Revisiting the JVP: Will They Repeat Their Past?
Repost This ArticleIt has been 39 years since the JVP’s armed insurrection. It was brutally suppressed and their ambitious project to light a revolutionary flame in Sri Lanka ended in a political and military disaster. But the JVP was not vanquished and its leader Rohana Wijeweera (RW) reorganized it. They launched their second military project during 1987-89 and the disaster they faced at this time was unprecedented. RW himself and the entire political leadership were decimated. The history of the party has been inseparable from his own political legacy as its leader and the inspiration RW has continued even after his death. The JVP have never managed yet to replace RW. Now they have given political refuge to the General who is not a JVPer.It is inconceivable that the military hero that led the security forces to defeat the LTTE has landed amongst the JVP which was the mirror image of the LTTE in the Sinhalese South. Will he try to fill the vacuum in the leadership and use it as his political vehicle or will the JVP try to use the General to recover from their recent electoral debacle? If not will the JVPÂ Â and the General form an organic alliance that will make their political march constructive and democratic? What will be the JVP’s political future? In Gramscian sense, is the JVP Â Â ‘mummified’ or ‘anachronistic’ at present?
This short essay will try to make some reflections on the future of the JVP on the basis of their political history and the current political moment.
Social base and political character
RW commenced his political career as a conspirator in the Communist Party (Peiking Wing) organizing a faction against the party leadership. Hannah Arendt in her Origins of Totalitarianism (2004) provides a very useful analysis on the political beginnings of the totalitarian leaders and shows how they began their politics in conspirational wings of their parties.RW’s political beginning was not different. In 1965 general election RW had disagreements with the party over two issues; “the emphasis and priority given to trade union activities rather than to general political activity;  and the special attention paid to the Indian plantation workers rather than to the peasantry (Political Violence in Sri Lanka, Gamini Samaranayake, 2008 p.191).This demonstrated very clearly the seeds of the ideological and political character of the future of the  JVP and its class basis when RW started organizing the underground movement. One of his five political classes, titled ‘Indian Expansionism’ took an anti- Tamil political line and its political practice can be seen even today in their opposition to any  devolution of power to the Tamil community. His opposition to trade union activities and the loyalty to the peasantry formed the class basis of the JVP: they were overwhelmingly Sinhalese Buddhists youths with rural social origins or sons of the rural peasant families. They had been brought to political awakening by the 1956 electoral victory of the five great social forces. As their core political ideology they were more in tune with the Sinhala Buddist hegemonic ideology as their guiding principal of political activism rather than Marxism -Leninism. They were unemployed young men. This was also characteristic of RW’s social origins. This social base never provided a political stability for the JVP. These youths can be easily persuaded to leave politics and the organization when social opportunities become open to them. Many of the JVP university recruits who come from the rural social background belong to this category of fellow travelers. They have done relatively well in electoral politics when they collaborated with the SLFP as they did  in the 2004 parliamentary elections. In my view this has been due to the Sinhala Buddhist  ideological affinity between the JVP and the SLFP. The success of this alliance demonstrates the opportunities available by translating this affinity into a politically beneficial electoral union commanding the support of rural social forces. Whenever the SLFP is in power it is the peasantry who are the most dominant socially as well as numerically of the five great social forces finds its dynamism and in turn installs the hope of social mobility in   rural youths.
The SLFP has been historically capable of offering what can be termed as ‘the rural social mobility model’ in keeping with their 1956 ideological and political tradition. Whenever the UNP is in power, they deconstruct this model and the hopelessness pushes the unemployed rural youths to rally around the JVP in large numbers. The UNP’s non-distributive social and capitalist policies further engender the rural sector and marginalize the rural youths. The JVP military projects utilized this fully in the past. It can be argued that the UNP government during 1965-70 created the rural unemployment leading to the 1971 insurrection. A similar rise in rural unemployment under the UNP government between 1977 and 1986 led to   many unemployed rural youths joining the   JVP military project during 1987-89.  The patterns of surges of the JVP membership and their subsequent electoral successes are linked ideologically and politically to its electoral union with SLFP. The JVP’s electoral success in 2004 as a partner of the UPFA gave them a profile of a credible force. Their comprehensive defeat in 2010 demonstrates that they are unable to achieve electoral success without the SLFP. The election results showed that their supporters had abandoned the party. Even politically hosting General Sarath Fonseka (SF) could not save their face.
