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‘We have changed’ announced the ‘Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’ (JVP)’s  General Secretary Tilvin Silva on Thursday, addressing an intently listening audience comprising President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and JVP cadre at the 35th annual commemoration of party heroes killed during state and counter-state violence during two Marxist inspired insurrections in Sri Lanka’s South (1970′s and 1980′s).

An extraordinary win for the NPP

Liberally peppering his speech with references to Karl Marx and the JVP’s founder-revolutionary Mr Rohana Wijeweera put to death by the military upon capture in 1989, Mr Silva explained that, ‘we are a political party which has adapted with the times…those who are stubborn, who do not change, will not survive.’ That same day, the Elections Commission had proclaimed a two-thirds majority win for the JVP-led National Peoples’ Power party (NPP) in the general elections,

After the polls win sweeping the Tamil and Muslim minority dominated North to the Sinhala majority South, an unusually relaxed Mr Silva addressed the media, refuting reports that a shadow inner circle of the JVP will ‘control’ the Parliament. ‘Those controls are typical of mainstream parties, who are governed by their leaders’, he responded with a glint of steel to his media interrogator. ‘We follow a decision making process, enter into a collaborative consensus and then proceed,’ he said.

The message, prudently designed to calm jangled nerves, reassured sceptics that the JVP had discarded its turbulent past, reinventing itself as the NPP in a process of genuine party reform, not cosmetically. It remains to be seen if that is true. Both the addresses of President Dissanayake and Mr Silva at this event were bereft of acknowledging the destructive role that the JVP itself played in those ‘terror years.’

Narcissistic conduct of ‘traditional’ politicians

That apart and fast forward to the present, typically, Mr Silva has chosen to remain in the party hierarchy, not joining the excited jostling of JVP-NPP constituents to enter Parliament nor agreeing to accept any post in the NPP’s fledgling administration. This carefully calibrated behaviour stands out – and is meant to do so – in abrupt contrast to the ‘normal behaviour’ of Sri Lankan politicians who grossly succumb to manifold temptations on treading the corridors of power.

However, when Mr Silva claims that the NPP did not ask for a two thirds majority, he must be corrected forthwith. Most notably, his comrade President urged the public to ‘fill the Parliament with Malimawa candidates’ and dismissed the need for any parliamentary opposition. It was only after voting had finished in Thursday’s polls that President Dissanayake added that the NPP was not looking for a two-thirds majority.

But the Sri Lankan electorate, enraged at the narcissistic power politics of ‘traditional’ political leaders from the North to the South, gave him all that he had demanded and more. Even so, this decimation of Sri Lanka’s political opposition does not bode well for the country’s fragile democratic process, let it be reiterated. The major responsibility for this rests with a fractured, wrangling and impossibly juvenile opposition itself.

Consequences of a divided Opposition

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe had directed his vitriol during September’s presidential polls against his onetime protégé turned bitter rival, Sajith Premadasa’s UNP-breakaway party, the ‘Samagi Jana Balavegaya’ (SJB). That effort by Wickremesinghe, the United National Party (UNP’s) ‘Great Divider’ was successful. The SJB’s Premadasa was pipped at the presidential post by the NPP’s Dissanayake. From that point onwards, it was a speedy downhill slide for the demoralised SJB.

Riven by internal fighting and accusations of family-driven politics as the opposition was, the NPP’s fresh faces appealed to the electorate, not dissuaded by Mr Wickremesinghe’s thunderous warnings that the new candidates lacked political ‘experience.’ His notorious prediction that the SJB would forfeit the opposition seat in the House was proved wrong. This was cold comfort as the SJB was reduced to a meagre 40 seats against a mammoth NPP win of 159 seats.

But if the NPP victory at the parliamentary polls meant anything, it was the defeat of politicians who had drummed the racist drum for decades. Communalistic aspirants to the House were tossed out on their ears, albeit with a few aberrations. That was an unequivocal rejection of the tug and pull of politics on racial lines that had routinely resulted in political leaders of minority parties boasting that they are the ‘kingmakers’ during national elections.

Minority expectations towards the NPP

Alternately, the ‘Sinhalese majority’ trumpeted its unity in defeating the minorities and electing its own candidate, an excellent case in point being the historically pyrrhic win of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in 2019. Against that dismal backdrop, this was the first time in post 1978 elections that Tamil and Muslim minorities as well as the estate Tamil community, rejected their own parties to vote for the JVP-NPP.

This massive leap of faith occurred notwithstanding the JVP’s historical accountability for the blood spilt in ethnic and civil conflicts. That should not be underestimated. Translating that vote of confidence by the minorities into constitutional reality will be formidable but not impossible. Replacing the obnoxious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with a sensible and narrowly framed law, not Mr Wickremesinghe’s atrocious Counter-Terrorism Act (CTA) is a first step.

Thus too, permitting mothers of the missing in the North and East to remember their dead similar to how the JVP commemorates its dead on November 14th each year. Apart from that, the President’s pledge at an election rally in Vavuniya last week to release political prisoners, punctuated by a rider that the release must be ‘on the advice of the Attorney General’ and to release land occupied by the forces is paramount.

 With a great win, come great expectations

On Friday, Mr Silva reminded the media that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution has failed to fulfil the aspirations of Sri Lanka’s minorities. ‘We have to look for another and more successful mechanism’, he said while repeating that the 13th Amendment will be retained until then. What this ‘mechanism’ will turn out to be is anybody’s guess. Previously, the JVP’s approach had followed the Rajapaksas’ ‘development’ model.

The rationale is that with the ‘development’ of the North and East, the grievances of the Tamils will cease. But that is not the case. The practice and the policy of the State must implement constitutional guarantees to equality before the law and linguistic rights. An utterly stagnant transitional justice process must be injected with new life. Sri Lanka may well look towards Nepal for a useful learning experience.

Nepal has just enacted transitional justice legislation to meet demands of victims of deadly internal conflict during 1996-2006 between the security forces and Maoist rebels which mirrors somewhat interestingly, the JVP’s own insurrections. Notwithstanding drawbacks, the appointment of independent members to transitional justice commissions is underway. Sri Lanka’s draft laws do not even come up to the Nepali standard.

 Is this a fresh dawn for Sri Lanka?

On anti-corruption measures, the JVP’s General Secretary was on firmer ground, assuring that from henceforth, no ministers or public officials will beg for commissions, formerly a primary obstacle for foreign and local direct investment. The JVP-NPP will fulfil campaign promises, including the enactment of a new Constitution and the abolition of the executive presidency, he said retorting that ‘we will not let the people down.’

For the sake of a tormented citizenry hitherto beset by venal rulers, we hope that (scepticism aside) this will be the case. Towards that end, a newly ‘cleansed’ Parliament, with increased female representatives elected on their own merit, will sit next week.

The Government and the Opposition alike must be wished the very best in its collective efforts to bring about a fresh dawn of governance for Sri Lanka.