By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham

The need for a national liberation movement appears to be a topic of intense focus for the leader of the National People’s Power (NPP) party, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, these days.

He argues that the current social, political and economic realities of Sri Lanka deem an urgent need for social change, but what is needed for that change, what people are yearning for,  is not a political party, but a national liberation movement.

He backs this argument by explaining that the Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) is a party but the NPP is a national movement.

Judging by the views expressed by Dissanayake in a recent interview given to Meera Srinivasan, the Colombo correspondent for the Chennai-based influential English daily ‘The Hindu’, one is given to understand the NPP, formed in 2015 under the leadership of the JVP in alliance with over 25 other parties, organizations and trade unions, will carry forward the national liberation struggle he envisions.

“Looking at the developed countries, their progress was largely linked to the national liberation struggle. India had a great national liberation movement. Sri Lanka never had such a movement.

“When the British ruled the country there was an opportunity to build a national liberation movement. Then after they left the country there was another opportunity to build such a movement. Our leaders of that day missed both those historic opportunities.

“Now we have a third opportunity, which should be used without fail to defeat the corrupt ruling political class. For this purpose, all communities, North, East and South should be united,” Dissanayake articulates in the interview, explaining that his national liberation struggle aims to free the country from a corrupt political culture.

“Our first priority is to free the country from the corrupt political elite who have been ruining the country for decades,” he said.

Admitting that NPP’s political work has been mainly among the Sinhalese people, Dissanayake appealed to the people of the North to join the national movement as an organic part of the movement.

When the correspondent pointed out that even nearly 15 years after the end of the civil war no political solution has been found, and asked Dissanayake what message he would like to give to the Tamil people, he said his party accepts there are issues regarding the Tamil and Muslim communities regarding their linguistic rights, cultural affairs and participation in governance.  Though acknowledging these problems should be solved, he however made no mention of devolution of power or the 13th Amendment, which has become highly controversial in recent times despite being  part of the country’s constitution for 36 years,

Dissanayake, who is widely seen as a likely frontline candidate in the next presidential election, should have made clear his movement’s current position on those issues. Many people would expect it.

It seems the ideal of the NPP is to bring about social change in the country through a national liberation movement that would defeat the corrupt political elite and thereby find solutions to all the problems the country is besieged with, including the ethnic problem.

Finding solutions to problems through a national struggle that can bring together all communities is not a new approach. It was the approach the old traditional leftist parties put forward from the early part of the last century. History has taught us that the main cause of their failure was communal politics.

There was also a time when old leftist leaders said the ethnic problem of minorities would disappear in a socialist society that could be brought about by a working-class revolution encompassing all the communities.

Those leaders who started their political journey with the ideals of transforming society eventually fell into a communal quagmire to survive in parliamentary politics and failed miserably in the end.

In the political history of the world, we have seen that the leftist movements have been the natural and strong allies of the oppressed ethnic minorities. But in Sri Lanka, the leftist parties did not play that progressive role after the first half of the last century when communal politics came to the fore.

Even the JVP, which has taken on a new avatar as the NPP, is no exception in this regard. The party has a negative history of resisting all attempts so far towards finding a political solution to the ethnic problem.

The JVP supported the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in its intensified and brutal civil war.  They also masterminded the severing of the North-East merger.

Even in recent times, the party has not changed its longstanding position regarding the ethnic problem. So, based on how the JVP has approached the ethnic question and the legitimate political aspirations and grievances of the Tamil people in the past, and the current position, it would be wishful thinking, even naive, for Dissanayake to assume the Tamil people would take up his call to be part of his national liberation movement.

Even after the experiences of a brutal war, the JVP has not been inclined to change its policy on the ethnic problem. NPP leaders often say they should not be judged now based on their past politics. And to their credit, they have acknowledged it is not enough to simply mobilize people locally to come to power and that the support of the international community, especially its superpowers, is also necessary, and have made major changes in their positions.

They justify these contemporary changes by saying it is natural to change strategies to suit the changing international situation without compromising on fundamental principles. This was articulated by Dissanayake, who in a recent interview given to a local English language weekly, said the NPP has changed to suit the new age and there is a difference between theory and reality.

The NPP which previously rejected international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank as being controlled by the United States and the Western imperialist countries, has said they are now ready to work with these institutions and has come forward to cooperate with the private sector, which it described as capitalist forces.  They have also indicated their readiness to welcome foreign investments.

Despite this strategic evolution of sorts, it is regrettable that the party leadership has not seen it fit to make any change regarding the ethnic problem. Asking the Tamil people to join the national movement without any assurance about resolving the ethnic problem, will not help the NPP move even an inch forward in winning over the confidence of the Tamil people.

The NPP’s stance on the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution is well documented, given its actions in the South earlier this year following President Wickremesinghe’s declaration that he was willing to fully implement the Amendment as a means to resolving the ethnic issue.

If the NPP had shown at least a modicum of willingness to support the president’s initiatives with the 13th Amendment, they could have sent a positive signal to the Tamil people that they have progressed and are ready to change their minds about the ethnic problem.

Unfortunately, not only did the NPP oppose any overtures of implementing the 13^th Amendment, but they also refused to participate in any of the three conferences of the parliamentary parties convened by the president earlier this year.

It was worth recalling the comments made by Dissanayake at a seminar at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo, where he said if the Tamils accept the 13th Amendment as a solution to their problem, the NPP has no problem supporting it, and his latter stance post the President 13^th Amendment announcement, where he said any comments he might make in favour of the Amendment would be a setback to his party’s growing support among the Sinhalese people.

These words and actions lead one to conclude that all the talk about finding a solution to the ethnic problem acceptable to the people of all communities through a new constitution in a future NPP regime is but a ploy to slip away from the problem at hand.

The policies and stances adopted by the JVP/NPP on the ethnic issue so far have only helped strengthen the hard-line Sinhalese nationalist forces that refuse to accept even the minimal legitimate political aspirations of the minority communities.

Dissanayake should desist from behaving like the Sinhalese political leaders who ruined this country by dragging the people on a perilous path for opportunist political advantage. He should explain to the people about past political mistakes and the adverse consequences that may arise if the mistakes are repeated again and again.

Dissanayake should present himself as a leader who can bring considerable understanding to the Sinhalese people regarding the problems of the minority communities. The national liberation movement he envisages will never be complete unless the support that is said to be growing in the South for NPP today is wisely used to bring about such an understanding. Without such a healthier move it may end up being simply a movement for electoral purposes.

 – Veeragathy Thanabalasingham is a senior journalist and Consultant Editor, Express Newspapers Ltd