{"id":104838,"date":"2020-07-24T23:37:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T05:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104838"},"modified":"2020-07-24T16:36:57","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T23:36:57","slug":"where-o-where-is-the-left-the-right-and-the-north-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/24\/where-o-where-is-the-left-the-right-and-the-north-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Where \u2013 O where! \u2013 is the Left, the Right, and the North + East?"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Social\nscientists and the commentariat have either failed, or deliberately ignored, to\ntake note of the changes in the surface and subterranean foundations of the\npolitical landscape in the post-Nandikadal period. Our pundits are still\ncackling as if we are in the post-1956 period in which the mono-causal theme of\nblaming the Sinhala-Buddhists was touted cockily as a sign of being\nintellectually superior in public, media and academic discourses. To be\nanti-Sinhala-Buddhist was \u2013 and still is — the fashion of the day. Digging up\nevery adverse comment from the dustbin of history was a common technique to\ndemonise the Sinhala-Buddhists as enemies of the minorities. Every shred of\nhistorical, political, social or economic evidence was corralled and distorted to\nargue that the minorities were discriminated by the majority, though the\ninhuman role of the Tamil Vellala elite of marginalising their own people as\npariahs was either brushed aside or hidden under the label of Tamil\nnationalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down\ngrading the Sinhala-Buddhist culture, language and religion at the highest\nacademic levels became a powerful propaganda tool in the privatised research\ncentres run by pro-Tamil agents (example: International Centre for Ethnic\nStudies, headed by Neelan Tiruchelvam and Radhika Coomarasawamy) whose bank\naccounts were stacked with foreign funds to hire the academics\/intellectuals to\nmanufacture the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology. Only like-minded ideologues\nwere invited to participate in their seminars, publications, research etc., to\nproduce anti-Sinhala-Buddhist consensus. The focus was essentially on the\nSouth. They craftily avoided turning the searchlight deeply into the North\nbecause they knew that exposing the horrendous history of the North, where the\nruling caste of Vellalas who oppressed, suppressed, persecuted their own\npeople, and even ostracised them as pariahs, would undermine their claim to be\nvictims of the South. History was a volatile force which had to be managed\ncarefully to serve their politics. They were determined to sanitize their\nnarrative by diverting the focus away from the North to make the South look\nlike the evillest force that bedevilled inter-ethnic relations <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlatest to raise the racist ghost of the past is Dayan Jayatilleka, who is\nraving and ranting against the armed Dharmapalas\u201d (i.e., the Rajapakases)\naccusing them of dismantling the existing order to establish a militarised\nauthoritarian regime. He is not saying anything new. He is parroting what the\nSaravanamuttus, Savitris and Ismails have been voicing in the post-Nandikadal\nperiod and even before. As a self-professed political scientist, he is expected\nto rise above cheap propaganda and analyse of the current situation either as a\nMarxist diagnostician, taking into consideration the de-Tigerised politics of\nthe North in the post-Nandikadal period, or as a public intellectual digging\ndeep into the new political contours of the nation shifting away from a defunct\nLeft and self-destructive Right descending into a hell of divisive politics. A\ncomprehensive analysis would consist of a mix of both. But he is wallowing in\nthe filth of his own hate politics. Hell hath no fury as Dayan scorned and\ndenied a lucrative post in the ruling regime! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nthe political pendulum stands steadily and comfortably at the traditional\nCentre which neither the Left nor the Right can challenge successfully. In\nfact, there is no Left nor Right to take on the dominant Centre. The Centre has\nemerged as the decisive force that would steer the way in the absence of a constructive\nand powerful Left, Right and, of course, the mono-ethnic extremists of the\nNorth and the East. All of them are struggling to recover from the massive blow\ndealt by the Centre in the last Presidential election. The rise of the Centre\nmarks the end of the political adventurism and violence of the Left, Right and\nthe North and the East. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise\nof the Centre was totally unexpected. It was also so overwhelming that it has\nthrown all the other forces into absolute confusion. In the main, the awakened\nCentrist force have thrown the Right, Left and the anti-Sinhala Buddhist North\noff balance and their main struggle right now is to rise from the vacuum into\nwhich they have fallen and redefine their place in the new political landscape.