Political violence
The JVP has been one of the main contributors to the violence that pervades Sri Lankan political culture. The current leadership of the JVP has conveniently forgotten their violent political behavior and how they assassinated their political critics and dissenters without any mercy. They killed students, trade union and political leaders, even journalists. Again this kind of political criminality could be traced back  the issue of RW’s opposition to giving emphasis and priority to trade union activities when he was making it    an issue of resignation from the CP (P). In 1989 they assassinated George Ratnayake, Communist Party affiliated General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Jathika Gurusangamaya in 1989 in Habaraduwa who was a comrade and close friend of mine. In the same year they killed LW Panditha, the Communist Party affiliated a prominent trade union leader in Colombo. They killed Vijaya Kumaratunga the political leader who was determined to stop the war and offer a political solution to the ethnic issue. They did not even spare the student leaders. One of them was Daya Pathirana, President and the founder of Independent Student Union at the Colombo University. There are others who were killed. All of them supported the 13th Amendment to the Constitution as a political solution. This goes back again to the second issue of RW where he opposed the special attention given to the Indian plantation workers. RW’s anti- trade union and anti Tamil political ideology had become the guiding principle for its militant project. The JVP was also responsible of assassinating Premakeerthi de Alwis a talented journalist who worked for the SLBC.
When the current JVP leadership campaigns for political and democratic rights including the suppression of journalist by the current regime they need to accept their own serious political mistakes and responsibility during their violent years. So far they have never acknowledged the responsibility. Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian sociologist and postmodern philosopher makes a clear and compelling ethical argument against political violence in following words. ‘One thing that never ceases to surprise  the naïve ethical consciousness is how the very same people who commit terrible acts of violence towards their enemies can display warm humanity and gentle care for the members of their own group’ (VIOLENCE , Six Sideways Reflections,2009, p 40). They are not enemies but they are people who JVP claimed to be fighting for. It was not their enemies the JVP had assassinated but those who had different political opinions in the Left in relation to democracy and basic democratic rights of the ethnic minorities in this country. It is inconceivable to politically rationalize the decision of the General who headed the Sri Lankan army to ally himself with the one of the most politically irresponsible parties in the country. The JVP’s failure to discuss their violent history, the armed strategy to capture state  power and the lessons they have learnt from their tragedies shows    their commitment to democracy and basic democratic rights is not reassuring at all. This where the JVP is ambiguous and out of fashion with the democratic battles in coming years.
The Future
As long as the UPFA are in power the JVP’s ability to influence the rural constituency is very limited because of two basic reasons. The Sinhala hegemonic political ideology as a political asset has been seized by the UPFA who are able effectively to capitalize on it for their own political advantage. The JVP’s ideological affinity to the Sinhala Buddhist ideology will remain but will be politically ineffective in the face of the UPFA’s political dominance. However, any political solution offered to the Tamil community will be used by the JVP to revive its fortunes in the rural constituency. Secondly the UPFA’s ability to implement the “rural social mobility model’, encroaches into a traditional source of JVP support base .These two factors will continue to keep the JVP in its “mummified” state. The General will try to repay his political gratitude to the JVP for providing him with a political domicile but this will not be adequate to reviving the party’s political fortunes.
The likelihood of the JVP’s ability to come to life from their mummified political position depends on how the UPFA will take politics forward with the massive mandate it has received. If the government gives free rein to its politically authoritarian tendencies it will provide new opportunities and greater space   for the JVP to make inroads into their support, given the political forces and groups that would suffer due to such political suppressions. This can lead to another disaster. The real danger is that when the state displays authoritarian tendencies the JVP has in the past made a grand miscalculation regarding the closure of the democratic space. In the past, such miscalculations have led them to towards the armed struggle. Their class base of rural youths can be easily manipulated for such an adventure.
