‘Poster boys’ and monsters

Wednesday 11th September, 2024

JVP/NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has made a revelation. He has said, at a political rally in Thambuttegama, that the JVP had posters printed for Mahinda Rajapaksa’s 2005 presidential election campaign, but Basil Rajapaksa did not reimburse it.

The JVP not only had posters printed for Mahinda but also put them up in 2005. In fact, it was instrumental in ensuring his victory in the 2005 presidential race despite the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s all-out efforts to queer the pitch for him. The SLFP headquarters, which Chandrika kept under her thumb, did not back Mahinda in the presidential contest, and it was the JVP which kept his election campaign going.

Dissanayake in his Thambuttegama speech inveighed against all rival political leaders for corruption and abuse of power. Interestingly, the JVP led Mahinda’s presidential election campaign from the front in spite of various allegations against the Rajapaksas, the most serious one being the misuse of tsunami relief funds. Worse, it helped Mahinda secure the presidency, having made an abortive attempt to prevent him from becoming the Prime Minister in 2004. It wrote to President Kumaratunga, asking her not to elevate Mahinda to the premiership, and even threatened to pull out of her government unless she met its demand; it had 39 MPs in that administration. Chandrika however had to bow to party pressure and appoint Mahinda Prime Minister.

Thus, the JVP, which did not consider Mahinda eligible to be the PM in 2004, enabled him to become the President the following year! But for its steadfast help, the Rajapaksa factor would not have become so dominant in national politics, and perhaps the corrupt deals Dissanayake has blamed on them would not have taken place. Shouldn’t the creator be held responsible for what the creature is accused of? Similarly, a part of the credit for what the Rajapaksas boast of having achieved during Mahinda’s first presidential term, especially the defeat of the LTTE, should go to the JVP.

At the Thambuttegama rally, Dissanayake lashed out at President Ranil Wickremesinghe, holding the latter accountable for the Treasury bond scam carried out in Feb., 2015. His speech must have struck a responsive chord with the public, who are disappointed that the real masterminds behind the Treasury bond rackets have not been brought to justice. That mega scam, however, did not affect the JVP-UNP honeymoon, and the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) headed by JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti made no mention of Wickremesinghe in its final report on the Treasury bond scams!

The second Treasury bond scam was committed in 2016, but the JVP rose in defence of the UNP-led Yahapalana government when President Maithripala Sirisena tried to dislodge it with the help of Mahinda in October 2018. The JVP helped Prime Minister Wickremesinghe retain a parliamentary majority, and therefore there is no way it can absolve itself of the blame for what the Yahapalana government did, especially reckless borrowing and the neglect of national security. Ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said in his book, The Conspiracy, that the total value of Sri Lanka’s outstanding ISBs (International Sovereign Bonds) was USD 5 billion by the end of 2014 with foreign reserves standing at USD 8.2 billion. When the JVP-backed Yahapalana government came to an end, the country’s outstanding ISBs amounted to USD 15.05 billion with foreign reserves worth only USD 7.4 billion remaining. Gotabaya’s claim has gone unchallenged. Likewise, a part of the credit for the Yahapalana government’s good deeds, such as making some progressive laws, should go to the JVP, which backed it through thick and thin. Curiously, the SJB stalwarts who were in the Yahapalana government, savouring power, have woken up to the JVP’s violent past!

Moreover, allegations of corruption, abuse of power and criminal transgressions against President Kumaratunga’s SLFP-led People’s Alliance (PA) government were legion in 2004, but the JVP had no qualms about coalescing with the SLFP to contest that year’s parliamentary election as a constituent of the SLFP-led United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which was the PA in all but name. As the NPP is to the JVP, so was the UPFA to the PA—old wine in a new bottle.

Instances where self-righteous politicians cohabited with the corrupt and subjugated principles to expediency abound in this country. Today, we have pots calling kettles black and vice versa on the political front. Hence the rapid rise of anti-politics.