different to the UNP. On that they could oppose the UNP. Agreed and that’s fair enough politically. They also have the right to be different from the SLFP too. Where do these lines cross and where do they meet? The answer(s) lies in understanding the politics of JVP in relation not to the UNP, but to that of Sinhala peasantry.

The JVP at its birth was no Marxist party even to the extent of the “Old” or traditional Left that had a heavy Marxist grounding when the LSSP was formed in 1935. The JVP sprouted out from Maoist Nationalism of Comrade Shan that was going through turbulent crisis in the decade of the 60’s. That was the period Shanmugathasan was losing his foot hold on the Colombo based trade unions and was turning towards the Harijan movement in Jaffna. While Shan related himself emotionally to the Tamil Harijan aspirations, his Sinhala activists in the shrinking Chinese Communist Party could not. They therefore gave vent to their Nationalist politics within their youth movement that was wholly Sinhala. This brand of Sinhala Maoism also played heavily on “anti-imperialism” and thus turned towards its own variety of patriotism. The political interpretation of “Indian expansionism” that the JVP made into a core issue during their formative period explains this patriotism. Both influences had two common features that moulded the politics of the JVP and its internal thinking. One, they both had a very strong anti American element in their theories and two, they both were dependent on the peasantry for their social strength.

It is reason why, the JVP depends itself heavily on undergrad and unemployed peasant Sinhala youth. On both occasions when they took to arms and turned terrorist, their entire cadre came from those Sinhala rural youth. During both these ruthless uprisings, they had very little to do with trade unions. In fact when they decided to force their political will on society, the trade unions were simply pulverised into non-activity. It is only when they came to the open, did they venture into trade union activities. Within the present young work force that lacks the old working class traditions and is more petty-bourgeois in class thinking with the young commuting to and from their village cultures, the JVP links up through that village culture to the trade unions. With that when the JVP promotes any from Tamil or Muslim csommunities, they are only symbolic representations like the Kumarasuriyars of the SLFP or the Kadirgamars of the PA. This plays on their possible inability to attract the urban middle class and convince the academia and the intellect of the country, as did the LSSP, CP or for that matter the NSSP that had 5 professorial intellects in its Central Committee and a fairly large sympathiser group of urban middle class professionals during its highly active political life in the decade of the 80’s.

Such long ingrained institutionalised Sinhala thinking and their source of strength from the Sinhala peasant youth, possibly does not allow any inclusive thinking within the JVP. They therefore accept the SLFP rural base as their source of social power and to that extent would not want to project themselves as totally opposed to this government. To that extent they would not oppose the Sinhala thinking of this regime. They therefore cannot afford to oppose the war and the suppressing of democratic rights in the name of war. They compete for the same applause and cheer from the Southern Sinhala polity. That is precisely why they oppose all international pressure against human rights violations, dumping all such calls for saner treatment of people as international conspiracies, meaning “imperialism” which possibly comforts their thinking. Politically they have very little difference from that of this present regime. They therefore want to look different with their lingo and project a high platform of integrity.

This draws the political line that leaves no decisive political difference between the broad Sinhala political groupings and those who oppose the Sinhala Unitary platform. That demarcates more importantly democracy from that of corrupt, inefficient and ruthless governance living on a plundering war. Inefficiency, corruption and all undemocratic interferences in society stems from the war hysteria that some elements in this regime thrive on. The politics of difference therefore lies not in opposing corruption and rising cost of living, but in challenging the politics of war. And that keeps the JVP and the UNP opposing each other. That also keeps Mangala and his SLFP (M) politically opposed to the JVP.

This raises another question while answering the one raised before. Can the UNP - SLFP(M) deliver what they promised in their MoU, by simply calculating to oust this government with the support of this Sinhala JVP ? That’s a futile task as the Ranil - Mangala duo would then have to compromise with the very politics they have to defeat to deliver what they have said they would. What needs to be stressed is that it is not just removing one political alliance and replacing it with another that this society now needs, as the JVP seems to think they would do with their proposed National Alliance. This society now needs a paradigm shift in social ideologies to remedy all its ills. To bring this war to an end through a negotiated solution and peace for all. Not merely a replacement of the regime. The JVP is therefore best left with the regime without wooing it away from the mess it would have to take responsibility for. That in fact is the dilemma of the JVP. How to get out of the mess they are possibly responsible for?

Entry Filed under: Federalidea