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by Ravi Perera

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna popularly known as the JVP recently organized a march of its supporters from the Southern city of Galle to Colombo for the purpose of displaying its opposition to the ongoing peace negotiations between the Government and the Tamil Tiger movement (LTTE) of the North. It claims that the negotiations would result in a sell out of national interest by the Government.

Whether the JVP position on this issue is correct is debatable. Peace and prosperity can bring new dynamisms to play which are far wider than the negotiation paper envisages. Many times in the past the JVP has raised shrill alarms about various issues only to be proved silly later on. The vast majority of Sri Lankans are reasonable and eschew extrems. Propaganda gimmicks like marches which were used quite often in the early 20th century don't have the same impact in the modern world. The large number of road users who were badly inconvenienced by the march were certainly not impressed by the JVPs disregard of their rights. Apart from this, walking is a good exercise and would have of course done all the marchers some good!

Political demos - no longer in vogue

The JVP entered mainstream politics of Sri Lanka with the election of some of its members to the national Parliament in 2000. Undoubtedly the proportional system of elections introduced by its arch rival the United National Party (UNP) helped the JVP to achieve representation. On the old electorate based system the JVP did not secure a single electorate. In fact it did not even come close to winning an electorate. The district wise proportional representation is how it managed to have some of its members in Parliament.

Having, thus attained Parliamentary representation the JVP now presumes a national player and wants the major democratic parties to play ball with it. With its capacity to manoeuvrer the party's mindless membership the JVP can ensure an effective propaganda blitz and also promise a good turnout at a political gathering. But it is not easy to convince a majority of a nation that has now enjoyed representative democracy for well over fifty years that they should willingly participate in the act of disinheriting their freedoms because the JVP says these freedoms are illusory. Many times in the past Marxist parties have faced this dilemma. The people they want to liberate do not want to be liberated by them!

Socialism and the theory of a planned economy was the biggest false dawn of the 20th century. The sufferings that this failed experiment brought to countless millions is unimaginable. With the collapse of socialism we witnessed the huge gap between the promise of its theory and the actual delivery of its system. In Europe specially, the unwilling victims of socialism today detest the system with a passion.

In Asian socialist countries like China and Vietnam the social dynamism is not strong enough to throw away a hated system completely. So they remain one party socialist countries in name. But in economics they are as capitalist as their much more prosperous neighbours such as Malaysia and Hong Kong. Theory cannot motivate man or turn machines. These things need freedom, incentive, enterprise and human ingenuity. These so-called socialist countries in Asia have accepted this reality. But the old men who mostly run these countries apparently do not want to let go.

It is a fact that socialist countries in Asia are far less free and much more poor than their neighbours. North Korea is almost owned by one family. China is an oligarchy with no retirement age for its party leaders. Its socialist rulers turned Cambodia into a killing field. How will a socialist experiment of a far less talented and far more insular JVP work out?

One does not need much imagination to answer this question.

It is very unlikely the people of this country, however desperate, will put their fate in the hands of a totalitarian party like the JVP for its socialism. So in their feverish calculations the JVP has decided that the way to power is not by advocating socialism but by appealing to what they see as an inherent fear the Sinhalese have of domination by the Tamil minority. They intend exploiting this fear by portraying in exaggerated terms the challenge posed by the Tamil aspirations as articulated by the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE). This reading of the Sinhalese mentality by the JVP is a false perception and in fact is an insult to the intelligence of the Sinhalese people.

The JVP pose as saviors of the Sinhalese is hard to sustain. There is in fact little in the past and even present conduct of the JVP which point to true nationalism or patriotism.

It is a truism that more Sinhalese, both its followers and those it declared as enemies, have died at their hands than at the hands of the LTTE.The JVP's irresponsible and cynical sacrifice of thousands of its supporters in the pursuit of its ambitions are hard to match in the modern world. In the 1983-89 rebellion all its top leaders operated from behind the scenes and in comfort. It also quite cynically and wickedly used thuggery and murder in politics including in the campuses.

