Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna: What Is It? Where Is It Going?

1. Desertion of the JVP by Old-timers

The attraction that the contemporary Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has for the youth derives largely from the revolt of April 1971. It is because of this revolt that the JVP has a reputation for militancy. The broad masses do not approve of the revolt. But they feel a respect and sympathy for it. Whatever be the rights and wrongs of the revolt, they look upon the young people concerned as those who were prepared even to lay down their lives for their objectives.

Though this may be the manner in which the people regard this question, there is another aspect to it which the people do not see or know. Since, right or wrong, it is not disputed that these young people were prepared to lay down their lives for their objectives, they were deserving of respect. But the present JVP, though it functions under the very name of the body that organised the revolt, is not today a movement of the estimable people who risked their lives in that struggle.

Special reasons can be adduced for this.

The twelve member Political Bureau was the highest body in the JVP organization, which led the April revolt. That this Political Bureau was not democratically elected, and that its members were nominated by Wijeweera at his sole discretion, are not relevant for us at this moment. What is relevant is, who were the members of that Political Bureau and how many of them remain within the present JVP.

The following were the 12 members of the Political Bureau:

1. Nandasiri Wijeweera alias Rohana Wijeweera
2. Wijesena G. Vithana alias Sanath
3. W. T. Karunaratne alias Income Tax Karu
4. Nimalasiri Jayasinghe alias Loku Athula
5. Anura Kurukulasooriya alias Ranjith
6. Sunanda Deshapriya alias Asoka
7. Somasiri Kumanayake
8. T. D. Silva
9. J. P. P. Dhanapala
10. J. Uyangoda alias Mr U
11. W. T. Cecil Chandra
12. Lakshman Maduwage

Of these twelve, Sanath (No 2) is not alive, and of the rest only Wijeweera is in the present JVP.

Now let us take a look at the second line of leadership, second only to the Political Bureau. The list is as follows:

1. H. Milton (District Secretary, Colombo North)
2. Wasantha Kanakaratne (District Secretary, Colombo South)
3. Osmund Silva (District Secretary, Colombo Central)
4. Nimal Maharage (District Secretary, Kotte)
5. Sarath Wijesinghe (District Secretary, Kegalle)
6. J. Samaratunga (District Secretary, Kurunegala)
7. J. H. Premasiri (District Secretary, Kandy Road)
8. Nissanka Wijewardena (District Secretary, Amparai)
9. W. H. Jayasinghe alias Anura (District Secretary, Anuradhapura)
10. Susil Liyanage (District Secretary, Polonnaruwa)
11. Susil Wickrema (District Secretary, Matara)
12. Francis Abeywickrema alias Pantis Aiyya (District Secretary, Hambantota)
13. I. D. Siripala alias Jagath (District Secretary, Galle)
14. Nayanananda Wijekulatilake (District Secretary, Kalutara)
15. Anura Kurukulasooriya alias Ranjith (District Secretary, Kandy)
16. Sunanda Deshapriya alias Asoka (District Secretary, Badulla)
17. Victor Ivan alias Podi Athula (Secretary, Trade Union Section)
18. S. V. A. Piyathilake (Secretary, Students Section)
19. Premasiri Siriwardena (District Secretary, Nuwara Eliya)

Of these nineteen, H. Milton, Sarath Wijesinghe and Susil Wickrema are now dead. The rest are alive, but none of them is in the present JVP or has any connection with Wijeweera.

Let us take the accused in the main case into account. The list in order is as follows.

1. S. V. A. Piyathilake
2. Lionel Bopage alias Laiya
3. J. Uyangoda alias Mr U
4. Anura Kurukulasooriya alias Ranjith
5. Sunanda Deshapriya alias Asoka
6. Nimalasiri Jayasinghe alias Loku Athula
7. Victor Ivan alias Podi Athula
8. Nimal Maharage
9. Somasiri Kumanayake
10. Wasantha Kanakaratne
11. D. A. Gunasekera
12. T. D. Silva
13. Nandasiri Wijeweera alias Rohana
14. W. T. Cecil Chandra
15. R. A. Kularatne Banda alias Piyasiri
16. J. P. P. Dhanapala
17. Sunil Ratnasiri de Silva
18. Viraj Fernando
19. M. M. Wijepala de Silva
20. Nihal Ananda Perera
21. S. D. Bandaranaike
22. Osmund de Silva
23. J. P. P. Dhanapala
24. Lakshman Maduwage
25. Susil Siriwardena
26. Mahinda Wijesekera
27. Kelly Senanayake
28. Themis Silva alias Batapola Athula
29. Alenson Subasinghe
30. Lakshman Chandrasena alias Kalu Lucky
31. Lakshman Munasinghe alias Podi Lucky
32. Merril Jayasiri
33. N. Premaratne alias Chukky
34. Wijesena G. Withana alias Sanath
35. Susil Wickrema
36. Sarath Wijesinghe
37. H. Milton
38. W. T. Karunaratne
39. Hewabatage Premapala
40. Nayanananda Wijekulathilake
41. D. P. Wimalaguna
42. J. E. P. Jayakody

