Features

Critiquing the NPP and JVP

Published

1 year ago

2024/09/8

By Uditha Devapriya

In many electoral democracies, there seems to be a tendency to critique the left rather than the liberal centre or the right during elections. This has been so for two main reasons. First, the left – in whatever form – is associated, rightly or wrongly, with socialist or communist forms of governance, which are seen as passé and out of step with the times. Second, while many left-wing parties are open and transparent about their policies, many others opt for secrecy, either because they are averse to making their internal processes available for public consumption or because they feel that they are at the receiving end of attacks from other parties, especially those on the centre and right.

That it took time for this critique of the NPP or JVP – namely, that it lacks a commitment to democratic principles and is not transparent enough – to come out into the open should come as a surprise. Yet there is hardly anything new about it. The more coherent of the NPP’s – for sake of clarity I will call it NPP-JVP from here on – critics have always hailed from the liberal-centrist and centre-right crowd. Their argument has been that the NPP-JVP’s position on minorities, on checks and balances, indeed on the underlying tenets of what is framed as liberal democracy – has been problematic at best and contentious at worst. On those grounds, they point out that while it presents itself as an alternative, voters need to be aware of its positions on these issues before selecting them.

The NPP-JVP should, obviously, be critiqued. I have my own criticisms of the party, above all else its inability to resolve a fundamental disjuncture between what the NPP is saying and what the Old Guard of the JVP is saying. However, to assume that this is relevant only to the NPP-JVP would be disingenuous. The SJB, too, has been making statements that seem wildly divergent, or contradictory, particularly on issues like debt restructuring. As for the SLPP – the pro-Ranil Wickremesinghe faction, which has morphed into what can only be called an electoral abomination, the Podujana Nidahas Eksath Peramuna (PNEP) – the less said about its stance on economic reforms and its election gimmicks, the better.

The NPP-JVP has also seen itself as above everyone else, in the sense that it projects a deep-seated aversion to coalition politics. As I have argued in my column last week, that begs the question as to what it will do in the event it wins presidential elections. With prominent MPs taking to the stage and gloating about the many breakaway rebel MPs from the SLPP whom they turned away on account of their lack of political pedigree, one wonders whether they will stick to this narrative after election season, or whether they will, like so many other left-wing parties the world over, forge alliances with those same “despicables.”

This, however, is as far as my critique of the NPP-JVP will go. They are not unresolvable flaws, and they are hardly specific to the party or alliance. Indeed, if anything, the NPP-JVP’s parliamentary presence has compelled it to moderate its stances – as the debates, among its supporters, over hitherto sensitive questions such as the minorities issue or the Executive Presidency show – to a far greater extent than, say, its main rival on the left, the Alliance for People’s Struggle (APS). I am still not sure who will win the upcoming election, but I am sure that it will be won by the party that puts together the broadest possible alliance and moves to the centre. Whether the NPP-JVP can do this is a matter of debate.

It is laughable, if not ridiculous, however, to censure the NPP and JVP based on its fidelity, assumed or real, to communist and “totalitarian” forms of governance. It is also intriguing that this hazy critique of the party is coming from the liberal or left-liberal camp, a crowd which prides itself on its tolerant and pluralist character. Of course, the counterargument to this is that the NPP-JVP’s political structure is anything but tolerant and pluralist. But to assume that the party adheres to specific form of politics would be to engage in the same kind of straw-manning, and red baiting, that the right is.

There is, for instance, the argument that the NPP-JVP has entrenched “leftwing” forms of political control, including democratic centralism. Democratic centralism is associated with the Communist parties of China, Vietnam, and the former Soviet Union. It is associated with social democratic parties, including the African National Congress (ANC), as well. In brief, it prioritises party decisions over individual choices and subordinates (almost) everything to the diktats of the party. From that flows other forms of control, including the nomenklatura . through which influential appointments are subjected to party approval.

