By Sena Thoradeniya

Hitherto men have constantly made up for themselves false conceptions about themselves, about what they are and what they ought to be. ……They the creators have bowed down before their creations. Let us liberate them from the chimeras, the ideas, dogmas, imaginary beings under the yoke of which they are pinning away”. (Karl Marx & Frederick Engels: The German Ideology”)

(1) Dual Face of JVP-The NPP (Malimawa”) and Strange Bedfellows

Janus is also described as god of duality, depicted as having two faces, who presides over beginning and ending of conflict. With the creation of NPP, JVP got its double face hitherto uncovered since its beginning in the sixties. Only the other revolutionary groups active from mid 1960s who were observant of JVP tactics and behaviours of JVP leadership since its formation are privy to its dual nature and above all else its betrayals which are legion.

NPP is not an independent grouping, a partner in a JVP-led United Front. It is the dual face of the JVP, a receptacle to hold few artists, writers, academics, so-called professionals, ex-leftist elements, retired revolutionaries, Revisionist and Trotskyite ideologues, foreign -funded so-called civil society activists and now some ex-servicemen.  

We wrote in September 2020 an article titled, Forward, Not Backward”, Under Whose Command? A Story of Strange Bedfellows” to now defunct Sri Lanka Times” about a Fresh Civil Society Project, ‘Forward, Not Backward’” launched ahead of August 2020 Polls. Having failed to derail GR’s campaign for presidency, a hurriedly formed offshoot of the so-called civil society had started a campaign to prevent the SLPP obtaining a two-third majority at the July General Elections (postponed due to Corona pandemic) appealing to the followers of the UNP, SJB, JVP and TNA to fall in line with them. They must have thought that the masses are idiots, short of memory to perceive the UNP, SJB, JVP and TNA constitute the pro-democracy camp” in Sri Lanka.  It was not unusual for the civil society paragons of virtue looking for another straw after failing to clutch on to Fonseka in 2010 and Sirisena-Wickremesinghe in 2015 respectively.  

During election times strange things happen. Earlier it was the formation of different coalitions of warring parties and factions for political expediency. We cannot blame those party men because their motive is coming into power striking the right note.

People have fresh memories about the statement made by the then US Secretary of State John Kerry that the US providing US $ 585 million to Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Myanmar to stabilise democracy” (read as to destabilise the country).  Looking at the strategic importance of Sri Lanka to US interests rather than Nigeria and Myanmar, we can surmise that Sri Lanka’s civil society groupings getting the lion’s share of it, not an equally apportioned one third. People know that the Civil Society worthies themselves contributed to the downfall of the Yahapalana regime with their anti-national programmes which are beyond description. But they as the boogeymen of US succeeded in ousting the popularly elected President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in 2022.

Now a section of these worthies has found a haven in NPP. Other than the civil society Brahmins some other segments have joined the NPP bandwagon.

But how can we explain old Trotskyite ideologues, old Revisionists of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras, previous yahapalana campaigners, architects of failed federal constitutions joining the NPP forgetting all what they have said about the JVP beginning from early nineteen sixties? Various types of Trotskyists were in the forefront criticising JVP ideology and its stand on Tamil question. They were not interested in its strategy and tactics of capturing power in a one day revolution” for obvious reasons. Some of these strange bedfellows were included in the JVP national list. They had forgotten the fate of ex-Auditor General Mayadunne. He had the privilege of attending only the inaugural session of the last 2015 Parliament. As any other party did JVP too appointed two defeated candidates to their national list slots. Some academics who cannot bag a handful of votes and some unknown personalities were also included in the JVP national list.

These Trotskyites and Revisionists have completely forgotten how they had criticised the JVP and its leaders prior to 1971 and afterwards. During 1988-89 several Communist Party leaders and Samasamajists, trade union leaders, card holders, members of the rank and file and sympathisers were gunned down in broad daylight by the DJV, the armed wing of the JVP. Many who survived were in their hit list. Some hid in the plantations and among the rebels in the North. Some fled to India whilst some others left shores seeking greener pastures and came to roost when the dust has been settled.

JVP gonibillas” (in short billas”) who were in the service of the security forces identified leftist cadres and sympathisers, also their own folks and assisted to intensify the suppression of left forces. Later some of these old gonibillas” have entered mainstream politics, even Parliament. In Kenya in the 1950’s during the Mau Mau uprising Kenyan villagers were brought before betrayers, those who took the Mau Mau oath with the jungle fighters to identify the fighters remaining in the hamlets. They were dressed in huge hoods with eye-holes who became known as Little Sacks” or Gahunia”, the precursors of our own billas!

Some other leftists also joined in the killing spree. They formed the most notorious PRRA (Peoples’ Revolutionary Red army) as against the atrocities of DJV. Whoever was first to pull the trigger was the ultimate winner. The members of the civil society condoned these killings and suppression of JVP. Later some of these men were in the higher echelons of the Yahapalana regime as ministers and parliamentarians which included a person who cheated at University examinations, who was debarred to sit any examination conducted by that particular university.

Members of the so-called civil society condoned these killings and suppression of JVP.  These men and women do not have any shame as they have also joined the NPP. How can one embrace his own killers?  This applies to armed forces also. In 1971 JVP’s few Navy supporters were entrusted with mixing ‘japala’ (Croton tiglium L.) seed to water tanks making the naval ratings to purge (japala is a purgative) and immobilize them until JVP captures power. In 1988 Katunayaka Airbase was penetrated and arms taken away; Police Field Force Headquarters was attacked. JVP/DJV issued an order to members of the armed forces to leave the forces, if not their family members will be killed. True to its nature JVP/DJV killed many such family members. Army like the JVP/DJV put up posters everywhere and began mopping up operations. Did the ex-servicemen who address meetings, act as mobilisers and attend JVP/NPP rallies ask for an explanation why JVP issued such an order to kill their family members?   

