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SOMAWANSA AMERASINGHE SAYS WHAT THE JVP IS TRYING TO FORM IS A PURE CAPITALIST DEMOCRATIC GOVT. WITH THE SLFP

Amerasinghe said the alliance between the JVP and the SLFP was necessitated by the urgent national need stop to the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration which was trying to legitimize the already existing separation of the country.

By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

January 19, 09.30 PM:The self-exiled leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Somawansa Amerasinghe said, what his party agreed to form after an election victory with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was a pure capitalist democratic government in place of the crony and corrupt capitalism run with black money by the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration in Sri Lanka today

Speaking eight hours before leaving his London home for Sri Lanka yesterday, the self-exiled leader of the island nation’s second largest parliamentary party scheduled to enter into an electoral agreement with the country’s largest opposition party, January 20, said in an exclusive telephone interview with this correspondent, under the corruption free democratic capitalist system envisioned to start under the new alliance of the two parties, the true Sri Lankan entrepreneurs would be placed in an unprecedented advantageous position to develop Sri Lanka to the fullest possible extent following new Asian leaders like Malaysia, India and China

Widely branded by the ruling United National Party (UNP), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and some pro-UNP newspapers as Marxist, the JVP wants to tell the country and the whole world that they are no more Marxist than Malaysia, India and China who adopted capitalist method to develop their fast growing economies.

What the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna did was to take whatever that could be taken from Marxism creatively and infuse that with the indigenous culture of Sri Lanka said Amerasinghe during this telephone interview. He said it did not import Marxism in its outdated raw form but infused certain Marxist elements with the indigenous Sinhala Buddhist culture, the result of more than 2000 years of an unbroken civilization that existed in the country. In the Sunday schools as a child he had heard from a Buddhist monk that some Marxist leader called, the great epic King Dutugemunu, who built the huge national and religious monument, the pagoda of Ruwanweliseya in Sri Lanka as a “fool of bricks” He always thought that it was not King Dutugemunu but the alleged Marxist from the Lanka Sama Samaja Party who uttered those words was the fool

Talking more about the crony capitalism in the country under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Amerasinghe charged that it was black money earned by narcotic drugs and gambling, as allowed by the budget, that was being invested in the enterprises. He said those so-called entrepreneurs also included the criminal Tamil Tigers who earned money though grossly illegal methods including drugs. Even legitimate foreign capitalists were scared away by corrupt ministers who openly demanded commission money.

In a society that reigned black money earned mostly by drug running and gambling businesses that did not pay taxes legitimate enterprises were increasingly going bankrupt , Amerasinghe charged. He said the new administration that would replace that of Ranil Wickremesinghe would give those indigenous capitalist class enough opportunity to reinvigorate their businesses so that they could treat their employees rightly and produce efficiently.

Amerasinghe said the alliance between the JVP and the SLFP was necessitated by the urgent national need of the country since both parties were found to be incapable single handedly of putting a stop to the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration which was trying to legitimize the already existing separation of the country. Ranil Wickremesinghe for his own personal ambitions was giving up parts of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation, he charged.

Speaking about the economic policies agreed by the two parties under the agreed alliance Amerasinghe said that the national economy should be strengthened by investments coming from all parts of the world. He said since 1978 under the UNP governments the nation had unfortunately marched, not towards neo colonialism as some say, but towards re-colonization by certain imperialist powers. He said, Sri Lanka should accept all good sides of the globalization and reject all the ill effects of it injurious to the nation. Archeological excavations in the ancient Sri Lankan capital Anuradhapura, Amerasinghe said, showed Sri Lanka was having an open economy even in the 9th century from the foreign coins that were found there. It was wrong to say it was Junius Jayewardene who introduced an open economy to Sri Lanka. He said our economic policies for 26 years under the UNP had been formulated not for the mutual benefits of the country and the other trading nations engaged in trade but to the detriment of Sri Lanka. He said , today every Sri Lankan citizen was indebted to about one hundred thousand rupees to foreign countries. Under this government national assets were being sold to cronies for a song, he charged.

Analyzing the JVP’s economic policy he said it placed special importance to the indigenous capitalists of the country to invest for development. But he said indigenous and foreign capitalists had been discouraged, under Ranil Wickremesinghe since ministers expected, what is known in Sri Lanka, as “something” from the investors. An atmosphere had been created that everybody was after this “something” he charged. He said all barricades including that should be removed to make enterprises run with profits. He said if the businesses became profitless enterprises they could not pay the salaries of the employees

Amerasinghe pointed out that the JVP looked at this aspect through Buddha’s Sigalovada Sutta that said employers should treat the employees like fathers treating their children. He said the JVP looked at Marxism through our own indigenous culture. They always carried the pictures of Keppetipola and Puran Appu together with those of Marx and Lenin he said.