Sri Lanka needs a political party that can guarantee democracy and social justice for all its people, including devolution of power to ethnic minorities. The UNP is incapable of providing real opposition because of their recent electoral defeat and their feeble leadership. Secondly the UNP also cannot be trusted on these issues. There will be peaceful agitations and demonstrations on localized issues based on unequal access to land and resources, unemployment, ethinic and gender discrimination, police brutality and environmental issues all over the country in coming months and years. These issues will not just go away  and the government cannot resolve these issues using violence and brute force.
It remains to be seen how the government will resolve the issues of political democracy and basic human rights and how they will employ the huge democratic mandate they have received in the face of dissent and political  opposition. If the language of the government is suppression, the JVP, despite their history of brutal violence against people they claimed to be representing and despite their anti-Tamil and anti-devolutionary political discourse, will experience a dangerous political resurrection.
The JVP has nothing to offer. They hate the rich irrespective of hard work or not. They do not believe in private entrepreneurship and thinks a co-operative system is best suited for Sri Lanka. They hate private education and have highhandedly destroyed the academic spirit of local universities. They hate English as a business and link language.
They have tried to monopolize sinhala-buddhist sentiments much to the chagrin of tamils and muslims. Basically they are a bunch of short sighted three-wheeler party today, boasting about a psuedo – nivaradi mathaya. They do not any long represent the down-trodden and will hell-bent on destroying workplaces.
The possibility of the JVP’s return to violence is buttressed by two other continuities with its past:
1. Rational support for this or that mainstream party of faction, in a broad bloc, is rapidly followed by impatience, disillusionment and polarisation between the JVP and its erstwhile allies/patrons. This happened in 1971, where they had critically supported the UF coalition and in 1989 where they had indicated preference for Premadasa a year before. They took up arms against and were suppressed by administrations that they had helped come into office. In 2005 they were a major propellent of the MR victory. Will the old ‘itch’ prove irresistable to the JVP?
2. From its inception the JVP had a ‘shadow project’, that of an ultranationalist-populist putsch. Wijeweera used the pseudonym Dr Tissa and traversed the periphery of a Sinhala ultranationalist populist stirring in the armed forces which the UNP govt of the day exaggerated wildly. This was the so-called Kakkussi coup, which led to the arrest of Major Richard Udagama (Mrs B’s sword arm in the crackdown in Jaffna in 1961) and the highly popular officer Prasanna Dahanayake. The JVP current romance with Gen Fonseka is a re-awakening of that old dream, which ironically, has been provided ideological legitimacy by a trio of Tamil Trotskyists, most notably a pro-Tiger Tamil Trotskyist Wasantharajah who called the General a potential Hugo Chavez ( or a potential De Gaulle). I have little doubt that this is what the JVP thinks it is doing: pursuing a future Chavez project, which of course will be as much of an insult to Hugo Chavez as calling the JVP “Guevarist” was an insult to Che!
I would submit that the only way to stop this ghastly cycle of violent conflict from repeating is if the mainline Opposition were re-flated as a viable mass alternative, by giving it a robust populist and patriotic ( but not narrowly Sinhala nationalist) leadership, profile and programme.
Dr. Dayan n mr. dayapala,
only hv 2 say ” imagination” that is your creation!
The next insurrection , if it comes, is going to have a ex- general as the leader! How ironic!
Jvp is the only political party which cherish democracy than any another party.They have been not only talking but fighting right from the begining for the democracy with in and out of the parliament.They are the happiest for ending the war since they can bring the message of democracy to north and east which they were eagerly waiting for a long period of time.which they could not do due to war.But unfortunately JVP was prohibited by JR administration in 1983-84 for no valid reason but to resort to fight for the democracy at any cost.
They are not so worried about winning or losing parliament seats because used to do political circumstances.Parliament seat is a not big deal for them because it hardly can serve the good people .In fact they offered 2 eats they won to UPFA at the last election for they are not greedy for power.
The present JVP is a syncretistic version of the party that went in for armed insurrection three decades ago. So it will always have a latent or subterranean ‘ultra’ element that would surface when opportunity arises. And the sweeping electoral victory of UPFA without JVP partnership could create an environment for surfacing of ultras.I tend to agree with Dr Dayan Jayatileka’s reasoning on this count.
