The impact of the JVP split

Sri Lanka has seen three major political splits which affected the country’s political landscape. Will the Wimal Weerawansa split have a similar impact?

I don’t think so. Like the several minor splits this country’s political parties have undergone, this might create ripples for a few years.

Sri Lanka’s major political splits were caused by S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and Rohana Wijeweera and the political parties they formed, altered the country’s political structure.

S.J.V. who broke away from the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and formed the Federal Party on December 18, 1949 transformed Tamil politics completely. Before its formation, the Tamils only asked for a reasonable share in the central government. S.J.V. transformed that into a demand for a federal autonomous unit for the north and east under a united Sri Lanka.

He led a non-violent movement from December 1949 to May 1976 to achieve his goal. In 1976, he formed the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) which passed the Vaddukoddai Resolution that demanded a separate state for the Tamil people.

In the 1977 general election, the TULF obtained a mandate from the Tamil people to convene a constituent assembly comprising its elected representatives, draw up a constitution for the independent state of Tamil Eelam and declare the formation of such a state. The Tamil people gave it an overwhelming mandate but the TULF did not take steps to implement it.

The LTTE claims that the war it is waging is a consequence of the non-fulfillment of that mandate, which it says was affirmed in the 2004 election, in which Tamil National Alliance candidates were elected with overwhelming majorities. “We are presently bringing this matter to the attention of the international community and world governments,” LTTE political chief P. Nadesan told an interview with Virakesari Weekly Edition last Sunday.

S.W.R.D. broke away from the UNP in 1952 and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which emerged the nucleus for an alternate political group to the United National Party. It provided leadership to the neglected middle class people of the country. The SLFP led coalition governments ruled Sri Lanka for about half of the 60 years since independence.

Wijeweera broke away first from the Communist Party when he was a medical student in the Soviet Union when the Sino-Soviet ideological conflict was at its height and joined the staff of the Chinese wing of the Sri Lanka Communist Party, which functioned under Premalal Kumarasiri and K. Shanmugathasan. He found that was also not giving leadership to the marginalised sections of the Sri Lankan people and formed the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) on May 14, 1965.

Wijeweera and his colleagues launched a campaign to create awareness among the workers and peasants about the need for revolutionary activity. As the first step they delivered five lectures giving the Marxist analysis of the socio-politico-economic situation in the country and their proposed solution. Then, they conducted educational camps for groups of 25-30 youth, whom they trained to lead a mass uprising.

The JVP which registered itself as a political party in January 1971, planned to seize the government later that year. But, in March, following an accidental explosion in one of the bomb factories, the police found fifty-eight bombs in a hut in Nelundeniya in the Kegalle District. Wijeweera was arrested and kept in Jaffna Prison. The arrest and the mounting police investigations made the JVP decide to launch the uprising at 11:00 p.m. on April 5.

The insurgency was put down and the party banned in April. Wijeweera was tried and given a 20-year prison sentence. The JVP went underground. Wijeweera was pardoned and released in 1977, when J.R. Jayewardene became the Prime Minister.

The party then came into the open and Wijeweera contested the1982 presidential election and polled 275,000 votes. It was banned in July 1983, following the ethnic riots and went underground.

The JVP started organising another uprising and seized the swelling anti-government sentiment that followed the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force to whip up the masses. The 1987-1989 insurgency was also put down and Wijeweera captured and killed. Somawansa Amarasinghe was the only politburo member to survive.

The new leadership entered democratic politics after 1989 and contested elections. It won 36 seats in the 225-member Parliament in the April 2, 2004 election, in which it contested as an ally in the SLFP-led United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). It also helped Mahinda Rajapaksa to win the presidential election.

The split between the hardcore of the party led by Somawansa Amarasinghe and Wimal Weerawansa who preferred going soft on the Rajapaksa regime is recent history. The dispute resulted in the suspension of Weerawansa from the party and the subsequent parliamentary statement by Weerawansa on April 7 and the following day’s press briefing.

How will this split affect the country? The obvious result is that the stability of the government will increase. The Weerawansa group will ensure that the government will not be defeated in any important vote taken in Parliament.

The JVP hardcore believes that the Rajapaksa brothers tried their best to keep the JVP on their side, but when they failed, they made use of Weerawansa to divide it. JVP strongman, K.D Lal Kantha, had voiced this sentiment publicly when he accused the Rajapaksa brothers of playing a vital role in dividing their party.

The dangerous result of the split would be the strengthening of the pro-war and racist campaigns among the Sinhala people. Weerawansa would step up his Patriotic National Front’s campaign for war and whip up Sinhala patriotism which would force the JVP to adopt a similar, if not an extreme line, to keep the Sinhala extremist forces within its fold.

And the anti- Indian campaign would become louder.

The JVP has seen several splits since its inception. Several of the original leaders like Loku Athula, Kelly Senanayake and Lionel Bopage have left the party. Apart from his oratorical skills, Weerawansa is no match for them. The JVP will not be seriously dented by Weerawansa’s departure.

As I pointed out at the start, the Wijeweera-effect on the Sri Lankan political scene will endure. He has ensured that JVP would be the third force in Sri Lankan politics - UNP, SLFP, JVP in that order.