JVP for total democracy, equality

COLOMBO: The Political Bureau of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said all national inequalities could be erased by establishing complete equality to members of all nationalities, in Sri Lanaka including those suffering under the arbitrary control of the 'Killinochchi dictator.

The JVP has made the above comments in a letter wrote in reply to the Tamil United Liberation Front Leader, V. Anandasangaree, who made several suggestions in a recent letter to the JVP with regard to the settlement of the ethnic strife in the country. Excerpts from the JVP's letter of reply to the TULF leader Anandasangaree:

The vast majority of the people in this country are not communalists. The JVP too, from its inception, rejected communalism. Whenever race riots occurred, members of our party risked their lives to protect Tamil people.

It is the JVP that declared, publicly, that all three languages - Sinhalese, Tamil and English should be recognised as National languages by the Constitution. At that time, some said it was difficult to use three languages for administrative purposes. However, everyone today accepts that it is not as difficult as making war.

If our ruling parties had been far-sighted, we believe that there wouldn't have been a Pirabaharan or a war in our country. As you have observed, if the path of the people has been directed in the correct direction, there would have been no war.

The principal agent of raw racism today is Pirabaharan. The decisive contribution of the JVP towards these principles of equality cannot be denied. What is needed today is to direct the masses especially in the areas controlled by Pirabaharan away from communalism and separatism towards winning total democracy and equality.

In a question you have asked us why the Tamil people who suffered for 23 years have to go looking for a solution in a unitary state. It is not only the Tamil people who suffered. Even Sinhalese and Muslims have also suffered during the last 23 years, remember among others the total ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Sinhalese by the LTTE in the areas they control.

A federal system, however, would also never emancipate Tamil masses from their present plight, which is to be under one-man rule. Instead, it would increase their suffering.

It is the masses who should ultimately select a system. Political parties or any other person have no right to impose a system on the masses. The JVP is always prepared to agree to any system accepted by the majority of the people in a democratic way. We accept the right of the political parties including the JVP to apprise the people of the good and the bad aspects of different systems of government.

We agree to study constitutions of various countries including that of India. One observation we have to make of some of the federal states of India. They too have ethnic minorities apart from the major community within such individual federal states.

And as we mentioned the most powerful country in the world namely the USA has a federal system without any ethnic boundaries. And we should also point out that by far, most of the constitutions of the world are unitary, federalism is only an exception not the norm. However, no one has the right to impose a solution on the people of this country.

People have come to suffer under the iron heel of the LTTE not because of the policies or activities of the JVP.

It is because of the wrong, short-sighted policies and activities of those others who ruled the country and because of the wrong policies and activities of all types of communalists including foremost among them the LTTE.

We oppose some of your views not because you are not a representative of parliament. If democracy is restored in the North and the East, we are confident that you will once again be definitely elected to the parliament. Our admiration for you is much more than that for those parliamentarians "elected" by Pirabaharan's decision not to allow democratic rights to the Tamils.

Though you hesitate to accept that a mandate was given by the masses for a unitary state at the Presidential election, we believe that it was indeed given.

It is no secret that one candidate at the presidential election was for a unitary state and the other for a federal state. As you correctly say Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse has been given a mandate to solve the National question.

However, he has not been given a mandate to establish a federal system. We also don't believe that Sri Lanka will be able to solve the National question in a very short time, (as you have stated in your letter), with the support of all international forces, just because the JVP accepts a federal system. The National question could be solved in a short time only if total democracy and total equality could be established in a short time in the areas under LTTE control.

We appreciate your statement that our party is not a communalist one. We also respect your right to say that you don't agree with us. We are fully aware of your experience and finesse in the political field. We know that you are respected by the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims for your courageous views.

We accept several of the points in your letter. However, we cannot accept your proposal on a federal system (and certain other matters). We hope you would understand our policy. We believe that you too would accept that the essence of the democratic process is to agree to disagree. But we agree on a most fundamental point.

The most important task now is full freedom for the Tamil people in the North and East living under a dictator. Let us jointly fight for the freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to practice democratic rights, freedom from the kidnapping of little children, and freedom to vote freely for the people in the North and East. This dictator, we are sure, will face the same fate as all such dictators around the world.