After the 1971 insurrection thousands of youth were taken into custody. For those who joined the JVP without any understanding of Marxism-Leninism, revolutionary path befitting an Asian country, prisons and rehabilitation camps became political schools. Some of the leading cadres who fought against the State were disillusioned about JVP policies and its leadership formed their own political group Janatha Sangamaya” when they were released. The best books criticising the JVP were written by these breakaway groups.

JVP began killing their erstwhile comrades with the killing of Nandana Marasinghe, the person who led a group of aficionados to storm the Jaffna prisons and rescue Wijeweera in 1971 and founder of JVP’s Vimukthi Gee”.   In 1988-89 several leading figures of Janatha Sangamaya” were killed by the JVP labelling them as traitors. Deva Bandara Senaratne, T. B. Wijesuriya, Jamis Ethugala were among them.  It’s incomprehensible to state that some of the leading men of this group cum Diyasa” editors entering the fray finding slots in the JVP district lists. People owed an explanation from them, what extraordinary qualities they saw in the present JVP leadership, what Wijeweera and the old leadership of the JVP lacked.

Wedid notknowwhether to laugh or cry when we saw the names of some Trotskyite and Communist” academics who fought against colossal like NM, Colvin, S. A. Wickremasinghe and Peiter Keuneman, castigating them as reformists, who have drowned the left movement in the quagmire of bourgeois parliamentary politics and bourgeois coalitions, economism, revisionism, opportunism and alleging that they have betrayed revolutionary ideals and the working class in NPP National List. They who formed their own splinter groups to carry out the revolution in Sri Lanka, after taking a full circle finding national list slots in the party they hated more than the Democratic or Republican or Conservative parties, sitting in a common rostrum in their senile lives was indeed deplorable.

(2) Enter Harini Amarasuriya

After the 2020 General Elections for the JVP’s solitary national list slot an outsider, Harini Amarasuriya was selected dumping all these ideologues and civil society” worthies. Even their party stalwarts, defeated candidates or former JVP Ministers or Deputy Ministers (under CBK) were not selected.

What was the reason?  Reason was the NGO factor within the JVP/NPP becoming predominant. JVP is the largest and organised NGO in Sri Lanka (not the party of the proletariat) getting enormous funds from undisclosed sources.

Later some NGO academics including an history teacher in the NPP voiced their opinion that Amarasuriya should lead the JVP/NPP and she should be its Presidential candidate). Reason cited was that Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the present leader of JVP/NPP cannot sustain a dialogue in English. They must have thought that a ‘leader’ of a former English colony should be conversant in English to discuss world affairs with former colonial masters!

More than that, it is evident that Harini Amarasuriya’s class origins and class affiliations and class allegiances had played a significant role (to match Rajapaksas and Wickremasinghe?). In her many interviews she is very careful not to divulge her ancestral roots. She simply says that her father was a planter without naming him. She may have heard JVP/DJV killing a number of plantation managers and setting ablaze more than a dozen tea factories.  

It is not unfounded to guess that Harini Amarasuriya belongs to a clan which represented comprador- bourgeoisie consisting of colonial plantation interests, bankers and MNCs. We did not have such representatives of comprador- bourgeoisie and MNCs in the leadership of Old Left. We refrain here to add the part played by Amarasuriyas in local politics as it is well-known to oldtimers. They claimed that they descend from the Kshatriya warrior royalty of India.

Entrepreneur proprietor given a Muhandiramship by British government;  buying estates from British planters leaving Ceylon when many plantations were set on sale gave opportunities to local land owning gentry; pioneers of low country tea, extending  a plantation empire up to Morawak Korale; owners of tea and rubber factories, owners of Monrovia, Citrus Group,  Kurulugalla Group, Morawaka Korale, Diyadawa Group, Mahendra Group, Olympus Group; moved to upcountry higher elevations in Ambagamuwa, Dickoya and Dimbula tea districts;  Members of State Council;  Members of Parliament; Cabinet Ministers (through some of them links to business magnates like Dilmas); General Secretaries of UNP; Deputy Speakers; OBE recipients; Presidents of Senate; first Ceylonese Chairman of the Planters’ Association; occupying top echelons of MNCs and banks; Crown Counsels, President’s Counsels, and top doctors; Cabinet Secretaries, diplomats, Ministry Secretaries (of Felix Dias), Public Prosecutors (who prosecuted JVPers at the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC), Law Professors and vice-Chancellors (like G. L. Peiris: we mentioned only G.L.’s name as it is necessary because he is in a political ‘gandabba’ state and we do not know where his ‘helicopter’ lands after a General Election!) are in the Amarasuriya clan. Does Anura Kumara’s flock know these?  

Not long-agoRoar Media Sinhala (which played an active part at Galle Face), funded by IREX (International Research & Exchange Board – funded by USAID, US State Department, Ford Foundation and Millennium Challenge Corporation and Google), carried an article about Amarasuriya clan, with its genealogical records. Nobody can doubt that Harini Amarasuriya was selected by the JVP/NPP because of the connections she has to landed gentry, comprador-bourgeoisie and multi-national business conglomerates. Caste had played a decisive role in this selection as in 1971.  JVP was a group of a particular caste fighting for its own emancipation.  