The economic destruction wrought by two unsuccessful rebellions by this party is enormous. During its unsuccessful insurrections the JVP deliberately targeted vital economic assets such as transformers, factories and machinery. Even today its ultra radical union activity has compelled the closure of many enterprises resulting in unemployment and misery to the workers.

The JVP is never known to have militarily confronted an organization like the LTTE. But it had no qualms murdering Sinhalese policemen and soldiers who were bravely fighting the LTTE in the North.

Given this background how can the JVP claim to be more concerned for this country than a political party such as the UNP which has gained the confidence of more than 45% of our voters? What lunacy drives its leaders to state that Ranil Wickremesinghe is a traitor? As an aside, during the 83-89 insurrection the JVP also declared the then leaders of the current PA, traitors and even attempted to take Mrs. Bandaranaike's life. Given this background how is this apparently lunatic, paranoid and totally insular party able to command the important position it has in our nation's affairs today?

The major reason for this of course is the relative poverty of our country. Our per capita income is less than one thousand US dollars an year. Many in our country still earn less than two dollars a day. The number of people who line up to take up relatively low paying non-professional jobs in other countries is embarrassingly high. Some of these countries are themselves relatively poor countries. In agriculture we still have an outdated farming model of tiny sized and labour intensive farming. In industries our biggest sector is the garment industry which again is one which is built on low cost labour and basic technology. In the tourist industry we mainly cater to the budget traveler. We cannot yet boast of even a single modern highway. The taxpayer of this country is still forced to support a massive State economy which is corrupt, inefficient and politicized. We really cannot be proud of our record of nation building.

When one examines our post independence economic statistics one fact stands out like a sore thumb. Whenever SLFP dominated governments rule, the economy stagnates and even goes into recession. This is not surprising considering that it is a party based on distributive principles of economics and tends to be populist in approaching public issues. Social justice is an admirable goal but there are many paths to it. By stimulating the economy to create wealth one can create conditions in which all citizens ultimately benefit. We see this in prosperous countries like the United States. Attempts by adherents of social philosophies that advocate slicing a fast decreasing national pie in fact eventually result in misery to all. Even once left wing parties like the Labour Party of the United Kingdom have now become quite pragmatic and recognize the fact that a nation must create wealth if it wants to progress.

Poverty of our nation has created a fertile breeding ground for the JVP, although its promised socialist model has not solved problems anywhere else in the world. Socialist solutions have proved to be worse than the problem in every place they were carried out. Perhaps the JVP being the product of abysmal ignorance and insularity is not aware of this. This party is a uniquely Sri Lankan product.

No where else today is there a party which can muster thousands to march seventy miles in the hot sun shouting slogans emanating from the 1950s.The human race has evolved much since those times. The way we do things today is outdated the next year. The average human being now is much more informed, aware of his rights, individualistic and independent. Politicized trade unionism, protest marches; secreative political movements, all knowing politburos etc belong to a fast receding world. It will be very hard to convince a person brought up in a Western country, for instance, that the politburo of his political party has decided that he should walk seventy miles in the hot sun. This JVP march would have cost millions of labour hours of people who could have otherwise been productively employed. It also disrupted the lives of millions of others who were prevented from doing their normal things.

Why does a certain section of our population make themselves amenable to the organized atavism which is the JVP? Does a certain weakness in their make up attract them to the dictatorship of the insular?

An education purely in a vernacular may be the reason for this. It appears to give one a sense of having received an education but leaving deep down a feeling of inadequacy. Outside the borders of this tiny country his education is of no use. Even within, without extensively drawing on another language he cannot advance his knowledge. In applying his knowledge a vernacular graduate will always feel less competent than a counterpart who has studied the subject say in English.

These factors combined with certain cultural tendencies often give rise to a juvenile attitude which the JVP makes full use of. The vast majority of its members are barely out of their teens. Very few of them including the leaders have held regular jobs. Unlike the old left parties there are no outstanding personalities in the JVP leadership. They lack the experience, the wide learning and the broad culture that leaders of distinction possess. The JVP certainly is not a party that a mature voter will back.

But, if you want to walk for days in the burning sun shouting slogans it perhaps is the party for you!

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