These tenets or principles are held up as being inferior to Western liberal democracy. There is no doubt that qualitative differences do exist between the two. There is also no doubt that the kind of political principles attributed to the NPP-JVP – rightly or wrongly – raise serious questions about transparency and governance itself. However, when we see these tenets – for instance, nomenklatura – for what they are – forms of political patronage in which party supporters, and allies, are favoured over rivals – one wonders what exactly is the thin blue line separating the one from the other. Patronage networks, the most extreme of which would be political systems where oligarchic interests like lobbies dominate – are associated not just with the former Soviet Union, but also Western democracies.

As the recent war in Gaza clearly shows, Western political parties that pride themselves on their pluralist character have revealed their selectivity well. These are not mere flaws; they have been so firmly ingrained and institutionalised in the system that they are hard to take out. A good example would be the US Democratic Party’s position on the Israel-Gaza War; on the one hand, it is either apportioning equal blame to the Israeli government and Hamas when most casualties have been from Gaza, or defending the Israeli State; and on the other, it has tacitly decided to shut out Palestinian voices. This is just the tip of the iceberg, of course: there are enough and more studies (for instance, by Stephen Walt) which reveal how strong and pervasive these lobbies are in influencing policy.

Viewed that way, the liberal-centrist and centre-right critique of the NPP-JVP does not hold for three reasons. The first is that, despite qualitative differences between the West and the rest, openness and accountability have become more the norm than exception even among liberal outfits, even in the West. One cannot, of course, compare the Communist Party of China with the US Democrats or Republicans, or for that matter the UK Conservatives. Yet if transparency is the buzzword here, the NPP-JVP’s approach to issues like political patronage do not differ much from its rivals. The record of other parties, including the SLPP and UNP, has been more or less the same: when in power, they have institutionalised some form of patronage, in terms of, for instance, hiring supporters into government service, that hardly diverge from “communist governance” à la NPP-JVP.

The second reason is that assuming people want an alternative to the establishment and then cautioning against voting for parties that supposedly depart from Western forms of democracy reeks of the kind of condescension which is no different to the red baiting of the establishment itself. More than anything, it reveals the limits of liberalism as it is practised today: a point that Rajiva Wijesinha has noted clearly in the last chapter of Representing Sri Lanka (Godage, 2023). Since the 1970s and 1980s, there has been, not just in Sri Lanka but also the rest of the Global South, a perceptible shift from the type of enlightened liberalism associated with the Democratic Party in the US under Kennedy, to a wholesale embrace of economic liberalism, even at the cost of social welfare. The class interests that dominate and pervade centrist and centre-right parties have endorsed this shift as well.

The third reason is that fears of the NPP-JVP rising to power and installing a Communist dictatorship of the Marxist-Leninist model are unwarranted because the NPP-JVP has become, as I have noted earlier, more moderate in its policies and positions. This can clearly be seen when comparing the NPP-JVP’s programme with, say, the APS’s. The NPP-JVP is, certainly, somewhat opaque in its dealings with external players. But its evolving position on the IMF, and its visit to India, show that it is not above playing the game of compromise. One sees a broader tendency to shift to the centre among other leftwing parties as well, even those in the West. The Sri Lankan experience, with regard not just to the NPP-JVP but also the Old Left – the LSSP and the CPSL – has been no different.

What we need is a more thoughtful critique of the NPP-JVP, not least because, as a party still struggling to create a mass base, it needs course-corrections of the sort that other left parties, even in Sri Lanka, have historically undergone. However, the tendency among liberal centrist camps today is to assume the JVP’s policy positions and lambast it accordingly. A more thoughtful critique of the NPP-JVP came from Dayan Jayatilleka earlier this week. In his essay, he expresses his support for Sajith Premadasa over Anura Kumara Dissanayake. That just goes to show that it is not only possible, but also imperative, to make political choices without pandering to the kind of hysteria which permeates most Colombo-centric critiques of the NPP-JVP. Sri Lanka is not Colombo; nor, indeed, should it be so.

Uditha Devapriya is a regular commentator on history, art and culture, politics, and foreign policy who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com.

