Opinion - Editorials

JVP in crisis

Serious divisions erupted in early April within Sri Lanka’s ‘party-with-a-difference,’ the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Its high profile propaganda secretary, Wimal Weerawansa, revolted against the leadership on the floor of Parliament and announced the formation of an 11-member independent group. The rift had little to do with ideology or programme: it revolved round Mr. Weerawansa’s perceived personal closeness to President Rajapaksa and his powerful brother and Senior Advisor, Basil Rajapaksa. It was yet another phase in the party’s roller-coaster political journey spanning four decades. As a partner of the United People’s Freedom Alliance in the 2004 general election, the JVP won 39 seats, its best ever electoral performance. In the November 2005 presidential race, it campaigned vigorously for the victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa. It readjusted its stance constructively to improve relations with India. It began to see itself as a ‘balancing force’ in a deeply fragmented polity.

But relations between the President and the JVP started to go downhill after the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party signed, in October 2006, a Memorandum of Understanding with the United National Party. The MoU, signed following discussions President Rajapaksa had with Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, committed the two major parties to collaborate to address and resolve key issues, including the ethnic question. While many independent observers saw the ‘landmark’ arrangement as something that would create political space to try and resolve the ethnic conflict, the JVP, which has consistently opposed devolution of powers along federal or semi-federal lines, saw the MoU as an attempt by the President to diminish its importance. Unfortunately, the SLFP-UNP pact collapsed as the ruling party raided the ranks of the opposition to win major defections and the UNP fell back on its reflexive response of non-cooperation with the SLFP-in-office. The JVP faction led by Mr. Weerawansa appears to be following the path of the UNP defectors. The present crisis in the party reflects its struggle to retain its distinct identity while being an ally of the UPFA. The revived anti-India rhetoric, the opposition to the implementation of 13th Amendment to the Constitution for greater provincial powers, and the targeting of the West in the last few months are symptoms of the existential crisis that has gripped the JVP. The party claims to be on the left but its ultra-nationalist, unitarist approach and its opposition to devolution have distanced it from left and democratic political forces in Sri Lanka and abroad. The question is whether the party’s leadership can do some soul-searching and find a constructive way out of the mess in which it has landed itself?

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