He said from ancient times Sri Lanka’s strength had been its agriculture that produced enough food for its population and its unique hydrological civilization. until the nations great irrigation systems had been destroyed by invaders from foreign countries. Imitating those great enemies of the nation , Amerasinghe said , today Sri Lanka’s own Prime Minister was advocating abandoning rice fields. It was one of our greatest kings, Parakramabahu who said, that we should not let a single rain drop flow down to the sea, he reminded.

He said after many massacres of its members, the JVP survived , because its political base was deeply rooted in the country’s indigenous culture.. Before any ism, he said the JVP members were great patriots. It always believed in the Buddhist belief that the king should be just which was expressed in the Pali stanza

“Raja Bhavatu Dhammiko.” He said they believed that all governments should rule their countries according to “dasa raja dharma” ( the ten noble principles of the rulers) Amerasinghe said throughout Sri Lanka’s long history no king was allowed to rule as a despot but according to those rules. Any royal breaker of the law was simply ousted, he said. He said Buddhism preached impermanence. Even certain aspects of Marxism were being outdated subject to this universal law. That was how China was making amendments even to the teachings of Mao Tse Tung. Marxists should not forget those basic facts, Amerasinghe said. He said as a nation from Marx or any other teacher we should only grasp the good side. He said , it was Dutugemunu , who built a great memorial for his enemy , and ordered that it should be respected. The order was carried out for centuries. Such noble was our civilization , Amerasinghe said. As a nation we could not accept all foreign dogmas in total. Even Lenin had to accept that certain aspect of Marxism were outdated, hence the teachings of Lenin were born. That’s why China was changing what Mao taught, he further pointed out.

He said many practices of the party had not been Marxist in nature but they derived from Sri Lanka’s own indigenous culture. He said all parliamentarians; provincial council members and all other local government representatives totally abstained from smoking and consuming alcoholic beverages. That discipline he said, was not taken from European Marxism but from Sri Lanka’s own indigenous Buddhist culture. He said the dedication, generosity and unity practiced at the local government body at Tissamaharama, in Southern Sri Lanka, run by the JVP was not taken from any Marxist society in Europe but from Sri Lanka’s own culture. All the salaries paid to the members are put back to the local government work there. Under no circumstances those projects could be called Marxist, he argued.

He pointed out that today; Ranil Wickremesinghe was saying that he was told to do this and that by President Bush. He asked why was he talking like a ruler of an occupied land by the United States. Was it because he thought that Sri Lanka was the 51st state of the US? It was true that there were many things that we could learn from the West. The Internet was one such thing. Realizing this the JVP using its MP’s salaries bought computers and took computer literacy to the village youth in Sri Lanka, Amerasinghe said

He said using the mentality of an enslaved nation there wasn’t a single country that was developed in the world. He said India had strengthened its natural strength of agriculture together with industry becoming a slave to no nation. The JVP leader pointed out that instead of selling the phosphate mines of Eppawela for a song that very fertilizer should be used for our own agriculture

Amerasinghe clearly indicated that despite the alliance JVP was totally against the SLFP policy of sharing power. He said JVP opposed the power sharing since it created more problems than what it tried to solve and the policy inherently had many weaknesses that did no justice to the Tamil people.

He said 55% of the Tamil people now lived in the majority Sinhalese provinces and it was estimated that only 12% Tamil people lived in the North and the East. The Tamil people, he said escaped from Wanni since it had simply become the prison and torture chamber of Prabhakaran. Reminding that no US state had been demarcated on a language basis, Amerasinghe said Prabhakaran did an ethnic cleansing by chasing out Sinhalese and Muslim people from the Northern Province. The LTTE had started the same process in the East. He said the United States that was holding a trial for ethnic cleansing against Milosovich in The Hague was bringing pressure on Sri Lanka to negotiate with Prabhakaran who committed the same crime as Milosovich. In the future, if we implemented the share of power policy , Amerasinghe said, 12% of the population of the country would get 1/3 of the whole land mass and 2/3 of the coastline creating a great inequality among the people of Sri Lanka. If we accepted the traditional home land theory he said that would create a great obstacle to give land to the landless masses of the country including the majority of Tamils who lived outside. Instead of solving the grievances of inequality the policy created more inequalities, Amerasinghe charged. So, the JVP agreed to disagree with the SLFP on the sharing of power policy he said.

