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President a dictator with total control over judiciary, media: Party chief Anura Kumara
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leaders this week depicted Sri Lanka as a country laden with debt, run by an autocratic President who exercised total control over the media and the judiciary, seriously compromising their independence in recent years.
They were addressing crowds gathered at Viharamahadevi Park on Thursday for the 25th “Il Maha Viru Samuruwa” commemorating JVP ‘heroes’. It was 25 years since JVP leaders Wijeweera, Upatissa Gamanayake and other party cadres were killed.
Party stalwarts remember their fallen comrades
Sri Lanka was heaving under a debt of Rs. 9,121 billion compared with Rs. 273 billion in 1989, said the party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. He cited figures to show the vastly uneven distribution of income, with the rich getting everything and the poor, nothing. He also quoted statistics to show a steady decrease in the country’s health standards.
The President was a dictator, Mr. Dissanayake said. The law had met with the same fate as the media. Everyone had known without a shadow of a doubt what the verdict was going to be when the President asked for a Supreme Court opinion on whether he could contest for a third term. “That is what has become of justice in this country,” he said. “We have ahead of us a rebellion bigger than that of 1989.”
‘Imperialists’ had a free hand in the country, he continued. Multinational companies were buying thousands of acres of land in Uva-Wellassa while 14 out of the 17 Kalpitiya islands were also sold. The sea was being reclaimed to create a 233-hectare island without due consideration for the consequences. Serious environmental damage was being caused through the exploitation of natural resources. The Koslanda landslide was a result of such practices, he said.
The JVP has never been as strong as it is today, said General Secretary Tilvin Silva. The most fitting reward for their late comrades would be to realise their dreams. “The past belonged to enemies but the future belongs to the people,” he said. “We have nothing to lose. The Rajapaksas have much to lose. They could lose the ‘Sinhaasana’ (royal chair). They can lose their palaces, their power. They can lose the wealth they stole. We have nothing to lose but our lives, but we have a world to gain. ”
The President’s attempt at a third term was the ‘swansong’ of capitalism, he held, adding that his party was getting ready to herald in socialism. The late JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera had memorably said that he objected not only to law as a component of the system but to the ‘whole social system’. These things will not change as long as a capitalist leader is at the helm. It was necessary to change the system, not the person, he said.
Mr. Wijeweera had also predicted that natural disasters will be inevitable if the colonialist strategy of denuding the upcountry of its forests continued. This kind of forethought and vision are the legacy of the JVP’s ‘November Heroes’, Mr Silva said: “They died holding on to the truth and that truth is re-emerging. Our task is to reveal that truth to the masses.”
The JVP can reckon with capitalism and the dynastic ambitions that currently hamper Sri Lanka’s development. Mr. Wijeweera created the party to empower the country to stand on its own feet, said JVP Foreign Affairs Secretary Somawansa Amarasinghe. He called on the people to have trust in the party.