Running with the masses and hunting with the govt.

The Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CP) in a media statement has urged the government to find ways and means of relieving the masses of the cost of living burden. It was only the other day that the LSSP issued a similar statement.

The CP, which is a constituent party of the ruling PA also appears to be on a ‘guilt trip’ like its Troskyite cousin. Why are these parties that have direct access to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga issuing such public statementS without taking up the matter internally at the proper fora? They have weekly cabinet meetings, parliamentary group meetings, various other meetings and if needs be they can even ask for a special meeting with the President to discuss these matters.

As we said in these columns last week, despite their left leanings in politics, parliamentarians of these the LSSP and the CP are enjoying all the privileges and perks of office as any other MP of a capitalist party but from time to time they put on show of taking exception to certain policies or shortcoming of the PA, make a hue and cry about them and then continue to support the government. Strange bed fellows!

This is however not a bad strategy. At an election leaders of these minor parities can thunder from their platforms that they have taken on the government on behalf of the masses. They can claim that their representation was ignored by the leadership and debit all the blame to someone else’s account.

Running with the masses and hunting with the government is nothing new to the traditional left. Many an example can be cited from what they did during their cohabitation with the SLFP in the United Front government of 1970’s. How Felix Dias Bandaranaike was made a scapegoat in the end is too well known to merit repetition.

While urging the government to mitigate the burden of the high cost of living, the CP talks of the ‘resilience’ of Sri Lanka’S economy under the PA. It says, "Only the resilience of our economy and its effective management that has prevented the economy sliding into a deep crisis." What does it mean by ‘effective management’ ? The CP appears to have come to view unbridled privatisation (Gas for example), prostrating themselves at the feet of global capitalists seeking aid etc., as being a testimony to ‘effective economic management." What has become of the local industries? They lie supine with their backbone crushed by foreign imports. Local potato and onion growers for example are mired neck deep in debt because of imports. Why has the government had to leave the rupee to its fate causing prices of essential commodities to soar further.

Then the military expenditure. The present state of the economy is primarily due to the protracted North-east war and the ever rising military expenditure, the CP statement says. It is no secret that the defence budget annually takes a sizable bite of the GDP. But what else can Sri Lanka do? The country must incur this expenditure in its war against terrorism and it is the duty of the government to find ways and means of financing the war effort. At the same time, it must rationalise defence expenditure mainly by eliminating corruption, which is rampant, as President Kumaratunga has admitted, in the defence establishment. If the corrupt elements can be weeded out, then the government will be able to cut down on defence expenditure substantially. In any case, there must be no protests against defence expenditure, which is essential to preserve the territorial integrity of the country.

Some fellow travellers of the PA now appear to be on a campaign to frighten the people into accepting the Package by making a gonibilla of the defence expenditure. It appears that the government including the CP are trying to give the people a choice between the defence expenditure and the Package.

How does the CP propose to bring down the defence expenditure? And apart from the Package, which the LTTE has rejected, what other solution does it have to end the war? The CP laments, "Last year, to avert the fall of the Jaffna peninsula to the LTTE the armed forces had to be equipped with most modern and sophisticated weaponry depleting the foreign exchange reserves of the country." That this expenditure has paid dividends is clear where President Kumaratunga (in her Independence Day speech) says that the troops have now ‘tamed’ the LTTE and made it send ‘favourable signals’ to her government’s call for negotiations.

Both the CP and the LSSP are as much a part of the government as the SLFP or any other party in the PA. If the leaders of the CP think that they can absolve themselves of the responsibility for hardships the people are faced with at present, with the help of cheap tactics such as press statements, they are sadly mistaken. The CP and the LSSP should stop playing to the gallery.

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