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Features

Crucial test for religious and ethnic harmony in Bangladesh

Published

2 hours ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

A political protest that led to governmental change in Bangladesh mid last year. (photograph: imago)

Will the Bangladesh parliamentary election bring into being a government that will ensure ethnic and religious harmony in the country? This is the poser on the lips of peace-loving sections in Bangladesh and a principal concern of those outside who mean the country well.

The apprehensions are mainly on the part of religious and ethnic minorities. The parliamentary poll of February 12th is expected to bring into existence a government headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist oriented Jamaat-e-Islami party and this is where the rub is. If these parties win, will it be a case of Bangladesh sliding in the direction of a theocracy or a state where majoritarian chauvinism thrives?

Chief of the Jamaat, Shafiqur Rahman, who was interviewed by sections of the international media recently said that there is no need for minority groups in Bangladesh to have the above fears. He assured, essentially, that the state that will come into being will be equable and inclusive. May it be so, is likely to be the wish of those who cherish a tension-free Bangladesh.

The party that could have posed a challenge to the above parties, the Awami League Party of former Prime Minister Hasina Wased, is out of the running on account of a suspension that was imposed on it by the authorities and the mentioned majoritarian-oriented parties are expected to have it easy at the polls.

A positive that has emerged against the backdrop of the poll is that most ordinary people in Bangladesh, be they Muslim or Hindu, are for communal and religious harmony and it is hoped that this sentiment will strongly prevail, going ahead. Interestingly, most of them were of the view, when interviewed, that it was the politicians who sowed the seeds of discord in the country and this viewpoint is widely shared by publics all over the region in respect of the politicians of their countries.

Some sections of the Jamaat party were of the view that matters with regard to the orientation of governance are best left to the incoming parliament to decide on but such opinions will be cold comfort for minority groups. If the parliamentary majority comes to consist of hard line Islamists, for instance, there is nothing to prevent the country from going in for theocratic governance. Consequently, minority group fears over their safety and protection cannot be prevented from spreading.

Therefore, we come back to the question of just and fair governance and whether Bangladesh’s future rulers could ensure these essential conditions of democratic rule. The latter, it is hoped, will be sufficiently perceptive to ascertain that a Bangladesh rife with religious and ethnic tensions, and therefore unstable, would not be in the interests of Bangladesh and those of the region’s countries.

Unfortunately, politicians region-wide fall for the lure of ethnic, religious and linguistic chauvinism. This happens even in the case of politicians who claim to be democratic in orientation. This fate even befell Bangladesh’s Awami League Party, which claims to be democratic and socialist in general outlook.

We have it on the authority of Taslima Nasrin in her ground-breaking novel, ‘Lajja’, that the Awami Party was not of any substantial help to Bangladesh’s Hindus, for example, when violence was unleashed on them by sections of the majority community. In fact some elements in the Awami Party were found to be siding with the Hindus’ murderous persecutors. Such are the temptations of hard line majoritarianism.

In Sri Lanka’s past numerous have been the occasions when even self-professed Leftists and their parties have conveniently fallen in line with Southern nationalist groups with self-interest in mind. The present NPP government in Sri Lanka has been waxing lyrical about fostering national reconciliation and harmony but it is yet to prove its worthiness on this score in practice. The NPP government remains untested material.

As a first step towards national reconciliation it is hoped that Sri Lanka’s present rulers would learn the Tamil language and address the people of the North and East of the country in Tamil and not Sinhala, which most Tamil-speaking people do not understand. We earnestly await official language reforms which afford to Tamil the dignity it deserves.

An acid test awaits Bangladesh as well on the nation-building front. Not only must all forms of chauvinism be shunned by the incoming rulers but a secular, truly democratic Bangladesh awaits being licked into shape. All identity barriers among people need to be abolished and it is this process that is referred to as nation-building.

