By Rathindra Kuruwita

Most Sri Lankans had realised the need for a system change but did not understand what the actual problems ailing the country were leader of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL), former MP D.E.W. Gunasekera, said on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Eastern School of Political Science, a leftist political school.

The school was declared open by Chen Zhou, Vice Minister of the International Department, the Communist Party of China Central Committee, who is on an official visit to Sri Lanka.

Gunasekera said that Sri Lankan should be exposed to diverse ideas and ideologies.

“Sri Lankans know that something is horribly wrong, but they do not understand the causes of it. Sri Lanka has been following neoliberal economic policies since 1977 but some people believe that our problems are caused by socialism. We need to educate the people and expose them to our ideas. That’s why we established this school,” he said.

The CPSL leader said that those who understood the current crisis were not given space to speak in Parliament. When Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected President, he had tried to educate Gotabaya on the economic challenges that lay ahead.

“It was obvious that there would be massive economic challenges as we would have had to pay back a lot of foreign debt. I also told Gotabaya that about 70 percent of Sri Lankans were in the informal sector and that they will be the first to be affected. However, he was feeling good after a landslide win and he didn’t care about what I had to say,” Gunaswekera said, adding that Gotabaya had held a party leaders’ meeting at the beginning of the second wave of COVID-19. This was to be the last party leaders’ meeting with all constituents, he said.

“There was a two-hour discussion. At the end, I told Gotabaya that Sri Lankan doctors can deal with COVID and that our medical system was strong. I told him to let the medical experts handle it and I urged him to think about the economy. I told him we need to tell people the truth. I also told him to conduct a three-day workshop for MPs on the crisis. He gave me a fake smile and walked off. And, as they say, the rest is history,” he said.

Dr. G. Weerasinghe, General Secretary of the CPSL, said that the economic power of the world was now firmly in Asia and soon the political might will also be transferred to the continent. However, the Sri Lankan economy and international relations priorities are skewed to the west, he said.

“We need to think differently. We need to target new markets in Asia. However, this won’t happen unless we change our mind. That’s why we have started this political school,” he said.

Meanwhile, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader, Wimal Weerawansa said that most Sri Lankan politicians are only interested in money and that young people, who are ideologically driven and educated, must join politics.

“There was a desperate need for a left leaning political school and finally we have one. I urge all progressive Sri Lankans to join this school and learn about local and international developments from a novel angle,” he said.

Dr. Waruna Chandrakeerthi, a former Central Bank official, and the principal of the school, said that Sri Lanka needs to learn from both the west and the east. Sri Lankans are excellent teachers, and the country has certain advantages that it needs to monetize.

“We can’t copy what the west has done. We can’t also copy what successful Asian nations have done. We are a country that has been exposed to great western and eastern traditions and we have to find a mix that is good for us. For a long time, certain Sri Lankan think tanks have been pushing a libertarian agenda and they have used this crisis to promote more neoliberalism. However, we are in this mess because we have followed the World Bank and IMF recommendations to the letter,” he said.