The Maoists in India, who are probably the nearest parallel to JVP, have also been undergoing similar cyclical emphasis on armed insurrection. However, in their case the CPI (ML) as a political entity does exist, while factions of extremist groups operate underground. I expect the JVP to continue as a political entity in a similar fashion, while the ‘ultra’ elements unhappy with ‘democratic’ dispensation go back to armed action.
The JVP has cooked its own goose ,in joining hands with the UNP, no matter what their arguments are. The maxim that “there are no eternal enemies in politics”, in this instance ,does not seem to hold water, for the populace has lost its faith in their utterances.A political ideology need necessarily show that the chosen path is not veered away for mere plolitical gain.If so, it has to be in the interests of the masses that it purports to represent.
Ruling parties are so affraid of democracy for they are unable to deliver democracy to everone on equal basis.Therefore the used to come to wrong conclusion from their point of view about other political parties who talk of democracy.Infact the ruling parties are the decidn factor of JVP remains in the political stream or not and it depend on how far they are willing to deliver democracy
I think when one writes he must write the truth, if he knows it if not must refrain.if you believe all what you read you are an idiot, so please analyze and think (if you have any brains) before writing, for exam; everyone knows how and who killed V Kumaranathunga, yet you claim the JVP did it, that is a deliberate lie. in other words you are nothing but a liar!
What ever said by some ‘writers’ who analyse things on their favors, JVP is the only force having the most scientific and practicle solution for ethnic issue. Simply what they say is give equal rights to all despite ethnicity, religion etc. If person in power not willing to do that, how come JVP responsible for that.
Just dividing people on ethnic grounds will make the matter worse.
JVP oppose separatism. Promote unification.
If U analyze they have not taken any step to humiliate Tamils.
SLFP and UNP leaders in the past used the issue for their political gains. Bandaranaya took sinhala only step. UNPers burned Jaffna library and ignited 1983 flames, just to say few examples.
If not for JVP, you all will be under Prabakaran by now. They made the political plateform and rest done by SF and crowd.
They asked MR just after the defeat of LTTE to give prioriy for the development and social welfare of war affected people and not to go behind personal agendas. MR did not listen. People did not listen. Now all are in trouble.
Any way whether one likes or not JVP has and will play a leading role in the way Sri Lanka goes forward.
We like them becouse they are the real representative of ordinary mass in Sri Lanka.
Just see the origin of parties. SLFP and UNP both originated through ‘elite’ crowd for thier personal gains. JVP is the party of ordianry man though many people are being decieved by 2 main corrupted parties. We know some like if JVP take violent path becouse you can crush them again. But they are very very tactful now. I think background is being made with these articles etc that JVP will be crushed with false alegation of using weapons etc.
The writer says ‘Sri Lanka needs a political party that can guarantee democracy and social justice for all its people, including devolution of power to ethnic minorities’
If you know little bit of history you can realize that both main parties will agree for the last bit because of foolishness and obedience to western countries and India. But the most important’ democracy and social justic for all ‘can be achieved only through JVP. The writer is making the background for power devolution and separatism as an agent of separatists. He knows that it will only be the JVP who will play a major role then.
I challenge Groundviews to publish this comment if possible, to show your impartiality.
A Quality article written by Mr.Dhanapala who has done a lot of background study.Its not only theory he has touched on the ground realities.The JVP leaders cannot hold a candle to Marxists of the past such NM,Colvin,Sarath M,Leslie,Dr.Wicks,Pieter K to name a few.These were men of stature and held their seats due to the large personal Vote they obtained.Can any of the present JVP Leaders win in their own backyards-their personal votes will be nil.
The JVP do not stand for anything,just bitterness, hatred and greed.How could they sit on the same platform as the UNP.As the writer has quite rightly said its only if the UNP can the JVP rise again but this could change should the leadership change and Politicians such as Lakshman Seneviratne,Sajith P,Dayasiri,Karu start running the party and spread their voter base to the rual areas.Lets not forget the 1977 victory,even the SLFP strongholds were won with big majorities therefore it was not only in the swing that unseated strong candidates but strong campaigning by Candidates born and bred locally not those who parachuted from Colombo.
