If you think we are descending to dictatorship and must stand and fight and if you belong to the minuscule class that reads English language newspapers, than the most heartening reads last Sunday (21 February) were interviews with JVP leader Somawana (Sunday Times), and more important, the spirited stance of Lanka Editor Sirimalwatte, quite unbowed by 18 days of unlawful detention and CID harassment (LakbimaNews). It’s not that Ranil, Rauff and Mangala are bad chaps, these days you can count on them to take the right side in the fight against repression, but they don’t have that kind of fighting spirit. More crucial, they don’t have the organisation and cadres to stand up against a ruling cabal turning more despotic by the day.

Received wisdom is that after losing the presidential election the JVP has shot its last bolt, that it is finished; but I have a sneaking suspicion that the reverse may be true. Maybe it is not finished but only starting. This time Rajapakse and his government will set the sails and choose how the wind blows; multiply repression and the JVP will become stronger as people gravitate to the principle pole of mobilisation against the source of oppression. The independent left parties will find themselves pushed into fighting alliances with the JVP notwithstanding the idiotic things it has done since 1971, and despite its reactionary stand on the Tamil question about which, thankfully, it has been a bit quiet for the last few months.

In defence of myself

I know that I am getting myself into heap big trouble with my leftwing and liberal friends by saying this sort of thing, so a paragraph in self-defence. Nearly forty years ago, when the JVP first set out on its path of adventurist folly, I was one of the first two people to bring out a theoretical critique of the dead-end bankruptcy of its infantile politics-of-putsch – if I recall correctly, Shan (N. Sanmugathasan) was the other. Ajith Samaranayake did a brilliant translation (Tharunu Ugathunge Deshapalanaya) and several thousand if not tens of thousands of copies of this little booklet were sold and circulated. Nor have I ever faltered in my criticism of the JVP’s stand on the national question and its subtle anti-Tamil inclinations – Wijeweera’s fifth lecture, JVP opposition to devolution of power to Tamils, and its role as leading propagandist in abetting the Sinhala State to destroy its Tamil alter ego, the LTTE. These criticisms of the JVP stand and will always stand.

But when a house is on fire you don’t ask for testimonials from the chap next to you rendering yeoman service in dousing the flames. Not even the maddest Trotskyist sectarian will do that. But some left sectarians and holier-than-thou impotent liberals are so embarrassed at having these JVP chaps take the lead in the fight against dictatorship, that they imagine lengthy critical expositions of the JVP are an essential apologetic preamble to joint action. I find this display of effusive embarrassment a bit silly. This is the time to prioritise the here-and-now; the demands dictated by the practical imperatives of necessary action must take precedence over all other matters. Or to put it simply, an alliance with the JVP is more important than hanging around with the nice chaps in the UNF.

Fast moving events are compelling leftwing, radical and liberal intellectuals to ponder their choices. Those who gravitated to liberal democracy in previous years when the danger was less perilous, for example Lionel Bopage, Ajith Rajapakse and their friends in Australia – I am avoiding names of local domiciles for obvious reasons – are now posed with a problem. Can UNP/F type organisations cope anymore, or is it time to work with bolder alternatives? Nice talk is not the way to defeat fascism; you need chaps with more fight in their marrow.

The AHRC on dictatorship

The Asian Human Rights Commission in a statement datelined 14 February ‘The second term of the president - outside constitutionalism, rule of law and due process’ makes certain assertions which underline how far Lanka has slipped from democratic norms. The statement asserts that: "The system of governance in which he (the President) works is one that falls clearly outside constitutionalism. The basic principle under which the existing Constitution of Sri Lanka works is that the head of the state is above the law", and goes on to add that "… the state does not recognise the supremacy of the law".

In a startling section subtitled ‘New army commander becomes a cat’s paw in a political game’ the statement points out that: "The case of Sarath Fonseka will mark the most glaring beginning in dealing with the denial of individual liberties for political participation through military tribunals, done under the pretext of creating legality for what is fundamentally illegal within a rule of law system. As a rule of law system does not exist now, only the façade of legality is observed when so-called military tribunals, which are a pure manipulation of the army commander’s position for political purposes, are introduced".

When the power model is one where the executive overpowers parliament and the judiciary the due process of law is challenged and supplemented by arrest, detention without trial and abduction with impunity, then, exactly what is left of democracy? Implicit in the ability to beat and cajole all four Mahanayakes into submission in one sweep is display of power whose strength is not to be underestimated.

The Somawansa and Sirimalwatte interviews

Having finished off the LTTE and locked up Fonseka, the state is turning its attention to the next obvious target. Fortunately the JVP does not seem to be cowed; its history, class roots and ideological doctrines give it a backbone. One point that struck me in the Somawansa interview was the strength of his commitment to an alliance with Fonseka. I do not interpret this in the same way that superficial commentators do. Conventional wisdom is that either the JVP is driven by chauvinism to embrace the LTTE terminator, or that it is so politically bankrupt that it has been compelled to hitch its wagon to an extraneous star. Likely there is something to these two propositions, but these interpretations are behind the times; the political wagon is moving on, rapidly.

I believe that there is another factor which is becoming more important by the day. It seems that Sarath Fonseka is a fighter; they can lock him up but he will continue to defy them. He fits in well with the JVP mould, and more important, he may assume a leadership role when the chips are down in the metaphorical street-fight against the despots. Intuitively, the JVP has sensed this potential; he could be a useful and formidable ally.

However there is a fly in ointment and we need to see how it works itself out. Maybe the money in the bank vaults is ill-gotten, or maybe wise men should not trust the CID one jot – see what happens when the police force becomes a political stooge – but the Lankan public will take little note of the financial probity of the JVP’s ally.

The government has worked itself into a bind, whatever the merits or otherwise of the military and civilian cases against Fonseka. Let him out, and he will stride the length and breadth of the land with JVP organisers in tow, putting on a show that will electrify audiences. The government simply cannot let him out! The Rajapakses have made a political champion out of their bete noire; they can’t let him out. I guess they have no choice now but to keep him in a safe-deposit vault till April 8, but each day they keep him incarcerated they earn negative interest; they lose another several thousand votes. Such are the ironies of politics.

The Sirimalwatte interview is notable for its fighting spirit and for its unsurprising revelations about how the CID works. His stance can be characterised by just one quote. Question: "Will you also slide into self-censorship like many other journalists?" Reply: "No I will not. I will not cow down and stop exposing the corruption of the administration". Those who stand against despots could be heartened by his closing remarks: "The next few years will be difficult, extremely difficult. There were many oppressive regimes that believed they will be in power forever. Hitler believed that the Third Reich will last a thousand years but it lasted only twelve. I believe that it’s darkest before the dawn".