National People’s Power (NPP) Leader, Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), has declared that his Party was ready to work with India with a clear vision. Addressing a meeting in Kelaniya on Saturday, AKD said that since India is geographically and politically in close proximity to Sri Lanka and thus our neighbour the NPP has a good vision and is ready to work with India.
This was from a Party that once banned the people from purchasing all Indian goods, including onions, and forbade the people from watching Indian movies. The JVP wanted the Indian forces (IPKF) that came here to tame the LTTE, out of the country and waged a bloody campaign against Indian involvement in this country’s affairs. AKD’s comment on India has received an apt response from former JVPer and presently spokesman for the National Freedom Front (NFF) Mohammad Muzammil. He said Dissanayake should clarify whether their past talk about India was wrong or whether they have now changed their opinion about India. He said, if so, they would appreciate that change.
Not just about India. It appears that the NPP/JVP has changed its stance on many things. Addressing a recent Party conference AKD said they were ready to fight the Government’s move to postpone elections in order to restore the democratic rights of the people.
The Rathu Sahodarayas not only made a mockery of the democratic rights of the people by forcing them against exercising their franchise but went further and issued an edict that they would be doing so at the risk of their lives. In fact, the Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (DJV), the armed wing of the JVP, was entrusted with the task of executing the first five voters who went to the polling booth. Not only that, the coffins of those so executed had to be carried below knee level on the final journey and those who failed to comply were also sent on the same journey. AKD also noted that a Presidential Election was slated to be held next year and that his party was prepared for it.
What irony, when one considers how the Rathu Sahodarayas plastered all the walls throughout the country with posters warning people not to step out of their homes on election day in December 1988 which was also extended to all election officials? The JVP of Rohana Wijeweera at the time ordered all office-bearers of the UNP and the Left parties which did not see eye to eye with them to resign from their posts and erect banners proclaiming the fact, opposite their homes. Those who failed to do so were sent to meet their Maker.
UNP Chairman Harsha Abeywardena and General Secretary Nandalal Fernando suffered such a fate together with a host of local level UNP leaders who dared defy this order. Even artistes who were affiliated with the UNP and the United Socialist Alliance led by the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya were not spared – prominent among them Vijaya Kumaratunga, Premakeerthi de Alwis and Sagarika Gomes.
Not just grabbing away the franchise of the people, the Rathu Sahodarayas did not even allow people and businesses to engage in their occupations. Shops and businesses were ordered to be shut down on the production of a chit bearing the emblem of the DJV.
Freedom of speech is a democratic right and those now talking about restoring democratic rights should be reminded as to how they went about ‘guaranteeing’ the democratic right to hold opposing views.
The killing spree unleashed by the JVP during the polls period was meant to drive fear into those who were preparing to exercise their franchise. What irony now for the JVP to be at the forefront in ensuring that the people’s franchise is not denied to them?
The Rathu Sahodarayas’ fidelity to the people’s franchise will ring hollow if they do not make a confession on how they stifled the democratic rights of the people by resorting to murder. The NPP’s propaganda Head MP Vijitha Herath is taking great pains to shed the JVP tag and go by their new avatar the NPP in a bid to erase the party’s murderous past and portray it as a truly democratic outfit. In this exercise, they have also started to meet with business leaders and captains of industries.
How many businessmen did the JVP eliminate during the 1988/89 insurrection for failing to obey orders? Will AKD and Co do a mea culpa and apologise to the business community whom they are now wooing so assiduously for taking a heavy toll on lives from among their fraternity during those dark days?
How many professionals, academics and Police personnel did the DJV gun down in cold blood for nothing more than merely doing their job? Is doing one’s job, not a democratic right of the individual?
Has AKD forgotten how the JVP threatened to kill the family members of the Army and Police for carrying out their duties, which ultimately proved to be its undoing?
The NPP has a lot to answer before it can convince the people of its bona fides. This cannot be done by rhetoric but by a genuine admission of its past misdeeds and a willingness to adjust itself. If not, the ghosts of the JVP’s past will come to haunt the people, which it will be unable to live down.
