by Malinda Seneviratne

The State, as a political entity and in terms of popular imagination, came under seige long before Prabhakaran achieved his status as the most ruthless terrorist on the earth. The IMF and the World Bank, systematically undermined the state in countries such as ours, obediently following the dictates of multinational capital. "Globalisation" is but a coming-out-into-the open as it were, once the global political economy became conducive to declare "open season" to profit-seekers. Today, the state is nothing more than a shadow of what it used to be. This shadowy state, however, has retained two critical attributes: it subsidises capital and has the power to discipline populations. The second, however, is not applied to further only the cause of capital expansion. This indiscipline is something that capitalism has to live with.

Governments for the most part are then mere managers of affairs on behalf of capital interests. The problem is that they are not always inhabited by those who are even half way savvy to the "logic" of capitalism.

Capitalism

Capitalism, which operates on a crude understanding of human relations and worships a god named Homo Economicus, never has and never will understand that issues of culture and identity are at least as much important as the pursuit of material well-being. It might understand the selfish urges of the human being, but forgets and can’t understand that human beings constantly grapple with a thing called solitude. They want community and this collective urge is nothing like that which brough countries together into the European Union. I believe this is why in Sri Lanka we have identity based parties going beyond making a token appearance during elections, but actually becoming king-makers and kings.

It was the JVP that is credited with the term "parivasa" entering the political lexicon of this country. The truth is that the idea of putting governments on probation is something that the JVP stole from racist minority parties.

What the last decade has demonstrated in terms of parliamentary politics in this country is that one does not have to have 112 plus seats in order to run a government. Today even a party with a handful of seats can emerge as king maker and queen maker. The point is, no single party under this system can win a two-thirds majority. Both the PA and the UNP have to depend on the so-called small parties to form governments let alone secure the all powerful two-thirds majority. Either through the promise of vote banks or of support in parliamentary votes, these parties can obtain all kinds of goodies from the two major parties.

SLMC

We have had Ashroff and the SLMC, followed by Hakeem, getting ministeries, corporations and ambassadorial posts for themselves and their followers. Saumyamoorthi Thondaman and now his grandson Arumugam, likewise have extracted more than their pound of flesh now from the UNP and now from the PA. Douglas Devananda’s EPDP had its turn at holding Chandrika to ransom.

By the looks of it, the TNA (itself "on probation" vis a vis the LTTE) is poised to hold the parivasa cards come December 6th. And here we must not forget the great chanda magadiya that has been orchestrated even before a sigle vote has been cast, that of allowing 10 MPs from Jaffna and 6 from the Vanni to come to parliament even though these districts have only a fraction of the voters that necessitate such representation. And by the way, this "displaced" population has found a safe haven in the "racist" South, especially the Western Province", from where they can return one or two more Tamil members. Some discriminated ethnicity, these Tamils are!

All these parties and all these leaders, it must not be forgotten, are not just hijacking political power or holding "legitimate" governments to ransom. What they have done, are doing and are planning to do, is nothing less than imposing a parivasa on the Sinhala people. The UNP and the PA, power hungry as they are, have lost the moral right to speak on behalf of the Sinhalese because they have not had the backbone to prevent these racist minorities from holding us to ransom.

A lot of people believe that the JVP not only invented the term "parivasa" but that this was the first time they have put anyone on probation. The first time the JVP put the entire country on probation was in 1971. It put the UNP and with their help the rest of the country on probation between 1987 and 1990 via the so-called punchi aanduwa. They did it with the power of the proverbial kata puncha. The 2001 version of the JVP parivasa in comparison is pretty benign. Changed over a new leaf? Hardly! Let me explain.

The JVP leadership is not endowed with great intellect, but they are smart enough to operate within the framework of power politics. They know how to read the political equation of power, even though they don’t have a clue about reading the world or social transformation. The JVP learnt from Hakeem and Co., how to enslave a party which has nine times the number of seats. It was from the LTTE that the JVP learnt the art of employing the idea of "ceasefires" for military purposes.

We all know how the LTTE uses negotiations, ceasefires etc., so that they can strengthen their military position and maybe even get their terrosist image a face-lift internationally. In his "hero’s day speech" Prabhakaran is once again making cease-fire noises, talking about negotiated settlements etc. If you were to read it carefully, it amounts to this: lift sanctions, de-proscribe and THEN WE’LL SEE! Not at all subtle, I think. I am sure our Sri Lanka First jokers and SOLO-U aadaravanthayas are already making Valentine’s Day cards for Prabhakaran, what joy!

JVP

This is not just about Prabhakaran, however. This is also about the JVP. The JVP also has honeymoon periods designed for the gullible. They also have "ceasefires". Only, their ceasefires, unlike those of the LTTE, last for years. We had one from April 1971 to December 1986 (when they bumped off Daya Pathirana). From 1986 to 1990 they went on rampage, competing with the UNP, killing journalists, artists, Buddhist monks, attacking the Dalada Maligawa, destroying public property etc. Since then they have been relatively quiet on the boom-boom side. With Somanwasa’s arrival this political wolf has started baring its teeth.

We should not make light of the possibility that there is another Nimal Balasuriya Balakaya waiting to pick off students who oppose the JVP, or that there could be another Kudapola Rahula Balakaya waiting to kill off Buddhist monks. There are Daya Pathiranas among us. There are also Kotikawatte Saddhatissas and Pohoddaramulle Pemalokas awaiting assassination at the hands of the JVP. We should also not forget how the JVP claimed that the decision to withdraw the IPKF was "eyewash" when the Chied Prelate of the Malwatte Chapter, Ven. Sirimalwatte Ananda announced it over TV. The Ven. Ananda is reported to have suffered a heart attack when he received one of the dreaded threatening letters sent by the JVP. Rajakeeya Panditha, the Rev. Thalalle Dammananda, Prelate of the Amarapura Srisaddhammavamsa Maha Nikaya, had to leave the Jayasekararama and flee to Thailand for two months to escape from the JVP terror.

Silenced

Like the LTTE, the JVP does not forget to engage in the occasional skirmish. They have attacked and silenced opponents in all universities beginning in 1991. The really gullible, i.e. those who really believe the JVPers have become veritable political sadhus, should take note of the fact that the title of the fifth of their infamous panthi paha, still remains "The Bolshevik Revolution". Their cadres are asked to place their faith in armed struggle. Still!

Yes, the word in the street is parivasa. We are on probation. We are all under probation here. We have the IMF-WB-WTO triumvirate swining their economic trishula over our heads. The JVP’s third historical parivasa has only just begun. We have also been put on probation by the LTTE. The PA and the UNP have been put on probation by the racist minority parties. Prabhakaran’s peace lobby, led by the National Peace Council, sections of the Catholic Church and now funded by the European Union and some really naive people in the business community, have together done their utmost to try to make it embarrassing to be a Sinhalese. They too are putting us on probation.

I think it is ridiculous to be put on probation by a bunch of thugs, racists and nitwits. I for one would not want my life to be put on hold by gun-toting maniacs who try to make out they are being persecuted. We can forget our roots only at our own peril. I believe it is suicidal to forget or dismiss our ancestors and the long history of this land whose fertility they enhanced with civilisational energy. There are times when it is important to remember our heritage and affirm our identity. This I shall do on December 5th. I will not be put on probation.