THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE
(1998 September 30)
The non-national forces including the western Christian powers, the NGO's, and the Tamil racists are busy trying
to promote the presidential candidate that they have picked. This means that the government from now onwards will
have to fight for survival. If not for the executive presidency, by now the government would have been toppled
by these forces. It is only a matter of the Tamil racist parties voting against the government in the parliament.
The LSSP, as a party is very much interested in the survival of the government, unlike Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara
and probably a few others who would like to present a bill before the parliament to abolish the executive presidency.
Mr. Nanayakkara who is more interested in showmanship knows that he would not succeed and thus could become a 'hero'
in the eyes of some 'leftists' while at the same time retaining his parliamentary seat. The LSSP, the oldest political
party in the country not only wants the government to last the full term but also wants the G. L. - Neelan draft
constitution to replace the JRJ constitution. They have now forgotten the Colvin R. de Silva unitary constitution
and would support the idea of a Federal constitution whole-heartedly.
It appears that the LSSP can think of only one alternative. In their 'Marxist' wisdom they have called upon the
two main 'capitalist' parties in the country to unite in order to solve what they would like to call the national
question. Of course, they have a heap of arguments to support their 'bid to build PA- UNP peace bridge' as "The
Sunday Island" of September 27 put it. Some can come out with the old classical theories on completing the
programme of the 'capitalist revolution' which includes the national question while some others may resort to various
post modernistic re-readings of Marxism. However, in the process they would have discarded Trotsky and his theory
of permanent revolution on skipping the bourgeois revolution and the theories of uneven development in the capitalist
world.
The trouble with the Marxists and most of the western sociologists including the post modernists is that they want
us to adopt the theories created in the west while the west itself does not have much regard for them. There have
been intellectuals in the west who were not happy with the state of affairs in their countries. Some of them have
criticised their societies and have come out with remedies. Despite these criticisms and remedies presented in
the form of theories the western world has carried on regardless. Eventually most of these theories find admirers
in the non-western world, including Eastern Europe, and they try to implement the remedies, which in the first
instance were recommended to the west.
I am of the view that these theories are created in the west for exportation to the other countries This is another
form of cultural imperialism and the LSSP with all their anti imperial activities is now nothing but an indirect
agent of the western Christian powers. The LSSP does what these powers want them to do either consciously or unconsciously.
I would not be surprised if the LSSP request the Anglo-Saxon Christian British government to mediate or facilitate
or whatever with regard to the Tamil racist problem in Sri Lanka.
The Marxists, neo Marxists and those who re-read Marx are all in the same boat now. They have no revolution to
look forward to. The much-adored proletariat is not to be seen. The working class was only a figment of imagination
of Marx. No body could provide a working class consciousness to this proletariat. Lukacs realised that the working
class consciousness was not defined in Marxism. Lenin tried to introduce this undefined element from outside. What
they did not realise was that there was no working class as a class to begin with. This elusive creature failed
to materialise in the the corse of capitalist evolution. There were 'working class leaders' but unfortunately they
had no working class to lead. The working class was only an idealistic concept originated in the head of the 'materialistic'
Marx.
Without a revolution round the corner the Marxists and the rest have taken up arms against nationalism. In fact
throughout, what the Marxists have done is to work against nationalism in the non-western world. This has been
the so-called historical role of the Marxists. Marxism, in the final analysis, is a weapon created in the west
to suppress nationalism in the non-western world. In Sri Lanka most of the Marxists, neo Marxists and the never
ending re-readers of Marx can be found in the NGO's funded by the western Christian countries, working against
Sinhala nationalism and supporting Tamil racism.
The western Christian countries have a problem. We all know that they are not secular countries. If they are secular
then Britain cannot have the present national anthem nor can they have the queen as the head of the Anglican Church.
