JVP and LTTE meet in the Vanni
 

In an unexpected turn of events the leadership of the JVP met with the LTTE leadership earlier this week. No details are available at this time. In a short explanation leaders of both parties said that they had enough of having been mislead by successive Governments and that they would put the Government and the International Community to shame having made a small elite living in Colombo and abroad incredible wealthy with the ongoing war.
 

Probakaran, now in his late fifties, seems to have said that he has had enough of this international scam effected his people. Yes, he admits, he has been ruthless, and according to him, he had to be, saving his movement from collapse. But now with Balasingham, his political advisor dead, there seems to be no point fighting any more.
 

The JVP leadership that they had come to realise how they had been used by the US and its Sri Lanka allies to do their dirty work and continue this scam making some individuals fabulously rich and keeping the rest of the people at close to starvation levels. They said that they would find a way out of this by creating alliances at the level of the people of all communities who are tired of war and fighting and want to live in peace and harmony.
 

Both parties are realising that working towards that goal will be an uphill task having to correct decades of mismanagement by successive Governments. But that with their support among the people they would be able to explain how these distortions of facts, that were told time and again by the political leadership, would be addressed.
 

The LTTE leadership is now contemplating on how to direct this change in its political and millitary orientation. Under no circumstances will they enter into a talk with anyone who has supported the war mongering in the past from the leading political parties. They said that they are happy with this realisation now taking place within the JVP and that they sincerely hope the JVP would be able to rally support for this peace agenda among the Sinhala people and among other communities of good faith.
 

The JVP has embarked on a massive campaign called: “enlightening the masses”. In this campaign they will advance an agenda that will take them out of international isolation and bring them to the centre of Sri Lankan politics. The campaign has 4 main components.
 

1.      Bringing Sri Lankans into the present century by giving them access to Internet and the English language. This would enlighten the population about the abuse of power by successive Governments and bring them into contact with other global players wanting to expose war-mongering, narrow-nationalist and racist rhetoric and would advance the agenda of peace and prosperity.
2.      Exposing corruption at all levels and showing no mercy for anyone taking illegal money belonging to the Sri Lankan people. Starting from the lowest levels the campaign will ensure that nobody will be subject to bribery, corruption and other malpractice. Local political leadership will be prosecuted if found guilty of any wrongdoing.
3.      Restoration of the rule of law. Promoting the strict separation between law making, law implementing and law controlling bodies the JVP campaign will make sure that the rule of law is restored in the country. All those presently guilty of illegal killings, disappearances, intimidation and other misconduct will be arrested and charges will be brought against them.
4.      The present political relations will be reviewed. The JVP is considering leaving the present Government and relinquishing the positions it holds to be able to dedicate all its energy to the movement promising peace and prosperity to all communities in Sri Lanka.
 

Asked if all this would not be a major d-tour from what it is presently doing a JVP spokesman said that they had recently discovered this national and international scam and that they could no longer be part of it. He also said that many of the economic and political advisors to the Sri Lankan Government had “butter on their heads”, meaning that they did only advance their own short term financial interests and that this needs to be exposed. It is also a disgrace, he said, that US green-card holders are running the country.
 

Asked how they had been able to actually change the position of the LTTE he further said that they had been able to lay the foundations for a political settlement whereby both parties would come out victoriously. All communities would be given their rightful place in a unified Sri Lanka free of corruption and political strife. Does this all not sound a bit over the top and too unrealistic? Consider this:
 

·        Sri Lankan academics have time and again made us to believe that we had an ethnic conflict. We were made to feel that the problem is between Tamils and Sinhalese. And, mind you, from the left and the right they have talked us into this. Look at how ethnic community’s life, with all their different histories in countries of the west. Yes, they do have racism and they do have to work hard to understand each other. But they do not fight and talk like we do as if we are still in the middle ages. Now that we understand the international scam that has been going on we will chance our policies.
·        Nobody explains to us who finances the war, who earns and who suffers. It is clearly the Tamil communities in the North and East that suffer most. But also the majority of the Sinhalese and Muslim communities suffer and are unable to develop because of the war. And actually from all the remittances that the Tamil (and Sinhala) Diaspora remit to Sri Lanka a considerable amount is being invested in Colombo. In a way the Tamil community itself is financing the war waged against them.
·        The glorious days of post tsunami millions are over. The Government now prints money and thereby increases inflation to such levels that ordinary Sri Lankans cannot life anymore. Nobody wants to bail us out anymore.
 

Ratnayake from Canada

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