It is a supreme irony that the JVPers and dissidents of old Trotskyist groups who were critical about class origins and class characteristics of old left leaders who became an appendage of NPP, having one of them in their fief.

Who is Harini Amarasuriya? Wikipedia says she is ideologically on the Centre-left of the NPP” and she considers herself to be a liberal”. JVP, if it is a party of the proletariat cannot accommodate Centre-lefts and liberals. What is liberalism? In his essay titled Combat Liberalism” (1937), Mao identifying  11 main manifestations of liberalism says, ‘‘liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective”; liberalism stems from petty-bourgeois selfishness”; liberals look upon the principles of Marxism as abstract dogma”; liberalism is a manifestation of opportunism”; it is negative and objectively has the effect of helping the enemy; that is why the enemy welcomes its preservation in our midst”; no place for it in the ranks of the revolution”. All loyal, active, honest and upright communists must unite to oppose the liberal tendencies shown by certain people among us and set them on the right path. This is one of the tasks on our ideological front.” So, it is all bunkum calling JVPers as Marxists and Maoists.

This is clear-cut evidence to show that JVP no longer upholds Marxism. It is the capitalist press and Sri Lankans domiciled abroad paint them as Marxists. (Even some incorrigible Sinhala youtubers are Marxists for them). Calling them Rathu Sahodarayas” and Socialists” is the worst thing they do to Communists and Socialists all over the world. Kowtowing at Julie Chung as her parlor boy, addressing meetings at venues in US adorned with American flags, JVP leader Anura Kumara knows how to butter both sides of the bread.  

According to various interviews of Amarasuriya which are in the public domain, (Gossip Lanka News on 19/8/2020, E- International Relations 25/6/2220, Daily Mirror on 10/3/2021; One to One Video) her father is a planter; young days spent in a plantation bungalow; she proudly says that she was born in McCarthy private hospital and educated at Bishops College;  did English, Greek and Roman Civilisation, French and History for her A/Ls (those days at Peradeniya the combination of kultur lot, except History); an avid reader, she was spoon-fed while reading; English was the language spoken at home; had American connections from her school days; goes to California on a Student Exchange Programme.

When I was exploring options for higher education my interest was in English. My father wanted meet a friend of his – a rather eccentric former diplomat for me to discuss my ‘future’ with him. When I announced that I wanted to study English Literature this was immediately scoffed at as a typical, elitist, bourgeois Sri Lankan thing” (says she did not know the meaning of what bourgeois was). I don’t know whether the ‘eccentric’ was right, as he had recommended her to read a godfather of Sinhala academics of the NPP. So, she selects Sociology. 

She obtains a degree from Hindu College, Delhi University; joins an NGO doing Community Mental Health” by  an organization called Nest” and work in mental institutions such as  Mulleriyawa, IDH and in a psychosocial support programme as a child protection and psychosocial support practitioner in  the north and east war-torn areas, Batticaloa and Mannar; Tsunami work with UNICEF; not a product of a Sri Lankan university she obtains a doctorate from Scotland; joins the Open University and immediately participates in a  FUTA (2021) struggle demanding higher wages for  the academics under the guise of increasing the vote to education to 6% of the GDP. It is farcical to mention the names of the academics she mentions who had influenced her and mentored her (Sundara Minissu) at this juncture, all members of the so-called National Intellectuals Organisation” (NIO) affiliated to JVP/NPP. It is a meteoric rise to be elevated as a nominated MP.

NPP had 29 names in its national list. The first in the list was Bimal Ratnayaka who was a Deputy Minister under CBK. Everybody thought that the choice was Ratnayake. Sunil Handunnetti, Nalinda Jayatissa, Nihal Galappatti who were in the last Parliament was not appointed. It was decided to give it to NPP, (a decision made by Anura and Tilwin Ayya, according to Amarasuriya). There were Trotskyite ideologues and yahapalana constitution makers.  How and why Harini Amarasuriya becoming more suitable than these worthies to fill the solitary national list slot?  Bringing defeated candidates to Parliament via National List is constitutional as the constitution provides for such appointments. All political parties have made use of this provision as it was the practice; JVP dumped its National List MP former Auditor General Mayadunne soon after him taking oaths and appointed Handunnetti, a defeated candidate in his place.

This is a case of JVP turning into NGO politics from its traditional vote base; I do not say it is working class politics; using village and subaltern votes it has polled the JVP has  nominated a Colombo upper class NGO activist, a political part timer; dumping rural politics or rural women it has embraced Colombo’s posh politics; a Bishopian waiting to meet a Thomian prince charming  (she says in an interview that Bishops College as a finishing schoolprovides wives to Thomians) to represent the masses!

JVP knows that it gets votes or seats from urban areas; it has metamorphosized into a party of urban and semi-urban lower middle class and middle class; that was the reason for AKD shifting to Colombo district from Kurunegala district, mainly an agricultural area (paddy and coconut). He knows that his seat is secure; Vijitha Herath born in Badulla found a secure place in Gampaha district. Although Sunil Handunnetti was thrown out from Colombo, he could not secure a place in Galle district. Lal Kantha can remain as a rabble-rouser, but cannot get elected from Anuradhapura district.  Wasantha Samarasinghe and Namal Karunaratna are more comfortable as JVP’s trade union aristocrat and lord of the peasants respectively rather than entering Parliament. Others have lucrative careers either as medicine men or attorneys.

In a newspaper interview Amarasuriya replies to a story shared in social media about Bimal Ratnayake and his wife’s BMW as follows: I wish he had a BMW. It would have made our lives much easier. I work very closely with her and we could have swung around in the BMW”.  This shows the mentality not only of the national list MP Amarasuriya, but also of her party stalwarts who send their children to foreign universities and private universities in Sri Lanka who are famous for their sartorial elegance.     

