“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.