Of these forty one all but four, viz Wijesena G. Withana, Susil Wickrema, Sarath Wijesinghe and H. Milton are alive today. But only two of them, Lionel Bopage and Rohana Wijeweera are in the present JVP. Kelly Senanayake was a prominent leader of the JVP after 1977, but even he has left the organization recently.

Besides this, what is the position of the ordinary rank and file members? Of the approximately 15,000 members the JVP had in April 1971, not even 5% remain with the present JVP.

One of the principal reasons for the sympathy of people for the JVP lies in the qualities of boldness, militancy and dedication. But the people do not know that the persons who displayed those qualities in that struggle are no longer with the present JVP. The present JVP also speaks very highly of the boldness and dedication displayed by the youth in the revolt. They only do not mention that those who displayed these qualities are no longer with them.

2. The reasons that led the old guard to leave the JVP and how this process took place

Why did the old guard abandon the JVP which they had built with their sweat and blood? Before answering this question it is important to find out why sections of the youth were attracted to the JVP. This is an aspect that has received considerable attention already. The reasons given by most persons are similar. Poverty, unemployment, disparities in educational opportunities, caste oppression, disappointed hopes are some of the reasons they adduce. All these reasons are correct. But there is more to the question. Granted that the youth were infuriated for those reasons, why did they rally round Wijeweera? Most people (including Marxists) see it as a special ability which Wijeweera had (and has) that the leaders of other political parties do not possess. But this is not the truth. The reason is not that Wijeweera was more able than the leaders of other political parties, but that he was the political leader who was most representative of this movement. This social force that gathered around him, consisted of young people whose education was limited to Sinhala, who had racialist and castist attitudes and a Sinhala Buddhist outlook. The political leader who most responded to those views, attitudes and aspirations was Wijeweera. That is the reason why the prime of his youthful following rallied round him. The next question that arises is that, if Wijeweera is the political leader who best represented this social force, how is it that after some time he was to be rejected by the same social force. In other words, why did the social force that rallied round him, then move away from him.

There cannot be any dispute that the 1971 April revolt was the culmination of a process of activity planned over a long time by Wijeweera and the youth movement that had gathered around him. Even if the insurrection was badly defeated Wijeweera and his followers had no means of knowing it before hand. Wijeweera and his followers were quite confident of victory in their revolt. But contrary to their expectations it was severely defeated. As a result of this defeat all their hopes and expectations collapsed to the ground. A large number died in struggle without getting any opportunity to learn any lessons from this experience. Those who escaped death were arrested and confined to prisons.

Lessons that people take years to learn in a period of comparative calm are learnt in days and hours in a period of crisis. The life that the prisoners who took part in the revolt led in prison, constituted the telescoping of an era into a short space of time. Their very defeat compelled them to examine the causes for the defeat. Though they called themselves Marxists previously, they did not possess a knowledge of Marxism. Even those who were keen on reading Marxist books, did not have an opportunity to do so, due to pressure of work. But when they were in prison, they had ample opportunity to read books and they also developed a keen interest in reading. Their thinking which was at an elementary level due to scanty reading was completely transformed. They began to study their facts seriously. As they studied in depth they understood the inherent errors in their past politics. They realised that the solutions to youth problems could not be found by the youth alone, and that it was sheer folly to attempt to set up a Socialist paradise through a surprise attack reminiscent of a cavalry charge. On the intellectual level, in proportion to this new transformation, their identification with Wijeweera and Wijeweera’s identification with them, also was completely shattered. Wijeweera ceased to be a leader acceptable to them. The abandonment of the JVP by the old guard is a direct result of this intellectual transformation.

3. The resurrection of the JVP without the old Guard

The present JVP is a movement that has divorced itself from those who contributed to the building up of the earlier movement, and those who participated in the 1971 revolt. Even without the participation of the old guard, the present JVP has become the strongest youth movement of the country. How did this happen?

After the 1971 April revolt, the JVP re-entered the political arena only after the last government lifted the emergency immediately prior to the 1977 General Election. But, by that time the JVP had ceased to be a movement that had the support of the youth who were involved in the revolt. Out of the old guard only Wijeweera and a few others were left in the movement. But they still had the old name board of the JVP in their hands. In the 1977 General Election the JVP had carefully selected four seats to contest. But all four candidates were able to get a total of only 3,441 votes. Their average vote per seat was 860 votes. All the expansion that took place was after the 1977 General Election.

