By Saman Indrajith

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that a group of wheeler-dealers was responsible for teh collapse of industries and enterprises.

Addressing the 32nd Ill Maha Viru Samaruwa commemoration to mark the assassination of thousands of JVP cadres, including the party’s pioneer leader Rohana Wijeweera by the then UNP government in the 1989-90 period, Dissanayake said: “Today, farmers, entrepreneurs, industrialists or traders cannot earn the profits they deserve from the businesses and industries. The lion’s share of profit is earned by a group of wheeler-dealers. The industries and enterprises cannot survive in this manner. These wheeler-dealers with close contacts to the power and mighty pocket huge margins of profit. That is one of the main reasons for the economic crisis. They earn profit from the pandemic. They earned profit when Rapid Antigen Tests were imported. They earned profits from PCR tests. They earned profits when our migrant workers were brought home.

They earned profit from the organic fertiliser fiasco.”

Dissanayake said that there was a paradigm shift in local polity and people had started realizing that they had continuously been fleeced by successive governments since independence. “The severity of the crisis is reflected by the recent trend of youth trying to leave this country in their thousands. We tell them that leaving the country would not be the solution and not that all can leave the country. We must join forces with those who try to change this situation. There is a split within government ranks because only a single family has taken hold of all powers. Farmers in remote areas are struggling to get their fertilisers. Ven bhikkhus have started preaching a new sermon criticizing the government. The Clergy led by the Cardinal have come out to the streets demanding justice for Easter Sunday victims. Struggles have been launched in every strata by teachers, workers and trade unionists against the government. This is a new situation and people should not fall for tricksters again,” Dissanaayke said.

He said that people had experimented with the two main parties for more than seven decades. “At the end of this process of experiments, what is the balance sheet before them? An economy crumbles on a daily basis and a society full of corruption and crimes emerge. Is there a need to experiment with the same political parties again,” Dissanayake queried.

“The aspiration of those who had sacrificed their lives in the face of the UNP crackdown on JVP in the 1989-90 period was a better society. We should create that society. We must live to achieve the dreams that they cherished and must strive to achieve their goal of creating the society that they had dreamed of,” Dissanayake said.

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva also addressed the commemoration event.