Our sorrows are with the young Sinhala-educated academics, artists and writers and men and women who do not know the class and caste structure, history of the left movement in Sri Lanka in general and JVP politics in particular. But the senile academics should know that getting themselves elected even as a national list member has become a distant dream.

People owe an explanation from them, what extraordinary qualities they saw in AKD, what old Left leaders such as NM, Colvin, SA, Pieter lacked. All rights, welfare and services the working class in particular and the masses in general enjoy are the fruits of struggles waged by old Left. What indelible effect or influence the JVP had made except renaming Bombay onions (‘Bombai loonu’ or ‘B’ loonu) as ‘loku loonu’ (big onions) and Masoor dhal (‘Mysoor parippu’) as ‘rathu parippu’, the crude way they defied Indian expansionists during 1988-1989.   

If the senile academics think that the JVP/NPP is a different from the Old Left Movement in Sri Lanka, the conspicuous difference between the two is that the old left leaders wore white/satin drill or tussore suits whereas present day so-called revolutionaries wear high end products; their press conferences show glimpses of fashion parades.

Let us briefly examine Harini Amarasuriya’s American connexons after her US student exchange programme, what we gather from public domain. She along with US Ambassador Julie Chung met Samantha Power, the Administrator (Head) of USAID in September 2022 (see the timing; just one month after deposing GR). The other Sri Lankan politicians Power met with Amarasuriya were, Sajith Premadasa, Dayasiri Jayasekera (then SLFP General Secretary), Rishard Bathiuddin, Abraham Sumanthiran, Rauf Hakeem and Mano Ganeshan. We do not know what Power and Chung discussed with an anti-Rajapaksa group.

She joined a Sri Lankan women parliamentary caucus study tour to New Zealand funded by USAID along with Seetha Arambepola, GR’s ‘Viyathmaga’ ‘political bombast’ who shredded ACSA and SOFA into pieces at ‘Viyathmaga’ and ‘Eliya’ meetings.

Amarasuriya bombarded the JVP Headquarters and revealed the true nature of the JVP (making the leadership to hide as ostriches) uttering that she supports 13 th Amendment to the Constitution.

Harini Amarasuriya was not the first one to join JVP ranks from the elite class. In 1971 we saw the late Susil Siriwardena, Oxford educated Administrative Officer (of Bandaranaike-Obeysekera clan) and Viraj Fernando, British educated Marine Engineer joining JVP.  Susil Siriwardena became the trusted lieutenant of Ranasinghe Premadasa, managing his housing and poverty alleviation (Janasaviya) programmes. After 1971 Sunila Abeysekera, daughter of a top Civil Servant marrying a JVP front liner joined its ranks. Soon after she became a topnotch NGO activist, heading a foreign-funded NGO called INFORM” (Inform Human Rights Documentation Centre), monitoringand documenting Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka in the context of ethnic conflict and civil war”. The Catholic nun who sang songs in JVP’s ‘Vimumthi Gee’ recital ended her political career after marrying a 1971 JVP leader (who participated in the decisive discussion at University Sangharamaya to begin the armed struggle on April 5, 1971, attacking police stations, who hid in a Buddhist temple donning a saffron robe when thousands of unsuspecting village girls and boys were dying in the name of revolution), now living a luxurious life Down Under earning a Ph.D.

Similarly, Harini Amarasuriya’s truck with the JVP/NPP can be short-lived unless JVP nominates her to a Cabinet post in a future coalition government. 

(3) Cockeyed Predictions – AKD and His NPP Well-pointed to Win”   

YouTube is full of talk shows given by JVP front liners. They all say that JVP is winning and AKD will be the next President of Sri Lanka. They make very optimistic statements that they will capture power and take decisions against saboteurs; 32 more Sundays (why 32 Sundays? Mahinda calculated the decisive day according to number of poya days. Why Sunday or the Sabbath? Is it Julie Chung’s Calendar?); what would happen during Malima’s (Compass -symbol of NPP) first week after coming to power; ex-servicemen joining the NPP for the second War; determination of tri-forces; our coming is definite; we will punish the rogues; an operation to prevent AKD becoming President; what game  Ranil plays  next October will usher a new administration. They have already come to power!

JVP astrologers reading AKD’s horoscope and seeing rajayoga is the biggest farce. Some brainy chaps had joined the fray in making predictions. One such predictor is a pseudo -theoretician who gave/gives dead ropes to Premadasa, Mahinda and Gotabhaya and now to Junior Premadasa.

The other one who predicts that AKD will poll 50%+ at a Presidential Election and JVP/NPP getting 113 seats at a Parliamentary Election, is the man who claims that he did all behind the scene work with Atureliye Ratana in bringing Sirisena in 2005, an acolyte of Janatha Mithuro, Sihala Urumaya and Jathika Hela Urumaya.  (In 2005 he wrote a book titled Yuga Peraliya” just to tell us that he singlehandedly changed the regime. He completely ignores the part played by the imperialists headed by US, RAW, UNP, NGO cabal and other anti MR groups. With the blessings of Sirisena this person became the chairman of a very important statutory body). In the first section of this essay we have stated that the then US Secretary of State John Kerry saying that the US providing US $ 585 million to Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Myanmar to stabilise democracy”.  It is an irony of history to state that this forecaster is the son of one time Communist Party General Secretary and a Member of Parliament, who led a struggle of plantation workers at Gasnawa rubber estate in Kegalle district to capture” the estate  (Gasnawe Weeraya – Hero of Gasnawa), much to the consternation of Communist Party hierarchy that led to his ouster as the General Secretary of the Party!  

