• Firebrand Wimal breaks down in Parliament; Says he was discarded like used toothpick
• Party to hush expulsion until eastern poll

By Rathindra Kuruwita
The JVP yesterday faced a day of reckoning after ex-JVP strongman Wimal Weerawansa admitting in Parliament that he had been expelled from the party and a group of 11 JVP rebels supporting the ousted MP’s cause found a mole in their midst slap bang in the middle of a press conference in Colombo.

In an uncharacteristically emotional speech where the MP nearly broke down on several occasions the usually firebrand Weerawansa claimed that he never expected the JVP would remove him from the party, without even explaining the reasons.

His voice breaking during his special statement, Weerawansa claimed that his father had threatened to consume poison if he joined the JVP. He added that the picture of his father inspecting a charred body on the roadside fearing that it might be his son is engraved in his memory.

“I have spent half my life for the party and I have never done anything to hurt the party. I never thought that the party would discard me like a used toothpick,” he said. He said that his removal was a conspiracy of the imperialistic forces that had managed to infiltrate the party. He added that his removal would only satisfy the imperialists.

The JVP MP claimed that after the 2005 presidential elections, the enemies of the country had been trying to blemish his reputation. “Several NGOs and several media organisations that have imperialistic agendas attacked me constantly.

They have been criticising everything from my hair to my wife. But I always thought that the party would defend me. But when I tried to take legal action against those who attacked me, the party prohibited me from doing so,” he said.

He added that he realised that several high ranking party officials had joined these outside forces when the party slowly tried to curtail his powers and activities. He added that these high ranking members were trying to inculcate the opinion that he was a traitor, among the grassroots party activists.

“Instead of supporting me, these leaders have spread the word that my work with the Patriotic National Movement will divide the JVP. JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe asked me to inform him before commenting to the media and when these things started to happen I realised that several of our party leaders are working according to the agenda of outside forces,” he said.

Wimal Weerawansa was stripped of his positions at a Central Committee meeting that he did not attend. He said that Central Committee members had been advised not to talk to him. “The party has taken the decision to remove me, but they are sitting on that decision till the end of the Eastern Provincial Council election. They also wanted to use me in the elections and make me do some campaign work,” he said.

The JVP MP said that he will not attack the party or encourage other members to leave the party. “The JVP was a party built on the blood of people who wanted a better tomorrow not just another tomorrow. This party should not be relegated to the corner therefore I will I urge our members to hold on and try to better the party from the inside he said.

Breakaways breaking up

By Jayashika Padmasiri and Daya Lankapura
Almost 11 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP’s yesterday expressed their displeasure over the decision taken at the party’s central committee meeting to sack party strongman and MP Wimal Weerawansa but, before the end of the press briefing, fissures began to appear among the rebels as well.

The 11 MPs held a press briefing hours after Weerawansa informed Parliament that his party had dismissed him and stripped the member of his positions and declared his independent membership in the legislature. Exactly 12 JVP MPs led by Piyasiri Wijenayake told journalists at Nippon Hotel in Colombo that the JVP had fallen victim to imperialism and that the party has been divided into two main groups with separate and different ideologies. “We were not aware of the party’s decision to sack comrade Wimal Weerawansa, until he announced it in Parliament.

We are against it, and believe it to be a conspiracy to plant and to implement imperialism. We will not leave the party, but stay in the JVP. However, we will work against those forces and save the JVP from those perpetrators and defeat this conspiracy,” Wijenayake said.

However, though 11 MPs spoke in one voice with regard to Weerawansa’s expulsion, one JVP MP present at the press briefing, Anuradhapura MP Ranaweera Pathirana shared different sentiments and lashed out at the group, saying that they should discuss their internal problems within the party first.

“There is no point in talking about these issues here; we should talk with our leader and solve these problems. It is an internal problem within the party. We are not here to betray the party. There may be different ideologies existing within our party, but we should discuss those issues and solve them. We should not forget that all of us are here as parliamentarians because of the JVP,” Pathirana charged.

Meanwhile, Piyasiri Wijenayake and some other MP’s present at the press conference, during their speeches indicated that the powers that be of the JVP had refused to talk about this issue with them, though they had broached the subject many times over.

When a journalist queried as to why the group was expressing two separate sentiments regarding the Weerawansa issue, Piyasiri Wijenayake replied saying that they had not stopped to organize themselves and the meeting had been a quick decision. He said that MP Ranaweera Pathirana simply followed the other 11 members out of Parliament, after Weerawansa’s statement yesterday and got into the vehicle that was to bring the group to Colombo for the press briefing.

The situation heated up as the press briefing neared conclusion and a senior police officer finally escorted MP Pathirana out of the building. The other 11 JVP MPs who were present at the press conference were Piyasiri Wijenayake, Jayantha Samaraweera (Kalutara), Priyankara Dissanayake and Samansiri Herath (Puttalam), Padma Udaya Shantha (Moneragala), Achala Jagoda and Deepal Gunasekara (Ratnapura), Nimal Premawansa (Nuwara Eliya), Ranaweera Pathirana (Anuradhapura), Sujatha Alahakoon (Matale) and National List MP Mohamed Muzamil.