They will have to redesign their national flag; the archbishop of Canterbury will have equal status as the chief
incumbent of the London Buddhist Vihara etc. If and when Mr. Charles Windsor is crowned as the next king of England
and the rest of Britain and the Northern Ireland we should be able to see the Maha Sangha chanting pirith at the
coronation held not in the Westminster Abbey but perhaps in a "neutral" place like the office of "The
Independent" newspaper. The coronation will have to be a 'Sarva Agamika' function where dignitaries representing
all the religions practised in Britain take part.
As pointed out by Citizen - D in "The Island" of September 28, Norway has similar problems. Since they
are not secular states they want some secular states somewhere in order to satisfy their bourgeois ego. Sri Lanka
is one such country. They are determined to see that Sri Lanka is not a Sinhala Buddhist country.
Recently when Mr. Kotakedeniya the DIG spoke of Sinhala Buddhist archaeological treasures there was a big cry from
certain quarters to drop the words Sinhala Buddhist. A meeting was to be held yesterday to discuss the suitability
of teaching of the history associated with the king Dutugemunu in schools as some 'enlightened' people are of the
view that this history is an obstacle to achieve peace in the country. Who is being discriminated in this country
by the NGO's, the newspapers published by these NGO's, the Tamil racists and their sponsor Christian countries?
I am sure that most of the Sinhala Christians understand what is happening and that they have no sympathy with
these Christian powers. We distinguish between Christianity and the western Christian culture.
The only alternative for some of the sympathisers of Tamil racism appears to be a joint effort by the PA and the
UNP to adopt the G. L. - Neelan draft constitution. They seem to be coming out with the same old hackneyed theory
that in order to win over the Tamil people from the LTTE power has to be devolved to the East and the North. These
people ignore the evolution of Tamil racism in this country and forget that the problem is nothing but the refusal
by the Tamil racist leaders, under the patronage of the British and the other Christian powers in the west, to
recognise the fact that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country.
When the PA came into power they thought they had the solution to the problem. However when we asked them to define
the problem they could not do so. They went on talking of grievances when there were none and continued with their
pronouncements even after the Tamil racist leaders themselves declared that they had no grievances but aspirations.
The PA first wanted to talk to the LTTE as if the terrorists had been charmed by Ms. Kumaratunga. The PA government
like their predecessors learnt a bitter lesson after paying a heavy price.
The G. L. - Neelan package was presented as the panacea for what was described as the ethnic problem and the ministry
of justice went into action with a big bang. They told us only by devolving more and more power to wean away the
Tamils from the LTTE. Like a set of schoolboys yelling at cricket matches they asked those who opposed the package
"what is the alternative to the package?" When we told them that there are neither solutions nor alternatives
to non -existing problems they did not understand. Some schoolboys take sometime to understand even simple statements.
Now the government finds that they just cannot ignore the Sinhala opinion and find it difficult even to present
their so-called solution as a bill to the parliament. Meanwhile the LTTE continues with their killings. The LSSP
seems to believe that the LTTE has the support of the Tamils because of the government's failure to implement the
"package". The LTTE does not need the support of the people to kill. They are a ruthless terrorist organisation.
Even if the package is given neither the LTTE nor the other Tamil racist parties will be satisfied. The LTTE has
already rejected the package and the others will say "too little too late" and will demand more. Their
policy is little now and more later. If they had grievances then once solutions were found to those they could
have stopped their so-called struggle. But they have only an aspiration and that happens to be a separate state,
so they will always claim "too little too late".
To those who wanted us to provide alternatives we said there is no ethnic problem and it was only a problem due
to Tamil racism created by the British. In the evolution of Tamil racism over a period of more than hundred years
a section of the Tamil racists have taken up arms against the state in order to form a separate state. It is the
foremost duty of the government to protect the state by defeating the LTTE militarily. It is now abundantly clear
that in the context of the recent developments, the survival of the government itself depends on whether it is
prepared to take this course of actin. The only alternative as far as the survival of the government is concerned
is not to be found in Foxes, Tathams and Batty Weerakones. The government can survive only if it defeats the LTTE
militarily.