Who reports these predictions that AKD crosses 50 +%? One is EconomyNext, owned by Capital Media (also publishes Echelon” and Cosmopolitan” for fearless women”- in partnership with Hearst Magazines International”. Hearst Communications” is an American mass media conglomerate), whose bigwigs linked to Sarvodaya Development Fund” and many more.

Who are the opinion trackers”? USAID funded Institute for Health Policy” (IHP). Its latest Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey” (SLOTS) MRP estimates of Presidential Election voting intent for October 2023 show support for AKD reaching half of the likely electorate (51%)”. What is their sample size? Just 567! If their Survey Team goes to a JVP/NPP meeting and conducts an on-field Survey they can achieve the miracle number 99.99%. These foreign-funded researchers who live in ivory towers should be taught that the electorate does not behave according to their statistical techniques! We ask why they have gone outside their designated research areas to election predictions.

An unknown body, this Institute gained media coverage during Covid pandemic giving false interpretations about the crisis and criticizing government initiatives.

We bring this information to the readers because knowing the messenger is important to assess the validity of the message. We should know who brings us gifts before accepting their gifts. Fear the Greeks even when they bear gifts” as warned by the Trojan priest Laocoon.  

In our article in Lankaweb News posted on November 1, 2023 we have clearly stated that JVP cannot poll 50% and 1 vote at a Presidential election and get 113 seats at a parliamentary election respectively giving reasons for coming into that conclusion. Increasing current 3% to 51% and 3 seats to 113 is a herculean task never witnessed in a Presidential or Parliamentary election. Our assessment stands as it was without any change. Then why all this fuss of coming into power?  

Oldtimers will recall that there was a popular belief (no forecasting at that time) that Philip Gunawardene’s Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) will sweep the polls in March 1960 General Elections. One of the popular slogans during the elections was, Sangha-Veda- Guru- Govi- Kamkaru=Rekumata A Pilip Kumaru”.  For a 143- seat Parliament, MEP fielded candidates for 87 constituencies but got only 10 seats, including three won by Rajapaksas from Hambantota district. (D.A. Rajapaksa was defeated at Beliatta electorate, coming second). Gunawardena’s wife Kusumsiri Gunawardena became fourth at Kiriella electorate polls. Although not hyped LSSP won an equal number of seats. In July 1960 elections MEP was able to field only 51 candidates and got only 3 members elected.  Some who were elected in March 1960 in MEP ticket switched over to SLFP and were elected again in July 1960 as SLFPers.

Philip, the architect of the Paddy Lands Act which made a genuine effort to free the peasants from feudalistic economic relations and unequitable patron-client relations, who introduced multi-purpose cooperatives, a far reaching measure for the benefit of rural farmers as Minister of Agriculture and Lands and his able lieutenant William Silva as Minister of Fisheries who introduced wide ranging reforms in the fisheries sector were unable to secure a mandate from the people. What had happened to Philip in 1965 was a different story. How can JVP/NPP or AKD for the sake of argument match such a colossus who is coming forward without any meaningful track record?

This writer’ s contention is that Sri Lanka’s ‘Left movement’ began as a Trotskyite Movement (Lanka Sama Samaja Party- LSSP) headed by some London-educated Trotskyists. It was not a Marxist Movement in true sense of Marxism.  It was an irony of history never seen in any other country. LSSP was the strongest Trotskyite group in the world at one time. Although in 1943, Marxists-Leninists of the LSSP broke away and formed the United Socialist Party, later renaming it as Communist Party of Ceylon (CPC), after Nikita Khrushchev became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) it degenerated into a Revisionist Party. This led to the formation of Ceylon Communist Party (dubbed asthe Peking Wing by the capitalist press). This gave birth to various splinter groups of which JVP was one. Don Nandasiri Wijeweera (later baptized as Rohana Wijeweera) was expelled from the Party as he was engaged in conspiratorial work to grab the reins of its youth league.

Had some Communist Party (Moscow Wing) bigwigs allowed Don Nandasiri Wijeweera who visited Ceylon on a short holiday to go back to Moscow and continue his medical studies and qualify as medical practitioner without blocking his visa, Sri Lanka’s recent political history would have been changed avoiding many catastrophes.

Election forecasters should be warned that at the 1977 General Elections nobody in his wildest dreams had thought that the Left being wiped out without winning a single seat. Giant pillars in the Left Movement were crumbled down by minions, never to rise again. As a result, what remained as ‘Left’ is a group which degenerated within a very short time than the ‘Old Left’ which has no illustrious history, an appendage of dubious elements. The presence of this group is essential for the protection of the capitalist class. Its presence is not a threat to the capitalist class. Although dubbed as Marxist-Leninists”, Socialists” and Rathu Sahodarayas” by the media, reasons for the existence of such a group and attributes and characteristics of such a group are found in the world Marxist- Leninist history.

Did not JVP participate in governmental affairs? We can give two instances. Firstly, we still remember how the JVP managed the affairs of the key Ministries assigned to them by CBK. These key Ministries Agriculture (Anura Kumara), Fisheries (Piyasiri Wijenayaka), Rural Industries (Lal Kantha) and Culture and National Heritages (Vijitha Herath), taken together were like the heart and soul of the peasantry, fishermen, rural artificers and craftsmen and cultural activists respectively good enough to capture power waging an ideological campaign as the above stakeholders consisted of more than 90% of the total population of Sri Lanka. In a time of plain sailing in tranquil waters undisturbed by any natural calamity all four Ministers failed miserably without keeping any lasting footprint. This is enough for their future governance. 

