by E. M. G. Edirisinghe

Once again it has been proved that the people’s faith is in a person and not in the policies - even a thief can pronounce benevolent policies.

The JVP, in their thinking narrowed by age-old theories and marooned by inflexible policies which are even discarded by such countries as China and Russia, thought that they were king-makers, as they were in 2004 and 2005. However, they should have made a self-assessment of their poor showing in the Provincial Council Elections held in 2009. Not that the people trusted the JVP, but the people endured them under the benevolent leadership of the SLFP which made them a tamed team of youth. Otherwise, the people would have not listened to them.

What happened this time, in 2010? At any election, with the present adamant authoritative leadership, the JVP could hardly get the people to trust them with power. At the 2005 Presidential election, their role was hardly assertive, playing rather a second fiddle in the campaign. The people then knew that the JVP would remain in the shadow of the President, and so they had no fears.

What happened this time? They played such a crucial and prominent role that it even pushed the UNP, the mainstay in the campaign, to the back-seat. The people thought that if the common candidate won, it would be the JVP who would dominate the government, a situation the people were not prepared to bargain for. The JVP, with no popular national leadership, is far, far away from being trusted by the people, to that extent. With that intimate relations in force, the people also feared that both the common candidate and the JVP, being closely associated with the gun, it could produce a combination that could be somewhat uncertain.

People do not vote for policies but for personalities. So the JVP is very much in need of a national charismatic leader who the people could trust and bargain for. So it is still groping at ground level. To respect one’s policies, one should be able to trust the one who holds such policies. As a first step, they should stop hatred that emanates from every speaker of the party. Seniority alone should not decide the leadership of a party, particularly when it has to appeal to the majority of the people for power. If the JVP think that they can win 40 seats in alliance with the UNP, it is only a dream. No UNPer will ever vote for a JVPer as the SLFPers did in 2004.