On the foreign policy frontier, a task of foremost importance for Bangladesh is the need to build bridges of amity with India. If pragmatism is to rule the roost in foreign policy formulation, Bangladesh would place priority to the overcoming of this challenge. The repatriation to Bangladesh of ex-Prime Minister Hasina could emerge as a steep hurdle to bilateral accord but sagacious diplomacy must be used by Bangladesh to get over the problem.

A reply to N.A. de S. Amaratunga

A response has been penned by N.A. de S. Amaratunga (please see p5 of ‘The Island’ of February 6th) to a previous column by me on ‘ India shaping-up as a Swing State’, published in this newspaper on January 29th , but I remain firmly convinced that India remains a foremost democracy and a Swing State in the making.

If the countries of South Asia are to effectively manage ‘murderous terrorism’, particularly of the separatist kind, then they would do well to adopt to the best of their ability a system of government that provides for power decentralization from the centre to the provinces or periphery, as the case may be. This system has stood India in good stead and ought to prove effective in all other states that have fears of disintegration.

Moreover, power decentralization ensures that all communities within a country enjoy some self-governing rights within an overall unitary governance framework. Such power-sharing is a hallmark of democratic governance.

Features

Celebrating Valentine’s Day …

Published

2 hours ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating love, romance, and affection, and this is how some of our well-known personalities plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day – 14th February:

Merlina Fernando (Singer)

Yes, it’s a special day for lovers all over the world and it’s even more special to me because 14th February is the birthday of my husband Suresh, who’s the lead guitarist of my band Mission.

We have planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day and his Birthday together and it will be a wonderful night as always.

We will be having our fans and close friends, on that night, with their loved ones at Highso – City Max hotel Dubai, from 9.00 pm onwards.

Lorensz Francke (Elvis Tribute Artiste)

On Valentine’s Day I will be performing a live concert at a Wealthy Senior Home for Men and Women, and their families will be attending, as well.

I will be performing live with romantic, iconic love songs and my song list would include ‘Can’t Help falling in Love’, ‘Love Me Tender’, ‘Burning Love’, ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’, ‘The Wonder of You’ and ‘’It’s Now or Never’ to name a few.

To make Valentine’s Day extra special I will give the Home folks red satin scarfs.

Emma Shanaya (Singer)

I plan on spending the day of love with my girls, especially my best friend. I don’t have a romantic Valentine this year but I am thrilled to spend it with the girl that loves me through and through. I’ll be in Colombo and look forward to go to a cute cafe and spend some quality time with my childhood best friend Zulha.

JAYASRI

Emma-and-Maneeka

This Valentine’s Day the band JAYASRI we will be really busy; in the morning we will be landing in Sri Lanka, after our Oman Tour; then in the afternoon we are invited as Chief Guests at our Maris Stella College Sports Meet, Negombo, and late night we will be with LineOne band live in Karandeniya Open Air Down South. Everywhere we will be sharing LOVE with the mass crowds.

Kay Jay (Singer)

I will stay at home and cook a lovely meal for lunch, watch some movies, together with Sanjaya, and, maybe we go out for dinner and have a lovely time. Come to think of it, every day is Valentine’s Day for me with Sanjaya Alles.

Maneka Liyanage (Beauty Tips)

On this special day, I celebrate love by spending meaningful time with the people I cherish. I prepare food with love and share meals together, because food made with love brings hearts closer. I enjoy my leisure time with them — talking, laughing, sharing stories, understanding each other, and creating beautiful memories. My wish for this Valentine’s Day is a world without fighting — a world where we love one another like our own beloved, where we do not hurt others, even through a single word or action. Let us choose kindness, patience, and understanding in everything we do.

Janaka Palapathwala (Singer)

Janaka

Valentine’s Day should not be the only day we speak about love.

From the moment we are born into this world, we seek love, first through the very drop of our mother’s milk, then through the boundless care of our Mother and Father, and the embrace of family.

Love is everywhere. All living beings, even plants, respond in affection when they are loved.

As we grow, we learn to love, and to be loved. One day, that love inspires us to build a new family of our own.