Secondly, in Sirisena-Ranil yahapalana government AKD had a separate office at the Temple Trees. He was entrusted with catching rogues of the previous government. But in the midst of the Galle Face protest AKD staged a drama at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) presenting a set of files as documentary evidence of corruption of Rajapaksas and some other politicians, already exposed in detail by political commentators of Sunday newspapers many years ago and their own Dooshana Viroddhee Peramuna” (Anti-graft Front) during Yahapalana regime.   This was queried by a government parliamentarian during the recent budget debate. His answer was if I had power, I know what I would be doing”. This statement is enough to be construed as a threat if the JVP/NPP come into power.             

 (4) Lal Kantha’s Readiness for an Armed Struggle

If the JVP/NPP and its godfathers and forecasters are certain of victory at a Presidential Election and a Parliamentary Election why does Lal Kantha JVP’s political bureau member and self-styled regime changer, uttering that he is ready for an armed struggle if required as the reincarnation of Keerthi Wijebhahu of DJV during 1988-1989? Daily FT on 8, November and EconomyNext on 20 November reported his readiness to participate in an armed struggle if the need arises. At a meeting held at Kandy he has said: I am also ready to join an armed struggle at any time; sacrifices are essential; we cannot succeed without sacrifice, without passion, without acts of heroism”.

He, at various public rallies gives warning signals: We come to power to make the final judgement for saboteurs”; Ranaviruwas join the Malimawa for the second battle”; Determination of the tri-forces”; Our coming is certain; we give maximum punishment to rogues”.

Is JVP/NPP mobilizing ex-servicemen for the third armed struggle? Have they heard what Lenin said about armed forces of a capitalist state as, instruments for the exploitation of the oppressed class”; instruments of state power”; ruling class strives to restore the special bodies of armed men which serve it”? Lal Kantha and AKD should read just the first few pages of The State and Revolution”!

OnMay 09, 2022, Helmet Brigades” turned the Island into an inferno. Arson took place with the aid of drones and Molotov cocktails. Nearly hundred private residences of government politicians were set ablaze. Lal Kantha at the height of the Galle Face protest, addressing a meeting at Thambuttegama in May 2022 threatened to lay siege to Parliament until the present Parliament was dissolved. Lal Kantha, and a few other JVP leaders were seen inciting demonstrators to storm and occupy the Parliament – ‘the final battle’- culmination of his Revolution” – in July 2022, at Polduwa Junction. But atthe crucialmoment when the military crackdown began, true to the form of JVP leaders they all slipped away.

What type of an armed struggle he is going to wage?

World history is replete with various types of armed struggles. During The CivilWar in France (Paris Commune) (1870-71), there were Monarchists, Communards (revolutionaries and supporters of Paris Commune), Capitulards (capitulationists ), Blanquists and  the petty-bourgeois democrats Jacobinists (two leading sections of the insurrection). 

In pre-revolutionary Russia there were Anarchists, God Builders’ (who advocated the founding of a new socialist” religion),Narodniks (who considered the peasants and petty-proprietors as the chief revolutionary force in Russia; formed terrorist groups which considered terrorism to be the main means of fighting tsarism (JVP of 1971); denied the leading role of the working class; later compromised with tsarism and voiced  the interests of Kulaks against Marxists); Cadets (Constitutional Democratic Party- hiding behind democratic slogans who betrayed peoples’ interests), Black Hundreds (gangs set up by the tsarist police to murder revolutionaries); Socialist Revolutionaries (a petty-bourgeois party who refused to recognize the proletariat’s leadership in the Revolution; later with the Mensheviks and Cadets became counter-revolutionists),  Legal Marxists” (a set of liberal- bourgeois intellectuals who distorted Marxism in the interests of the bourgeoisie) and Decembrists .

It is evident that JVP/NPP have all the components of these groups.

In China, during its two-stage Revolution, New Democratic Revolution and Socialist revolution respectively, various types of deviationists, Left” deviationists and Right” deviationists, Left” and Right” opportunists, Ultra” revolutionists, Putchists and Roving Rebels”, pure” militarists emerged. It was the Communist Party of China that resolved all these problems and won the final victory.

JVP also had two armed insurrections in 1971 and 1988-89. Lal Kantha’s utterings show that JVP is having an armed wing and arming themselves, conducting military training; We may ask is that the role of ex-servicemen who join NPP?

Looking at the JVP/NPP we conclude that it is a hotchpotch of bourgeois, petty-bourgeois elements, anarchists, duplicates of old Russian Narodniks and Social-Revolutionaries.  Now NPP has become the receptacle of all elements including ex-servicemen.

The JVP revolutionaries” should be taught that Engels wrote, that no revolution could break out there (in Paris) without assuming a proletarian character, that is to say without the proletariat”. Where are Lal Kantha’s proletarian forces? Ex-servicemen? Does he think that the Sri Lankan tri-forces would stand at the gates” as they did on July 9, 2022? 

(5) AKD’s Infantile Disorder”  

What is JVP’s programme to capture power? What AKD utters at Parliament and public meetings are just rhetoric. If we take the current Budget Debate for an example, JVP could have exploited it to its advantage informing the masses their programmes in resuscitating the economy, their fiscal and monetary policies, policies in agriculture, industry, health, education and culture, foreign relations, investment and so on and so forth, if they are certain in winning Presidential and Parliamentary Elections. Sadly, we heard nothing, except exchanging verbal abuse as usual.

