Rata Perata - Which way?
by our political correspondent
The UPFA formed seventeen months ago stands ruptured. The JVP- the second
largest partner in the multi-party coalition has left the government. The
country is once again at a crossroad. Which way forward? This is the
question on the lips of many from political commentators to the ordinary man
in the street.
Of course everyone does not pose the question in such a formal way. In
fact many related questions or a series of questions arise if one is to
answer the above formal question. These partial questions are raised by
those affected by the UPFA rupture.
Naturally these questions are diverse as the way in which they are
affected is also diverse. Let me enumerate some.
Was the UPFA only a marriage of convenience? Was it based on a negative
premise of opposing the UNP? Was the rupture a result of subjective
behaviour on either side? Were there fundamnental policy differences between
the JVP and the rest of the UPFA? Was it a hurried decision? A foolish one,
as the President said? Or was there a conspiracy on the part of anybody to
break up the Alliance? Was it ignorance or intransigence by one or the other
side that led to the rupture?
There could be many answers and the way forward would depend on how one
perceives the rupture.
The Alliance, it should be recalled, received popular endorsement in a
short time of three months. Obviously, this could not have been the case if
it did not represent the interests, aspirations and hopes of the people.
The election verdict that brought the Alliance into power was a verdict
in favour of a new path of development, one basically pro-poor and opposed
to the neo-liberal path followed till then. Hence, the rupture leaves the
people orphaned, without leadership. Hence also the need to heal the rupture
and reinforce the unity of the social forces that formed the Alliance.
Incidentally, there seems to be some understanding on both sides that one
has to go on the rata perata path. Somawansa Amarasinghe, in saying good-bye
to the Alliance told the media that they would return. Return where? To the
UPFA or to a new alliance? The President also requested the JVP to come back
setting aside its "foolish decision". As someone had commented it is
separation, not divorce.
Congenital defect
The JVP does not seem to have weighed all the pros and cons before
leaving. They have no plan. The best they could think of was a call for the
likes of Gamini Jayasuriya to join them in a fresh alliance. They must
remember as Samuel Johnson said patriotism is also the refuge of the
scoundrel. They were calling all patriots without defining who was a
patriot. Was this the aspiration of the people who voted the UPFA to power?
Certainly not.
The UPFA had a congenital defect. It lacked clarity of vision. On the
burning issue of the country, the National Question there was no agreement.
It is this lack of clarity that ultimately led to the rupture.
This does not mean that there was complete clarity on other issues. There
was a marked disagreement on the nature of the way forward, especially in
relation to the relations that are to be maintained with the World Bank and
the Western donors. If the rupture is to be healed and unity reinforced much
more than healing personal wounds is required.
This would also require much more than political match-making. A serious
search for an alternative to the neo-liberal path should be sought and all
brains pooled for the purpose without limiting to slogan chanting or timidly
accepting Western prescriptions as fait accompli.
Above all, commitment to the national interest and developing the soocial
capital for an alternative path of development are pre-requisites in the
struggle against under-development and skewed development that we inherit.
Juvenile delinquency
The JVP, after pledging the people to carry forward the rata perata
program and after contributing immensely to it had abandoned it for the sake
of defending the country from an imaginary threat.
The JVP, which could live with, the CFA signed by the LTTE and the GOSL
under the Ranil Wickremesinghe government has seen a bigger danger in the
P-TOMS or the TRC (Tsunami Relief Council), which is only an administrative
arrangement within a very limited coastal strip of 2 km and for a limited
period of one year. It could wait three years under the CFA and was not
prepared even to watch the P-TOMS even for a day.
Nay, there is much more. It ran away even before the baby was born or
even properly conceived.
The President's response to the JVP which we carry elsewhere on this page
would show how unfounded the fears expressed and threats perceived by the
JVP in relation to P-TOMS were. The JVP has a history of political juvenile
delinquency and in spite of some maturity shown in the recent past some of
that delinquency still remains. |