i do say jvpeers from 1971 up to now were only sinhale national socialists.revisiting the jvp would be interresting for former jvpeers and for for people who does not know the history of this group.today there are a few tamils and muslims in the jvp,who are naive to beleive in the jvp.(i too was naive in 1971 and sympathised with the jvp for a short time)jvp is not a marxist party,was never a marxist party.it is good that they are allmost dead.together with fonseka they thought they could achieve their aims,which they failed two times by terror terror —- terror.the majority of the sinhale people did not want jvp terror again with the top sinhale nationalist fonseka.there wont be political ressurrection for the jvp,but jvp terror is possible ,because that is the only possibility for them.unfortunately this time allthough dead ,they were not buried,very soon it will happen and that is good for s.l. ranjit de mel berlin/colombo.
Rights have responsibilities. Accountability for the lives of citizens by national leadership is an international responsibility. Thosec who do not want to learn from history repeat it
Accountability demands responsible speaking and actions. When there is accountability, citizens are protected from wicked actions and deceptions.
Prideful and wasteful dictators do not like to be accountable. They have lose actions, lose tongue, do not care or resoect the lives of others and are too quick to resort to violence, destruction, murder and genocide.
During the war against the LTTE, the government of Sri Lanka(GOSL) violated the rule of law against Tamils and permitted soldiers to commit murder and genocide.
In the name of justice, the GOSL should be called upon to account for the lives of 40,000 Tamil civilians killed in May last year.
Persons who believe in God as their creator and provider,believe that to be accountable to God gives spiritual food to fulfil their destiny and purpose in life. They live with an obligation to be responsible for their words and actions.
But most of the leaders in the GOSL and parliament believe in fate, affirming the thinking “what will be will be”. Such belief often does not produce either responsibilty or accountability.
That is the problem in SL. Therefore, accountability will not come from within the country. It must be enforced from outside.
When parents beat up kids they are called upon to account for their action in countries, including African countries, practicing Human Rights.
But the Sinhalese, corporately as a nation, do not want to be accountable in a court of law even after murdering 40,000 Tamils in one go.
On the general election day, the Sinhalese, by their voting for Rajapakse regime, have expressed and confirmed collectively, that they do not want to be and cannot be made to be accountaable for the ruthless murder of Tamils. They have to be punished collectively by the UN and the International Community.
The UN is obliged to ask the GOSL, Budddhist prelates and Sinhala politicos to account for their actions contributing to genocide, a crime against humanity.
If the UN does not do it, the very existence of the UN would become meaningless and the civilisation of mankind reversed.
Criminals are not pleaded to come to court, they are arrested, handcuffed and brought to court. It should be the same for the war criminals in SL.
I am but more optimistic than the writer and some of the commentators about the possible resurrection of the JVP as an armed opposition group for a set of reasons that present an equally un- salutary picture of the future of Sri Lankan politics.
It will be a long time before the JVP takes off again if it ever does, unless it metamorphoses into something else altogether which is unlikely. Its alliance with the UNP for the Presidential elections must have damaged its Sinhala nationalist credentials badly. In fact the alliance was detrimental to both the UNP and the JVP. Having the General on its front benches is neither here nor there.
It may be true that the JVP turns against its erstwhile allies. However this time the JVP has had the rug pulled out from under it by the UPFA which has fully appropriated the JVP’s populist brand of Sinhala (Buddhist) nationalism. We see this being represented by a range of actors from the JHU to the NFF .and the President’s brothers – enjoying such comfort and prominence. within the heart of government – and never before, even during the days of Cyril Mathew was there this level of open endorsement of such extreme Sinhala Buddhist nationalist voices by the government in power. I remember reading recently about how the Defence Secretary was chairing the post war book launch of Champika Ranawake’s, ‘The Charge of the Lion Brigade.’ The reported content of this book sounded toe curlingly racist indeed – a step beyond even Cyril Mathew’s racist tracts.
The SLFP abandoned its rural social mobility project a long time ago, partly because it had no choice, as the economic premises that this political project was based on no longer applied; partly because of the irrevocable changes brought about by JR’s neo liberal economic policies, which were also determined by global trends. And of course the current government like the others before it has fully embraced neo liberal economic policies.. Its constant incantation of the ‘development’ mantra makes this self evident.. Development simply means ‘get rich quick’ for the henchmen of those in power, not just in the north and east, but in the south as well. ‘Development’ is all about the ruling clique’s supporters and sycophants making a fast buck.