He said 55% of the Tamil people now lived in the majority Sinhalese provinces and it was estimated that only 12% Tamil people lived in the North and the East. The Tamil people, he said escaped from Wanni since it had simply become the prison and torture chamber of Prabhakaran. Reminding that no US state had been demarcated on a language basis, Amerasinghe said Prabhakaran did an ethnic cleansing by chasing out Sinhalese and Muslim people from the Northern Province. The LTTE had started the same process in the East. He said the United States that was holding a trial for ethnic cleansing against Milosovich in The Hague was bringing pressure on Sri Lanka to negotiate with Prabhakaran who committed the same crime as Milosovich. In the future, if we implemented the share of power policy , Amerasinghe said, 12% of the population of the country would get 1/3 of the whole land mass and 2/3 of the coastline creating a great inequality among the people of Sri Lanka. If we accepted the traditional home land theory he said that would create a great obstacle to give land to the landless masses of the country including the majority of Tamils who lived outside. Instead of solving the grievances of inequality the policy created more inequalities, Amerasinghe charged. So, the JVP agreed to disagree with the SLFP on the sharing of power policy he said.

While the JVP agreed to solve the problem by peaceful political means Amerasinghe said whatever solution reached should be accepted by a referendum. He said on such an occasion the JVP would canvass the support of the parliament as well as the people against the SLFP policy. But he said they would finally accept the verdict given by the people.

Opposing the sharing of the power policy, Amerasinghe said, the JVP would advocate a policy of decentralization of power even up to the village level.

He said he did not know what solution the SLFP had in mind since the LTTE had rejected the proposals of the SLFP in 2000. Whatever it was he said in Sri Lanka, after the Ceasefire Agreement, the war actually did not stop altogether. LTTE continued to kill intelligence personnel, kidnap Tamil children for war and imported big hauls of weapons. Killings did not cease but decreased, he said. Prabhakaran used the so called peace to protect what had been already won. He wanted the Ceasefire since he was getting defeated and feared very much units like the Millennium Housing Unit type attacks. He used Ranil to stop the destruction, Amerasinghe argued. But Amerasinghe said, in reality Prabhakaran quit the so-called peace process by staying away the negotiations from last April and produced a set of proposals that G. L. Peiris called were totally different in essence. He said the ball was in the court of Prabhakaran to start the war or not to start the war

He said no party should be allowed to interfere with the country’s sovereignty and for capitalist prosperity the unity of the country was most essential. He said today NGO’s were spending money to produce television dramas and films to demoralize the nation and drive us to slavery and intensify their ambitions by presenting awards to the artists to encourage such works. Under the new alliance Somawansa Amerasinghe said special attention will be made to give back the national consciousness which had been deprived to the nation.

He said the JVP SLFP alliance would also pay special attention to maintain the rule of law in the country and suppress the current wave of crimes and fortification of the underworld under the UNP .

He said Sri Lanka, which had been made a subservient nation in its foreign dealings should be immediately should be put back to its former respectable position enjoying an equal status with the other independent nations of the world , its former non-aligned foreign policy should be strengthened and the contemplated Indo Sri Lanka Defense Pact should be made an important aspect of our foreign policy. He reminded how that the country had to pay heavily due to President Jayewardene’s grossly erroneous foreign policy since that provoked India arm the LTTE. Amerasinghe said by doing that India also created a grave security problem for herself since LTTE ultimately killed Rajiv Gandhi. He said India cannot afford a Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka since it was against the strategic interests of India’s regional security . . Reminding that Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted the Defense to weaken it and appease the Tamil Tigers Amerasinghe said the JVP warmly embraced the proposed Defense Pact with India

Amerasinghe said while a 200 year old USA wanted to teach all its citizens and all school children the country’s history Sri Lanka wanted to stop the teaching of its history. The people have been made to forget the history of the nation. and its identity. He said NGO’s should be debarred from interfering with the sovereignty of the nation and the teaching of history should be immediately introduced in the country’s schools.

Reminding that the first European imperialists, the Portuguese invaded Sri Lanka in 1505 nearly 500 years ago Somawansa Amerasinghe said ever since then the demand of the nation has been to clamor for the re-establishment of a political march compatible with the country’s indigenous culture and identity. Telling that this new political alliance was born during a period when the pains of labor for such a birth were being intensely felt the JVP leader said the historical task of the alliance was to perform the midwifery duties for the long awaited birth. On the 500th anniversary of our enslavement, next year, we should decide whether we wanted to take the same path to enslavement or to the national liberation , Amerasinghe concluded

( go2lanka.com)