Addressing a meeting at Uda Dumbara, AKD had nonsensically stated the paucity of our music industry comparing it with that of South Korea.  Why he has chosen South Korea as an example when there is a long list of countries which produce best music including Russia and China? He says that we are still reciting ‘Pel Kavi’ (a genre of folk poetry recited by peasants from their watch huts in the night in good old days!).

He said supermarkets world over do not sell Sri Lankan products, (he may have visited Costco, Target, Walmart, Tesco, Myers, David Jones or Chadstone in his foreign junkets, flying business class, wearing haut couture dresses- exclusive custom fitted clothing) and Netflix does not have any Sri Lankan film!  (Why sudden craze for Netflix, the American video-on-demand over -the-top streaming service? Was he briefed by his Californian fans about Netflix while visiting California recently? Does AKD know Netflix does not serve Russia, China and North Korea?)

Since he has in his fold (A) several music men, some who judge Derana” Dream Star Reality Shows (one man is an NGO artist of German-funded FLICT (Facilitating Local Initiatives for Conflict Transformation, which was actively operational during the Eelam War; their stage play Ratnavalli’ defames the character of Vihara Devi, an epitome of bravery and self-sacrifice and an inspirational power in opposing foreign domination) and the other the JVP stage performer (accompanied by his vocalist spouse), (B) a film actor who shoved Sajith Premadasa at Galle Face Carnival, (C) a soap opera actor who carried a wooden cross from Katuwapitiya church to Galle Face Green, (D) Sinhala lyricists,  (E) film producers who produce films with foreign collaborators to screen at international film festivals, depicting Sri Lanka as a Sinhala-Buddhist Majoritarian” country which victimizes ethnic and religious minorities; our village folk with incestuous sexual orientations unable to free themselves from tribal traits and who distort our history; (some of them won premier awards at the recently concluded Derana -Lux Film Awards” judged by NGO affiliated film critics, film producers and journalists) and (F) some Youtubers who livestream JVP/NPP activities, Sri Lanka can be rest assured that its music and film industry going  global when AKD comes to power!

Above categories show the type of artists who are attracted to JVP/NPP in a nutshell.

Teenage sex, extramarital activities, problems of gays, lesbians, gender neutrals and transgender people, frigid women (or women suffering from vaginismus), Sinhala supremacy and ethnic discrimination provide themes to literature propagated by writers who represent JVP/NPP.  

One mediocre writer who was seen among these Colombo-based NPP groupings, once interviewed by US-funded ROAR media, portrayed Princess Yasodara, who had earned much reverence from the Buddhists all over the world, cherished as an epitome of chastity, womanhood and motherhood in classical Sinhala literature, having a clandestine affair with Prince Siddhartha’s Minister Channa. Accordingly, Prince Rahula was Channa’s illegitimate child. When this person was charged for this sacrilege the NGO cabal wept buckets of tears in the name of freedom of expression.  Have we ever heard a Western writer or a Catholic writer in Sri Lanka, writing a blasphemous short story about Virgin Mary?

AKD has not yet stated that Sri Lanka has failed to produce a Nobel laureate in Literature!

See the venue AKD has chosen to showcase his ‘knowledge’ of music industry, global supermarkets and Netflix; Uda Dumbara, a sleepy mountainous area inhabited by impoverished paddy, vegetable and highland cultivators!   

AKD should be taught about the speech given by Premier Zhou-en Lai at a forum on literary and artistic creations and screenplay writing in 1961, how Zhou delineated physical and intellectual production and discussed class struggle and united front, to whom art and literature serve, development laws, heritage, creation and leadership in art and literature.

Before uttering unscientific nonsense AKD should learn ideas expressed by Marx, Engels and Lenin on art and literature and Mao’s treatises on art and literature which have a profound relevance to countries in the East respectively.

Has AKD written any theoretical essay? If the JVP claims that it is a Marxist party what extraordinary profound knowledge of Marx they have, the ability to apply Marxism -Leninism   to the economic andpolitical situation of Sri Lanka? Is it able to unite Marxist parties and circles into a single unit giving it political leadership?

It is an affront to Lenin if we try to describe what Lenin did before the Great October. 

What ideological struggle AKD and JVP/NPP wage against SLPP, UNP, SJB and other splinter groups except calling all of them horas? Is he criticizing their political and economic programmes? What work they did to unite Marxist groups and circles when it is not banned in a time of enjoying democratic rights without any police persecution?

What change – if JVP is not using the term Revolution- JVP is going to bring about? Is it a bourgeois-democratic revolution as Lenin put forward in his Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution” or a phase of New Democracy” as expounded by Mao? But both leaders said proletariat- working class- Communist Party must be the leader. Is JVP or NPP such a party becoming the leader of the bourgeois democratic or new democratic revolution?

Giving an interview to a Sunday Weekly AKD had stated that his party’s aim will be a Pohosath Janathawak- Pohosath Ratak” (Rich People- Rich Country). All are hackneyed phrases (like engine of economic growth”), nothing new in what he says; we have heard these from all people who sought a mandate from people since Independence. These so-called engines” are like the different types of locomotives Ceylon Government Railways (CGR) had from its inception, still could not provide an efficient and effective service to the commuters! What kind of economic democracy” AKD imagines we do not know.

How AKD is going to make people rich” is the biggest question. Rich” in what? We are rich” in rhetoric. By words not deeds. It seems that AKD is thinking statecraft, with apologies to Mao, as a dinner party or writing an essay or painting a picture or doing embroidery”. 