Love has no beginning and no end. It flows through every stage of life, timeless, endless, and eternal.

Natasha Rathnayake (Singer)

We don’t have any special plans for Valentine’s Day. When you’ve been in love with the same person for over 25 years, you realise that love isn’t a performance reserved for one calendar date. My husband and I have never been big on public displays, or grand gestures, on 14th February. Our love is expressed quietly and consistently, in ordinary, uncelebrated moments.

With time, you learn that love isn’t about proving anything to the world or buying into a commercialised idea of romance—flowers that wilt, sweets that spike blood sugar, and gifts that impress briefly but add little real value. In today’s society, marketing often pushes the idea that love is proven by how much money you spend, and that buying things is treated as a sign of commitment.

Real love doesn’t need reminders or price tags. It lives in showing up every day, choosing each other on unromantic days, and nurturing the relationship intentionally and without an audience.

This isn’t a judgment on those who enjoy celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s simply a personal choice.

Melloney Dassanayake (Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2024)

I truly believe it’s beautiful to have a day specially dedicated to love. But, for me, Valentine’s Day goes far beyond romantic love alone. It celebrates every form of love we hold close to our hearts: the love for family, friends, and that one special person who makes life brighter. While 14th February gives us a moment to pause and celebrate, I always remind myself that love should never be limited to just one day. Every single day should feel like Valentine’s Day – constant reminder to the people we love that they are never alone, that they are valued, and that they matter.

I’m incredibly blessed because, for me, every day feels like Valentine’s Day. My special person makes sure of that through the smallest gestures, the quiet moments, and the simple reminders that love lives in the details. He shows me that it’s the little things that count, and that love doesn’t need grand stages to feel extraordinary. This Valentine’s Day, perfection would be something intimate and meaningful: a cozy picnic in our home garden, surrounded by nature, laughter, and warmth, followed by an abstract drawing session where we let our creativity flow freely. To me, that’s what love is – simple, soulful, expressive, and deeply personal. When love is real, every ordinary moment becomes magical.

Noshin De Silva (Actress)

Valentine’s Day is one of my favourite holidays! I love the décor, the hearts everywhere, the pinks and reds, heart-shaped chocolates, and roses all around. But honestly, I believe every day can be Valentine’s Day.

It doesn’t have to be just about romantic love. It’s a chance to celebrate love in all its forms with friends, family, or even by taking a little time for yourself.

Whether you’re spending the day with someone special or enjoying your own company, it’s a reminder to appreciate meaningful connections, show kindness, and lead with love every day.

And yes, I’m fully on theme this year with heart nail art and heart mehendi design!

Wishing everyone a very happy Valentine’s Day, but, remember, love yourself first, and don’t forget to treat yourself.

Sending my love to all of you.

Features

Banana and Aloe Vera

Published

2 hours ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

To create a powerful, natural, and hydrating beauty mask that soothes inflammation, fights acne, and boosts skin radiance, mix a mashed banana with fresh aloe vera gel.

This nutrient-rich blend acts as an antioxidant-packed anti-ageing treatment that also doubles as a nourishing, shiny hair mask.

* Face Masks for Glowing Skin:

Mix 01 ripe banana with 01 tablespoon of fresh aloe vera gel and apply this mixture to the face. Massage for a few minutes, leave for 15-20 minutes, and then rinse off for a glowing complexion.

* Acne and Soothing Mask:

Mix 01 tablespoon of fresh aloe vera gel with 1/2 a mashed banana and 01 teaspoon of honey. Apply this mixture to clean skin to calm inflammation, reduce redness, and hydrate dry, sensitive skin. Leave for 15-20 minutes, and rinse with warm water.

* Hair Treatment for Shine:

Mix 01 fresh ripe banana with 03 tablespoons of fresh aloe vera gel and 01 teaspoon of honey. Apply from scalp to ends, massage for 10-15 minutes and then let it dry for maximum absorption. Rinse thoroughly with cool water for soft, shiny, and frizz-free hair.