This top down ‘development’ agenda will deepen the inequalities within Sri Lankan society, polarise the country even more and here maybe the JVP has a window of opportunity. But the JVP can pull it off only if it can reinvent itself and it does not appear to have the imagination nor the capacity to make the necessary transformation.
JVP cannot do without its reliance on a form of populism through the invoking of Sinhala nationalism; And the UPFA has edged it out of its comfort zone fully. Even the JVP cannot improve on what is on offer from the government as far as Sinhala nationalism, populism and ‘patriotism’ are concerned. In Sri Lankan politics as elsewhere, these are all in a continuum and it is mystifying that Dr. Jayatilleke while critiquing the JVP characterises populist patriotism as good and Sinhala nationalism (narrow) as bad. This is how the JVP also characterises itself: it calls itself patriotic and thus against external interference,; that is why it opposes devolution to the minority.
MKDK
You say that the JVP was not responsible for Vijaya Kumaratunga’s death. Does this mean that the JVP was responsible for deaths of other comrades I have named? If the JVP was not responsible for the murder Vijaya‘s murder tell us who did it. On the day of the Vijaya’s funeral Desapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (DJV) issued a statement justifying Vijaya’s murder. In his answers to the readers questions from his underground Wijeweera admitted the connection between the JVP and DJV in following words.
“But the present Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya is not the armed division of the JVP.As far as we are aware Despapremi Janatha Vyaparaya is a mass people’s organization. There are members of the JVP as well as non members in it” (Sunday Times 13th November 1983 page 9).
It is hard to believe that the JVP was not aware of the plan to murder Vijaya even we accept Wijeweera’s assertion. This is evident again when Wijeweera made a political assassination of Vijaya in his answers after murdering Vijaya as he wanted to justify Vijaya’s assassination.
Wijeweera stated that
“He (Wijaya) was never a socialist…Mr. Vijaya Kumaratunga supported Indian imperialism. They are active within the country as an additional battalion. He went to Madras as an agent of the Jayewardene government and had secrets talks with fifth columnists of the Indian imperialist. He had meals with them. We treat SLMP as a power hungry treacherous lot of Indian agents (ibid. page 10)
Wijeweera had announced the death sentence for all the political leaders and their members who supported the provincial councils and the devolution of power at the time as they were branded as “Indian agents”. Then they carried out these death sentences. They were gruesome and brutal.Wijaya was assassinated as an Indian agent. But the progressives and democrats consider him as a great patriot who fearlessly defended the democratic rights of all communities and gave his life for his beliefs.
I hope readers will be able to decide now who is telling lies and why.
I still recall the handsome innocent face of Marusira in 1971 when he was hunted down and killed as he hid in a water tank by the regime in power which not unlike the Federal Party nurtured the JVP to overthrow the UNP and once in power forgot its promises to uplift the Sinhala youth who fought for their ascendency into power.
For the first time the Sri Lankan armed forces became funtional and not cermonial as we would listen to their bands on May Day. We also enjoyed the extended schol holidays.
I also recall that Mrs B visited Rohana imprisoned in Jaffna fort and begged him to give up his rebellion. Then Premadasa and Rupavahini went to town circa 1989 and we were treated to an opulent Mr Ekanayake alias Rohan Wijeweera living it up in the hill country surrounding himself with a collection of gold jewellery and a farmyard full of ducks and pigs.
Truth would elude us and Rohana was shot at by police and the JVP suffered irreparable damage as a political force.
With Pirabakaran’s demise and the vanquishing of the LTTE we are repeating history.
I was still a teenager but Marusira’s face still haunts me; his innocent and honest belief that the poilticians of the day would uplift the masses from the bigotry and elitist notions which deprived the rural masses of advancement.
Dear Rights Activist,
“Persons who believe in God as their creator and provider,believe that to be accountable to God gives spiritual food to fulfil their destiny and purpose in life.”
I thought that people who believe in God don’t have to worry about morals or ethics, because their faith in God will bring them to heaven no matter what bad things they do.
Correction
Sunday Times 1988 13 November, not 1983.