If the JVP/NPP assumes that they will come to power very soon, in preparation to hold power we advise them to read and understand Lenin’s essays Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It” and One of the Fundamental Questions of Revolution” (Collected Works-Volume25).

(6) Why No Opposition to JVP/NPP?

It is intriguing why nobody in the opposition or media criticize JVP/NPP and give a plausible interpretation why it cannot come into power except some pohottuwa parliamentarians. Reason is their uncertainty and political expediency keeping options open for a coalition government after a General Election.  

The other reason is fear psychosis! Reminiscences of 1988-89 haunting everywhere.

The people in the nationalist camp who criticize RW’s policies and who advocate that this government should be chased out do not say HOW? WITH WHOM? and UNDER WHOSE LEADERSHIP?    

(7) Dual Tactics of Western Embassies

It is interesting to assess the role of Western Embassies, especially the US Embassy, how they have evinced a greater interest in JVP/NPP? Do they think that the JVP/NPP has shed its anti-imperialist” stance by embracing the stars and stripes flag? What are the reasons for this delusion? Are they igniting a Third” insurrection giving JVP/NPP a false consciousness that the Western countries are willing to recognize and prepared to work with JVP/NPP, ensuing its total annihilation? Or have they thought that they have found a fangless ally to foster their geopolitical strategies and counter China?

Recently JVP/NPP have released photographs of their frontrunners, may be the members of the Central Committee, (or Military Commission!), a group of middle class and upper middle-class parasites. Among them we were able to identify (i) An old Trotskyite, who was involved in yahapalana constitution-making under Sirisena-RW (ii) An American specter haunting at Peradeniya who teaches Sinhala literature,  advocating counter-culture and other euro-centric rubbish; who wrote an open letter to Julie Chung that he has American connections and he was supporting Galle Face protest (iii) A Sabaragamuwa Sinhala lecturer who plagiarized Ms. Padma Edirisinghe’s Sinhala translation of R. L. Brohier’s Changing Face of Colombo” as Kolamba Komaliya”, who made a public apology on its exposure, was forced to remove the books issued to booksellers (iv) A person who worked at MR’s office at Temple Trees and who decamped on account of MR not arranging funds for his son’s education in America (v) An LGBTQ+ activist who openly admits his sexual orientation and who made films portraying gays and lesbians (vi) A lawyer who represented Garnier Barrister aka Sriyalatha Perera of Swiss Embassy local recruit, who was chosen as the scapegoat by local and international conspirators to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka (the first step in the ouster of GR) (vii) A lawyer who fought against ‘Upadhi Kada’ calling their closure,who celebrated his son’s graduation from a private university offering him floral tributes, when JVP students’ wing  of the state universities molest female undergraduates, ordering them to attendlectures wearing bathroom slippers” and cheap dresses  without underwear, who forcibly take other students for street demonstrations against private universities, (viii) Some members ofthe electricity mafia, who oppose solar, wind and other renewable energy sources representing the interests of agents  of fossil fuel, coal power and thermal power generation.  

In 1971 Wijeweera was conscious at least to enlist some workers cum trade union leaders from Land Development Department, DI leather factory and Wellawatta Weaving Mills.

(8) A Few Questions That Need Answers

(I) Why AKD’s trip to America was planned just a few months ahead of an election? (2) Did he meet any personnel of US State Department at least through proxies? (3) Can we forget that Sirisena visited US prior to 2015 on the pretext of receiving an ‘award’ and his sojourns in Singapore? (4) Why does Lal Kantha ask the people to come to the streets and demonstrate if the government does not give an election knowing very well that any election will be conducted next year?  (5) Is it a ploy to mobilize people to come to the streets, if the election result is not favourable to them, questioning its validity, refusing to concede defeat as Trump and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil did? JVP cried computer jilmart” after the defeat of Sarath Fonseka, the Presidential candidate they supported with UNP, TNA, SLMC and a host of NGOs. How Somawansa Amarasinghe, the then JVP leader wearing a three-piece suit shamelessly embraced Ranil and Fonseka at a Presidential election meeting!  

(9) AKD As American Protégé? Or Modern-day Icarus?

RW government’s budgetary proposals increased taxes at the behest of IMF to get the second tranche of IMF loan. VAT will be increased from 15% to 18% in certain items and from 0% to 18% in some other items burdening all segments of the society. This provides an excellent spawning grounds for future agitations and open revolt. US and IMF are doing this deliberately expecting future riots for them to intervene. Already Julie Chung has released an X message on 13 December 2023, on account of the release of IMF second tranche as she did at the release of first tranche. We welcome the positive news from the IMF Board about the completion of the first Extended Fund Facility review with Sri Lanka providing access to about US dollars 337 million for Sri Lanka to support its economic reforms and policies”. Although she says while safeguarding the most vulnerable” in her message, she hides how Ranil’s VAT affects the most vulnerable”.

In the midst of such a turmoil and open revolt, Americans may install AKD or Harini Amarasuriya as their protégé to govern Sri Lanka as they installed Nguyen Cao-ky deposing Ngo Dinh Diem their own protégé in South Vietnam and Lon Nol in Cambodia respectively. Looking at this scenario it is wishful thinking that if someone comes to the conclusion that the Western Embassies are deluded by JVP/NPP.

What is the other interpretation? Is AKD the modern-day Icarus? Icarus was warned not to fly too low nor too high, lest the sea’s dampness clog his wings or the sun’s heat melt them. He ignored instructions not to fly close to the sun causing beeswax in his wings to melt. He felt from the sky, plunged into the sea, was drowned and doomed.