ජාත්‍යන්තර සමාජවාදී විකල්පය – ශ්‍රී ලංකාව

Another general election in Sri Lanka was held on 14.11.2024. The National People’s Power (NPP/JVP), led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, which won the presidential election held last September with 42.31 percent or 56,34,975 votes, won the general election as predicted by election observers. It won 68,63,186 votes or 61.56 percent of the valid votes, winning 159 out of 225 seats in Parliament. Two factors contributed to the increase in the score of the NPP. One was that the National People’s Power managed to get 12,28,211 votes more than the number of votes it received in the presidential election. The other factor was the drop in voter turnout from 79.46 to 68.93.

This was the most apathetic and unenthusiastic general election in Sri Lanka. Except for the National People’s Power led by the President, no other party that contested the election held open meetings. The leader of the main opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya,(SJB) hardly attended meetings outside the constituency in which he contested. In this situation, the National People’s Power was not in a contest, but in a non-contest.

Under the proportional representation system currently in force in Sri Lanka, it was in this general election that one party won more than ⅔ of the total number of seats in Parliament. That was the National People’s Power. If it had been a single constituency system like India, it would have won 152 out of 160 electoral seats. In the presidential election, the National People’s Power was able to win 15 out of 22 electoral districts. However, in the general election held two months later, the National People’s Power won 21 of the 22 electoral districts. In particular, the National People’s Power won ⅘ of the electoral districts in the Northern and Eastern provinces, where the Tamil and Muslim minorities are in the majority.

This victory was not the victory that the leaders of the National People’s Power had expected. This is confirmed by the statement made to the media by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake after casting his vote. It is as follows: “A strong parliament is enough for us. Two-thirds always expect to enact laws against the people. Other political movements used the power of two-thirds to violate the democratic rights of the people. Two-thirds is crucial for such a political camp.”

After the results of the general election were released, Tilvin Silva, the General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna,(JVP) the main party of the National People’s Power, stated, “Even we did not ask for two-thirds.”

The election results shattered the dominance of all traditional bourgeois parties in Sinhala and Tamil society. Since 1948, when Sri Lanka gained nominal independence, political dominance had been held by a few families. The people rejected this in this election.

Among the factors that contributed to the collapse of public confidence in the parties that held political power, the fact that the parties were affected by class and geopolitical tensions and the disputes that arose within them had a strong impact. In addition, allegations of bribery, corruption, waste, and abuse of law against the ruling class were also added. This collapse was so severe that they were also defeated in the “Central Colombo” constituency, which had been the stronghold of the Premadasa family (the family of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa) since 1965.

The collapse of public confidence in the Tamil National capitalist parties that dominated the North and East may have been due to the elitist mentality of the MPs representing those parties, the failure of political bargaining with the parties in the South, the disappointment in them due to the various activities of those leaders, and the impact of the power transition in the South during the presidential election. Along with this, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s announcement that he would release political prisoners, return public lands owned by the military, reopen closed roads, and reactivate provincial councils may have raised the hopes of the people in those areas.

However, this election result brought the National People’s Power to the fore as a nationally based party for the first time in Sri Lanka. Since the beginning of the party system in Sri Lanka, there have been political parties based on ethnic or regional basis. The National People’s Power changed that situation with this election. All the people of the island are pinning their hopes on this victory of the National People’s Power. The fact that the Tamil people are especially hopeful is evident from the Canadian Tamil Congress congratulating the government. At the same time, they also point out a number of tasks that the government should accomplish. Namely:

•  End the executive presidential system, give priority to democracy and formulate a constitution that protects the rights of all, including the Tamil people.
• Release political prisoners
• Repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act
• Return lands used by the North and East military to their original owners
• Protect the cultural and religious heritage of the Tamil people in the North
• Fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and hold provincial council elections
• Align the military presence in the North and East with the rest of the country

If the government is prepared to meet these demands, it is possible to believe that it will provide even a temporary solution to the National Question in Sri Lanka, even within the limits of the capitalist system. Since it is one of the factors that contributes to social progress, all Marxists should support the government unconditionally for this.

Similarly, the people of the South are also hopeful. Teachers in particular are expected to resolve their unresolved salary disparity problem for twenty-seven years through this government. The fact that Mahinda Jayasinghe, the General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers’ Services Union, the teachers’ trade union of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna,(JVP) which led trade union struggles for this during the previous governments and inspired teachers to do so, is serving as the Deputy Minister of Labor in this government, its national organizer Sundaralingam Pradeep is serving as the Deputy Minister of Estate Infrastructure, and a number of its district leaders are serving as members of the ruling party has also increased those hopes. Among those expectations are reducing inflation and unemployment, expanding public education, reducing the prices of electricity, water and gas as well as essential commodities, increasing salaries, and eliminating corruption, waste and bribery.

The extent to which those expectations can be fulfilled through the National People’s Power led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which presents itself as a “socialist” party, was a question raised in the policy statement presented by the President at the first meeting of the opening of Parliament. He said there, “We will not go anywhere with breaking the agreement with the International Monetary Fund” — “There is no point in debating whether the proposals to restructure foreign debt are good or bad, advantages or disadvantages. That is the reality before us.” It was clear that the current so called “socialist” government does not have an alternative economic policy to the economic policy of defeated President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

With President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s statement, Marxists are reminded of the statements made by V.I. Lenin regarding the parliamentary system while writing the book State and Revolution. Some of them are as follows.

“The very essence of the bourgeois parliament is to decide every few years through the parliament which representatives of the ruling class will oppress and oppress the people. This happens not only in monarchies with parliamentary constitutions, but also in the most democratic republics.” – ( State and Revolution – Progressive Publications – Moscow – 1970 – page 45)

“In parliamentary ruling countries, the real “state” is carried out by the departments, offices and military councils (the Deep State) that are hidden behind screens. Parliament is merely a place for rhetorical speeches for the specific purpose of deceiving the “common people.” (Page 46)