Strategies and failures Will they ever learn?
S. Akurugoda
According to media reports, JVP has joined the UNP now to go all out
against the Executive Presidency, thereby supporting the candidate
forwarded by the UNP-led opposition alliance which would promise to do
away with the Executive Presidency within 180 days after coming to
power. The strategy is to use the common opposition candidate as a
‘bait’ to catch the voters who were rejoiced after the defeat of
terrorism and to deny the incumbent President a 50 percent majority.
Let us rush through the well-known strategies of the JVP since its
inception. The strategy (perhaps the only alternative) adopted by JVP in
1970, after the arrest of its leader by the UNP Government, was to
support the United Front led by Mrs Bandaranaike to gain a favourable
atmosphere for their activities and then to capture power through an arm
struggle.
The JVP simply thought that by carrying out surprise attacks on
police stations will do the job. However the so-called arm struggle or
the revolution was poorly armed and badly led and according to available
official figures, at least five thousand youths, mainly
Sinhala-Buddihist patriots, probably many more, were misled to death in
their first adventure.
Politically motivated demonstrations - a hindrance to public.
File photo |
In late 1980s, JVP thought that eliminating individuals and
widespread fear psychosis (Bheesanaya) can bring down the Government in
power. But the UNP Government made use of the Bheesanaya to its maximum
advantage to win the Presidential elections and the end result was the
loss of sixty five thousand of innocent lives including those of JVP
leaders.
The JVP is a product of unemployment and social imbalance, but the
political indoctrination they conducted, on both adventures, reinforced
the youths’ anxieties and persuaded them to embark on the path of
violence.
Although the strategies by the first generation of JVP to grab power
have failed miserably, the second generation or the ‘re-born’ JVP of
early nineties managed to win the support of the people to some extent
due to their stand against separatism, at a time, when both the leaders
of the two main political parties were fooled by the LTTE sympathisers
and giving into separatism. The massive preferential votes received by
the JVP candidates during the last Parliamentary election compared to
those of UPFA led by Chandrika are an indication of this fact.
The popularity of the JVP was at its peak during the last
Presidential election, but the situation changed rapidly after the last
Presidential election. While underestimating the political shrewdness of
the President, some of the top ranking leaders of the JVP over-estimated
its apparent popularity and decided to go on its own, despite repeated
requests made by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa to join him.
Had the JVP joined the government to serve the people, similar to
what they did when Chandrika’s Parivasa government was formed; the story
would have been entirely different today.
The decision of the leadership to not to cooperate with the President
elected by themselves and to go alone led to an internal crisis and the
party suffered its biggest setback when Weerawansa (probably the most
popular leader among the JVP membership) decided to breakaway from the
party with 10 other Parliamentarians.
The JVP is fast losing its lustre again and to defuse this situation
the party organized a general strike last year to demonstrate to the
masses, especially their membership that they are still strong and could
exert pressure on the Government as before, but failed again miserably.
It is unfortunate that the party leaders do not realize that the only
way to recover its lost lustre is to go back to where it was in 2006.
UNP of the day has to depend on the imported strategies of bankrupt
dissidents of other political parties, unlike the UNP under the
leaderships of JRJ and Premadasa, since the current leadership is in
political wilderness.
It is hard to expect any change of this situation since the incumbent
leader may not give-up his position even if the Sakraya (King of the
gods) is ready to assume the leadership of the party. The leader of the
UNP became the ‘leader for life’ of the party as a result of a loophole
in its Constitution.
His only hope, apparently, is to become the ‘leader for life of the
country’, by hook or by crook, with the assistance of the so-called
international community and until then he will never stop his campaign
of tarnishing the image of the country.
As per the latest media reports, UNP leader has sent one of its well
known LTTE sympathisers in the party to Geneva again, to add some more
weight to the issues of IDPs and so-called widespread human rights
violations in the country, probably to give an additional moral support
to the notable Western countries who are all out to punish Sri Lanka for
the elimination of LTTE Tiger terrorism from our soil.
According to the UNP General Secretary, the Executive Presidency is a
curse and he wanted it scrapped immediately. By looking at how the
General Secretary interprets all election defeats in favour of UNP, it
is not surprising at all his failure to realize that his current leader
is a curse to his own party!
Both the JVP and the UNP are now going hammer and tongs to do away
with the Executive Presidency, because both parties know very well their
fate at a Presidential election. The obvious question we have is why not
the JVP include abolition of the entire J.R.J. Constitution of 1978 and
its Amendments including infamous 13A in their demonstrations organized
against the Executive Presidency. Are they happy with the present PR
system which allows all sorts of people, including those who have been
rejected by the voters at the elections, to enter the Parliament through
the backdoor as representatives of the people?
Knowing very well that the government will not do away with the
presidency, both parties appear to have come to an understanding to
support a common opposition candidate for the presidency for their own
survival and to prevent President Mahinda Rajapaksa winning a second
term.
Knife is a useful tool which can be used for cutting as well as
stabbing. If misused, it is the person who used it at fault and not the
knife. Both D.B. Wijetunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa proved that the
Executive Presidency can be used for better purposes than the others who
served in that position. As far as ordinary people are concerned, there
are many stressing problems that have to be focused than the position of
Executive Presidency. Failure of the opposition to win elections is not
the fault of the Executive Presidency.
The demonstration organized against the Executive Presidency and the
call for the support to a common opposition presidential candidate
reminds us the popular saying “When a man is drowning, he will catch at
anything in the hope that it may keep him afloat”. |