SOME THOUGHTS ON THE CP'S 70th ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. For good measure, the Attha newspaper was also launched, and Minister DEW Gunasekera said that he hopes to make it an organ for intellectual stimulation and the destruction of outmoded 'myths.'

Extremely laudable sentiments indeed -- and it is hoped that Minister DEW would be able to deliver on his promise, because, as of now, his party is the perpetrator of a few of the enduring modern Sri Lankan myths propagated after a fashion, that keep at least people of his own political milieu in a thrall.

DEW Gunasekera is a savant of power devolution. He says that is what's liberal right thinking and progressive. That's the first myth. Power 'devolution' had created monoliths away from the Centre, and kept people divided more than united.

Is that what the Left wants in this country? This is very curious. When that consummate Indian Leftist Mr. Prakash Karat was here in Sri Lanka many years ago, he spoke to the people on many matters including devolution of power at a BCIS event presided by the late and lamented Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

Mr. Karat stated that Leftists are not for the federal devolution model as they believe fundamentally in each man being the master of his own destiny. That's why he was the most articulate advocate of Panchayat system which he promoted from a Left and progressive perspective. That, he said is the quintessence of politically Left and progressive thinking, whereas anything that tolerates the monolithic power structures created through federalism is neither progressive nor remotely Marxist.

So, it is hoped that the Attha of DEW Gunasekera will reveal the truth about the cumbersome dinosaurs by the name of Provincial Council administrations.

While he is at it DEW Gunasekera could also debunk the myths of some of his fellow travellers in the Left movement. For example, Dr. Tissa Vitharana said recently that there is an outpouring of extremism on the part of Tamil politicians who are following the effete separatist ideology of Prabhakaran -- or appear to be doing so at least - and Sinhala politicians on the other hand, who have similarly taken a stand against power sharing (he says), and devolution.

He has to be talking about his collation partners. In fact, Dr. Tisssa Vitharana expects that the virulent fascist extremism of the Tamil Tigers still not jettisoned by the TNA, will not create anxieties on the Sinhala side of the political divide.

This is curious to the point of being absurd. If the Tamil politicians in the TNA are still wedded to a worldview of terrorist extremism or at least a worldview of secessionism left behind by Prabhakaran's kind of fascist terror, how else does he expect Sinhala politicians to react other than to be on their guard, and ensure that the hard fought war victory is not snatched away in the name of power sharing?

Is that 'Sinhala chauvinism', to have that instinct of self-preservation?

It is time the Sri Lankan Left leveled with the truth that Leftist progressives should not want to help conniving neo-liberals that want to divide, carve up and rule -- under the guise of fostering power sharing.

That's why there is sage advice from the likes of Prakash Karat to the effect that progressive politics equates to empowering people at the grass roots level -- as opposed to dividing them and creating monolithic 'federated' structures which creates many centres of power, all remote from the peasant, the farm worker or brick-kiln worker in a nation's far flung backwaters.

In this 70th anniversary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka while wishing Minister DEW and Mr. Tissa Vitharana and their comrades long life and happy campaigning, here is also to wishing that the Left becomes less wooly headed, less removed from reality, more pragmatic and in sync with the wishes of the vast mass of long suffering -- now hopeful - people!