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| Sunday, 3 April 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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At the completion of its first year in office... : The UPFA's fine balancing act by Ajith Samaranayake The victory of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at the General Election around this time last year was no April's Fool's joke. If the appropriation by the President of three key Ministries of the United National Front Government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during late 2003 and the subsequent crippling of that regime smacked of melodrama the UPFA's triumph at last April's election had all the qualities of a political thriller.
Could the UPFA form a Government and would the 'minority' Government hold? The political pundits and the hoary wiseacres wagged their heads dolefully. The election of an Opposition Speaker seemed to reinforce their gloomy prognostications. However after a protracted bout of parliamentary theatricals most notably involving the fracas with the bhikkhus of the newly entered Jathika Hela Urumaya the Government did consolidate its position. Apart from the constituent parties of the UPFA the Government today consists of the CWC and a section of the SLMC as well and is a wide-ranging umbrella coalition. The main characteristic of the Government, of course, is its coalition nature and most notably the alliance between the SLFP and the JVP its two main partners. If the Coalition Governments of 1963 and 1970 were alliances of the SLFP with the LSSP and the LSSp and the CP respectively, this time the Old Left has been substituted by the JVP which took up arms against the political system twice. In that sense the UPFA victory of April last year saw the JVP entering the political mainstream with a bang with four Ministries at the very epicentre of government. The Prodigal Sons had come home. `Even more important was the class composition of the Government. From its inception the SLFP had been the party of the rural middle and lower-middle classes, the party of the peasants, Sinhala schoolteachers, ayurvedic physicians and the Maha Sangha. The JVP on the other hand was the representative of the younger elements of this class subjected to the process of radicalisation which had accompanied the social changes of the last several decades. The common feature of both parties was their fiercely anti-UNP nature. Co-habitation The co-habitation between the SLFP and the JVP has not been without its tensions although blown out of all proportion and exaggerated by a sensation-seeking media. As newcomers to polite parliamentary politics the JVP has not been as mindful as the LSSP and the CP of the niceties of coalition politics. No doubt they were also conscious of the need to retain their social base among the middle-class youth and not to allow any feelings of betrayal among this vital support base. Hence their spirited and vocal opposition to what has been described as an erosion of Free Education through the alleged establishment of private universities which has led to mass demonstrations in recent weeks. It is unfortunate that in their hunger for sensation the media has not concentrated sufficiently on the positive aspects of the JVP's induction into the process of government. After all here is a political party, which alone among the parties of the South took up arms against the system not once but twice prompting violent reprisals by a beleaguered State. And now they were ensconced at the heart of Government and controlling such Ministries as Agriculture and Fisheries with a vital bearing among the toiling classes. One would have thought that such a strange metamorphosis would have led to detailed study of how the JVP Ministers were handling their portfolios and the problems and challenges confronting them on the part of the media but apart from the inevitable gossip and tittle-tattle there has been nothing substantial. But in every sense the UPFA Government has turned out to be an exciting experiment. It is quite unlike the coalition between the SLFP and the LSSP and the CP of the 1970s in the sense that we are living in a time when the ideological lines are not as finely drawn. There is no major collision between Left and Right. On the contrary the advance of the open market economy and the processes of privatisation and globalisation have thrown the inherited wisdom of the Left into the melting pot. While these developments have by no means rendered a Left agenda invalid they have taken away the doctrinaire edge and sharpness off the Left's ideological thrust. The newly emergent youth will play an increasingly influential role in national life as opposed to the older working classes or the peasantry and the JVP in particular will be concerned about retaining the support of this vital social base. Like all governments of recent times the UPFA too is faced with two main problems, the resolution of the thorny National Question and the economy. With respect to the first the ceasefire negotiated by the previous UNF Government is still holding but the negotiations themselves have yet to take off the ground due to the LTTE's insistence that the talks should centre on its proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority. The Government wants this coupled with negotiations about a final resolution of the problem but as it has done always in the past the LTTE is keen to put an interim mechanism in place under its authority which would give it control over the day-to-day administration of the North-East. The Government seems to be confident that the majority of the people in the South will support a Federal system but will this be a case of too little too late? Economic front On the economic front the Government cannot obviously go the whole hog with the neoliberal economic package favoured by the previous regime. But it has also to be mindful of the way the wind is blowing and the dominance, which such thinking has gained in an unipolar world. Can the Welfare State and a strong public sector be reconciled with the imperatives of greater efficiency and productivity? Will not some kind of restructuring of loss-making public institutions become necessary? These are the questions posed most pointedly by the Government's present problems over the Petroleum Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board. It is necessary to keep in mind that in both these areas the solutions to problems are intimately tied up with the nature of the UPFA Government and its class composition. Any solutions will have to be in consonance with the class forces, which the regime represents. On the National Question obviously the Government cannot pander to the ultra-nationalist feelings of sections of the Sinhala middle-classes from whom they might derive some of their support although the JVP at the moment seems quite happy to go along with such feelings. On the economy too while not surrendering to the diktat of the neo-liberal high priests it is necessary to engage in a dialogue with the trade unions to ensure that the workers while being conscious of their rights will also participate more fully in the productive process. In every case this will necessarily call for a degree of flexibility on the part of all sections, which constitute the Government. There can be no rigid postures of fixed positions. Over all this looms the question of the Presidential Election irrespective of its date. There is also frenzied talk of a Referendum, which will put the solution to the National Question, and the abolition of the Presidency to the people at a non-binding Referendum. As always in Sri Lanka politics is in a constant state of flux and positions are determined not so much by principles as by reflex actions. The sobering sense of realism engendered by the tsunami among the political parties seems to have been dissipated. The battle between the parties has also commenced. But what is necessary for everybody to keep in mind is that the final determining factor will not be either legal formulas or political jugglery, textbook solutions or individual egotism but the balance of political forces on the ground and the alignment of class forces. |
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