CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Budget Vote, Patriotism, Lal Kanthas & Wimal Weerawanshas

Sisira Pereira, Panadura

The second budget vote will be taken on the 14th December. Some predicts it will be the doomsday for the Government. And Mr. Lal Kantha of the JVP had been reported by the media to have given assurance to his audience that the Government will be stopped for good.

Lal Kantha and the likes in the JVP could not have chosen a better time to act the goat and be vociferous in uniting with the opportunistic, anti-national forces to defeat the Government, citing bogus economic negatives of the budget and “Shylock type” worker union demands on which their sole survival is totally dependant.

The battle against the brutal LTTE terrorism has reached new heights. The SL armed forces are being deftly lead by veteran leaders in the battlefront and, like never before in the 25-year-old LTTE menace, the present Government has given the thorough political backing to the army to plan and destroy Velupillai Pirapaharan’s psychopathic Eelam dream. Pirapaharan is left with no option than to shut all his masquerades on surface and go subterranean in the Wanni jungles pleading with the international community. He is looking towards the heaven for some solace to save his pathetic head.

Of course Pirapaharan does not have to look that far. He can just look towards the Sri Lanka Parliament. No doubt, he is watching with awe at his beloved bunch of Knights in shining armour in the UNP, TNA and other parties loyal to him, rallying by the dozen to vote to topple the government for him. Pirapaharan failed to do that a couple of times with suicide bombers. Does not matter. The vote will do! And the harbinger brings no clout as to who will and who will not get dressed in the shining attire in the Parliament on the 14th to pave way to pump oxygen to dying Pirapaharan and his terrorist tactics.

The JVP too is getting all ready to jump in the bandwagon. The irony is that while planning to vote against the Government and thereby bringing it and the patriotic hopes down, they still claim themselves to be the patriots who want to see the SL armed forces winning the battle against Pirapaharan the terrorist. And at the same time, Lal Kantha vows that the JVP will bring down the Government.

How funnier and more ridiculous can their act get?

Can someone be a JVP parliamentarian and a patriotic at the same time when the budget vote is taken? This seems to be the million Rupee question. Looks like MR. Lal Kantha has given the masses the answer to that question in the negative. Alternatively, it is also possible that there may exist two kinds of patriotism in the ranks of the JVP. Lal Kantha’s trade union patriotism and Wimal Weerawansha’s against-LTTE patriotism. The public, I must say, understands the latter better.

Moreover, it looks like that the budget vote is promising doom not only for the Government, but also for the true patriotic forces within the JVP itself (if it has any). Where does that leave vociferous individuals like Mr. Wimal Weerawansha, who has pledged unconditional support to the march of the gallant security forces in their victorious campaign against the LTTE terrorists? Why does an individual like Lal Kantha of the JVP issue public statement to the effect that the JVP is hell-bent on defeating the Government at the budget vote at this crucial time of the war against the LTTE terrorism? Most importantly, how come individuals like Wimal Weerawansha plays the second fiddle to them, while playing the patriotic card too for the JVP when the time permits?

The patriotic face of the JVP has been built undoubtedly around the parliamentarian, Wimal Weerawansha, not Lal Kantha. Weerawansha has been vociferous against the LTTE terrorism in many fronts and has been contributing much to rally people in one line behind the Government’s fight against the LTTE thereby giving the party a much-coveted patriotic face to win over the mass support. He has been critical of the Government on many points too but has also supported the notion that the Government is handling the war against the LTTE much better than any other previous Government ever did. No matter how much non-JVPers dislike the JVP as a political party, the majority of JVP haters have grown a kind of liking and a soft spot for the eloquent man in Weerawansha and thereby he has grown in stature to symbolize some kind of a strong, patriotic, larger-than-life figure within the JVP. His patriotic outlook single handedly managed the mass attraction.

The Question is, is he alone in his patriotic struggle within the JVP ranks? Is he and the like out voted in the decision to vote with the Government at this juncture by Union hawks like Lal Kantha and the likes whose leniencies are much towards thriving on worker union unrest? Or has Weerawansha too been preaching what he can not practice himself in reality? On a larger magnitude, do we understand a split in opinion in the JVP on the decision on the vote? Moreover, if it is the case, is the unpatriotic faction within the JVP overcoming the resistance of the patriotic faction at this crucial time? The public has a right to know.

If the status quo is such, if Lal Kantha’s threatened stance against the Government is going to get the mass support within the JVP at the budget vote, thereby giving undue advantage to Pirapaharan, how could individuals like Wimal Weerawansha, the patriotic face of the JVP, bring up the courage to vote along with such unpatriotic innuendo of the sinister factions within his party?

Alternatively, is it fair to conclude that Weerawansha too is just one of those JVPers who thinks that they are patriotic by birth, so no matter what they do afterwards, they could assume the title of the Nation’s saviours just for the appeal of it by the public, while doing the stark opposite at crucial times?

However, one thing is clear enough. In order for Sri Lanka to emerge victorious as a Nation against the brutal terrorism of the LTTE, Wimal Weerawansha’s preached patriotism should take effect and defeat Lal Kantha’s affiliated patriotism on the 14th December. If it happens the other way round, two things are bound to happen.

Pirapaharan will have the last laugh and Wimal Weerawansha can kiss his patriotic rhetoric goodbye as the Public will be treated to a reality check as to what sort of patriotism does exist within Mr. Weerawansha and his party, the JVP.

Answers to all these questions will come on the 14th, just one more day from today. Yet it might have been too late by then. Sri Lanka will be happy if it is not.

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