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| Sunday, 17 August 2003 |
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Honouring or running down NM ? by FACTOTUM It is on record that a few days before Dr. N.M. Perera's worsening illness took him to hospital a delegation from the Communist Party called on him led by Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe. Adverting to their mutual frailty in health NM had said "We have played our part. It is now for the younger generation to go on from there". That was 24 years ago a few days before NM breathed his last. The younger generation that took over may have failed to achieve any spectacular electoral or other successes but to make amends as it were they organised an exhibition of 69 photographs all framed and mounted on walls of the hall at the Dr. N.M. Perera centre capturing memorable moments of NM's life and the part he played in those heady days of general strikes and 'hartal' when the working masses rallied round the red flag, hammer and sickle symbols; neckties and lounge suits notwithstanding. Intellectuals in shimmering crimson and scarlet tops were seen mingling with other trousered gentry on Thursday, perhaps identifying themselves with those events captured by camera and on display there. Conspicuously absent were those from that segment of society whose cause NM espoused but failed to ameliorate even when in power having been constrained by the limits of coalition government. If the younger generation or those who took over the reins from NM have failed to live up to his expectations then it is time they engaged in some soul searching and self-criticism. As for the show on Thursday an old stager was overheard lamenting 'Is this all we could do? This is running down NM.' That may seem an unfair comment on the surface but if it meant that not much headway has been made in the uplift of those that NM represented then that 'lamenter' cannot be faulted. After all, NM was known to be the enemy of the capitalists. What has been their lot over the last 24 years? Let us consider that in the light of what NM did. "He found it necessary to broaden the alliance to include wider strata in the rural areas in order to deal blows at imperialism and its native-bourgeois collaborators. There was not even a trace of compromise in this. His sights were well and truly aimed. In every Budget that he proposed, whether in 1964 or from 1970 to 1975, there were smashing blows on the capitalist class. In the last Budget that he proposed, for the year 1975, he provided for the increase of Wealth Tax to 8 per cent on net wealth exceeding Rs. 900,000. This and other proposals of his Budget were never implemented. They provided the provocation for throwing him and his party out of the government. It was no surprise to him. In 1964 he had proposed that the highest rate of Wealth Tax should be raised to 5 per cent and the UNP brought down the government and reduced the Wealth Tax. It was now the turn of the SLFP to protect wealth by throwing NM and his party out of the government. That itself is adequate testimony to the lack of love lost between N.M. Perera and the capitalist class." Source: Hector Abhayawardhane in Lanka Guardian, Vol. 2: No. 11, October, 1979. Has the path that the LSSP mapped since the demise of NM been anywhere near the aspiration of their leader whom they saluted the other day? This is a question that has to be pondered over and addressed sooner than later. |
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