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| Sunday, 26 January 2003 |
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When the LSSP made history Edited by Wesley Muthiah and Sydney Wanasinghe Published by Young Socialist Publications, Parakumba Place, Colombo. Printed by CRC Press 119, University Road, Rattanapitiya, Boralesgamuwa. Reviewed by Prof. Betram Bastiampillai Both Messrs Muthiah and Wanasinghe, have contributed usefully to help young researchers to learn and recount the history of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) during eventful contemporary times. Already two books of source material and interpretation have been published by these industrious authors who as "insiders" know much about the LSSP and the Left movement in Sri Lanka more intimately. In this third volume on what Dr. Colvin R. de Silva once termed The Great Hartal comparing it to the Great Rebellion of Sri Lanka in the 19th Century against the British, these two diligent scholars of Sama Samajism have again assembled invaluable contemporary source material and the informed opinions and analytical observations of knowledgeable and active politicians, of those years. An introduction from Vijaya Vidyasagara, although brief, provides a lucid and well assembled insight into the hartal, its significance, organization and the lessons one could garner from the usual experience. As a young admirer of the anti-imperialist Left, and its role at the time of independence and soon after in their stressing the need to build a nation based on equity, social welfare and egalitarianism, I would like to think of the Hartal as a successor to the protest demonstration of the great Strike of 1947, in which I had taken part and lost three days salary, while a temporary clerk. As an anti-government demonstration, the Hartal was led by the LSSP. Support was lent additionally to the protest movement by the Communist Party and the newly formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the early fifties and the Ceylon Workers' Congress favoured the anti-government demonstration. More than a mere general strike, the Hartal of August 12, 1953, was aimed at opposing radically, the government that was in power since 1952. Unfortunately, the Hartal had only to be a signal. Inter party rivalry, endemic in Sri Lanka, and the invariable obstacles that make Unity among anti-right parties almost unthinkable and impossible, to build collaboration among mass groupings in a demonstration foredoomed, the Hartal to be not more than a One Day strike, an all Island affair. The Government however panicked, and apparently looked for external help. The Cabinet of Dudley Senanayake held their secessions in the British fleet HMS Newfoundland which was lying in the harbour. (Picture of the ship is in the cover page of this book). This interesting book is divided into three sections, that make reading easy. The first section consists of the Introduction, the LSSP's Fourteen Point Programme and an expert honest analysis of the state of the economy by the Leader of the LSSP, Dr. N. M. Perera, made in July 1953, which almost heralded the coming of the Hartal. Dr. Perera ominously ends by warning the government in Parliament, stating that shooting and killing instead of attending to the people's needs will not be a successful manner of governing. The second section is most informative and valuable to students of politics in Sri Lanka, especially of the Left. Reports culled from press accounts of the time representing both the government's views and of its rightwing lobby, the press, and of the Leftists are available for scrutiny. A balanced understanding of events and of the time can be gained. Looking back today at these events one is compelled to exclaim how have the mighty fallen because the Sama Samajists mean little now in the political or national scene of the Island. In the final section of this absorbingly readable volume the observations and accounts of the active participant leaders in the Hartal are reproduced. A dissident voice recorded is that of Edmund Samarakkody while all others whose points of view have been garnered and dyed in the wool of the Sama Samajists. Personally, however, I will say that Edmund's views though divergent merits serious reading and empathetic understanding. He hints that confining the Hartal to a one day affair was contrary to the feeling of the protesting masses who would to see the government dislodged. The classic LSSP view was that this was an unrealistic dream. Or on the contrary was it a missed opportunity? The photographs in the publication tell a vivid tale of the Hartal. It is most illuminating to see the pictures of the May Day rally of those halcyon days of the Left and of Colvin R. de Silva characteristically gesticulating to illustrate his fulmination and of the other Left leaders in the days they dreamt of a Permanent Revolution and of a Socialist State. When I read this assembly of important and interesting data of special interest to me who had entered the University of Ceylon in Peradeniya in 1953 was the photographs depicting the university clash with the Police during the Hartal. This book will inform and interest all those who like to learn of Sri Lankan politics and history. |
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