The UNP won a massive electoral victory in the General Election of 1977. The Criminal Justice Commission Act of 21st October 1971 was repealed and the prisoners of the 1971 revolt who had been convicted under the Act and those who had been convicted of Exchange Control offences were set free.

By this time a certain sympathy, respect and curiosity towards the prisoners who had been incarcerated for nearly seven years had been built up among the broad masses. The masses desired to get to know these prisoners and listen to them. But only Wijeweera and Lionel Bopage came before the people on public platforms. The two of them, therefore, became the central personalities that attracted the sympathy, respect and curiosity that prevailed at the time. Thousands were drawn to the public meetings all over the country in which these two participated. They listened to them with a curiosity full of sympathy and respect. But the masses had no clear perception of the roles of the Wijeweeras and Bopages. Those who listened to them did not know that both Wijeweera and Bopage had been contemptuously rejected by thousands of their followers and associates. The Old Guard that had left them were not organised at that time. If they had organised themselves and launched on activity that was critical of these two individuals and their movement, the situation may have been greatly different.

Nevertheless, these two people and the movement they led under the prestigious old banner have failed to make any considerable impact on the adult masses belonging to the left in the country. But they have succeeded in strongly influencing young people and children as yet lacking in political understanding. Today the backbone of this movement is provided by young boys and girls who infuriated by poverty, unemployment, educational inequalities, caste oppression and frustrated hopes have had fancies tickled by the April 1971 revolt.

4. Falsifying history deliberately and for selfish advantage

In place of genuine revolutionaries distinguished by honesty, self-sacrifice and penetrating foresight, a gang of scoundrels making baseness, cowardice and self-seeking into a way of life have become the heroes of the younger generation. The so-called JVP which they lead now plays a Thermidorean role nullifying the political gains of the April revolt.

These so called heroes hate nothing so much as their past and their colleagues of the past. Unlike Stalin, Wijeweera failed to capture state power. Had he captured state power his first task would have been to brutally murder thousands of youth who were associated with him, in order to erase everything that recalls the past. Even though he has a lust for state power, he has not yet been able to achieve this ambition. Under these circumstances all that he has been able to do is to attempt to reduce to falsehood and insignificance every memento of the past, that is likely to embarrass him. In this respect, the ghosts that haunt him most are his contemporaries, or else earliest colleagues who have now abandoned him. All of them have not yet become vocal. But some of them speak out their minds. He has a very clear understanding of the grave threat to his position that this constitutes. In order to get out of this difficult situation he maligns all of his contemporaries as traitors, spies and police agents. “So and so is a traitor, a police agent. Therefore do not listen to him”, he tells the people.

Even though such accusations are new to his politically immature followers and the common people, they are very familiar to the Leftists who have an understanding of the International Revolutionary movement. Similar accusations were made by Stalin at the Moscow Trials in order to exterminate the foremost leaders of the October Revolution. Now Wijeweera stages before us a new version of this old and infamous play of Stalin. But a Kruschev will emerge from their own midst, however belatedly, to expose the entire truth.

5. The character of the present JVP

Like the old JVP, the present JVP is also a political movement of the Youth. The majority of its political followers are youth who are not in a position to come to serious political decisions. Even though they have a burning hatred of the prevailing social system, they do not have a clear understanding of the present social system or the new social system that should replace it. They call themselves Marxists. But they do not have a clear understanding of Marxism or Marxist organizational methods. They consider what is fed to them by the leaders of the JVP as the truth, and that the whole of the universal truth is contained within this. Wijeweera has poisoned their minds against his collaborators in the 1971 revolt and the older Left parties. This poison has gone so deep that they consider them as worse enemies than their former foes. These young people do not require deep philosophy, debates and discussions or democratic organizational methods. They consider them to be valueless and meaningless things. The only thing they desire is action. They have voluntarily reduced themselves to the level of a flock of sheep meekly following their cunning shepherd – Wijeweera. The important question is where is this shepherd leading the flock that trails after him. Do even those who extend a hand of friendship to them have any idea of this?

The JVP is a strange kind of political party. It is a political party without a constitution. It has never held a conference. All power is concentrated in the hands of one or two individuals. All publications are in the hands of Lionel Bopage. Wijeweera enjoys the sole right of deciding policy and has become the Party Constitution itself. In the making of party policy no pressure is experienced from below. Its organizational structure is under dictatorial control, devoid of any semblance of democracy. Is the internal structure of this strange “peramuna” a prototype of the future society it intends to construct?