\nThe rise of the Centre, packed the with the commanding grassroot forces of our\ntime, has not only isolated the rest from the mainstream but also left them\nderelict, some without leaders, some without a vision \/ alternative, and some\nwithout a future in sight. Sri Lanka has stepped in emphatically, decisively\nand loudly into that global trend that, for instance, went to make Hindutva\nModi in India, and America Great Again\u201d \u2013 minus menacing Covid-19. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing\nthe success in the face of the daunting Coronovid-19 and its economic\nconsequences is the task ahead. But, politically speaking, the victory has\nushered in a new phase in which the reinvigorated grassroot forces had risen\ndeterminedly to reject the attempts of the misguided neo-liberals to reverse\nthe natural flow of history. Rewriting the Constitution was an attempt to\nrewrite history.   The entire Parliamentary process was manipulated,\ndoctored and debased by the Right to legalise the robbing of the rights of the\npeople in the name of the rights of a few who had done their worst to destroy\nthe nation. Yahapalanaya politics was a foul exercise launched and pursued by\nthe neo-liberals to go against the will of the people.  And when the time\ncame the people gave the neo-liberals the reply they deserved. The Right went to\ndestroy the people and the people turned on them and destroyed the irrelevant\nneo-liberals. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The will\nof the people expressed in the last Presidential election stunned the pundits\nwhose political calculations never predicted the massive swing to the Centre.\nThis swing was the definitive reaction to the extremist Right-wing forces\nhijacking history to serve their disruptive and unsustainable political ends.\nRanil Wickremesinghe, the most manipulative and active representative of the\nRight, made the cardinal mistake of trying to swim upstream and, in the\nprocess, he has killed not only his prospects but the future of the Right as\nwell. Never in the history of post-Independent history has the Right fallen to\nthe depths of near extinction as it is today. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncollapse of the Right is a phenomenon that had never occurred even when its\nParliamentary popularity was reduced to eight seats in 1956. Despite that the\nUNP held together at the grassroot and organizational levels, with respected\nand formidable leaders in command of the Party. Even in the big crisis when the\ntwo giant elephants (Dudley and JR\u201d) fought, the Party did not go to pieces.\nThe cleavage today is so wide that there is no political bra big enough to hold\nboth segments together. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nthe UNP has neither the leaders nor the hard-core base which is split right\ndown the middle. The going down of Ranil will be welcome by most, including his\nParty loyalists. And when the new Parliament meets after August 5th Ranil will\nlimp his way to his seat with a depleted following who are most likely to\ndecamp to either Sajith or Mahinda Rajapakse, unless, of course, both parties\ndecide to unite. The end of Ranil\u2019s grip on the UNP marks the death of his\nmisguided pro-West, anti-national Right-wing politics. If the Rajapaksa\nbrothers are to be compared to Bandaranaike of 1956\u201d then it is fair to\ncompare Ranil as the alienated, out-of-touch, vilified Sir. John of our time.\nThe Right will be a write-off as long as Ranil Wickremesinghe hangs on to Sri\nKotha \u2013 the last resort of the vanishing breed of ageing elephants who had lost\ntheir tusks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next\noption in national politics is to turn to the Left but it is rather difficult\nfind a political animal by that name. It has been a force that has been\nsplitting like the amoeba into sub-atomic particles from its birth. The irony\nis that that the last of the Marxist revolutionaries are abandoning the Left\nand rushing to join the decadent Right committing hara-kiri aided and abetted\nby Left-wing theoreticians like Victor Ivan and Dayan Jayatilleka. On the one\nhand, the Vikrama Bahu\u201d revolutionary has joined the Ranil-wing of the Right\nand, on the other, Dayan Jayatilleka, the leading Marxist theoretician, has\njoined the Sajith-wing of the Right. Post-Nandikadal politics has certainly\ntaken a bizarre turn with no-hopers of the Left embracing the coffined corpses\nof the Right. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do\nwe go from here? Whether we like it or not, even a cursory glance at the\nnational scene indicates that the last remaining point of sanity and stability\nis in the Centre. It has risen unequivocally as the will of the people and\nthere is no alternative to it now. The clarity of the will of the people has to\nbe factored in for the nation to calculate its next moves. It is into this\npolitical framework that the North comes in as the orphaned victim of the\nde-Tigerised politics of the post-Nandikadal peninsula. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmilitarised, fascist de facto regime of the Tigers had gripped the North so\ncomprehensively and obsessively that the unexpected fall of the invincible\u201d\nTiger regime has left the North in a political vacuum. No one in the North had\nto make decisions under Tiger regime. All decisions were made for them at the\ntop and there was space only for the Tamils to follow the Thalaivar\u201d\nobediently if they had any ambitions of seeing the sun rising the next day.\nThat was the easy part. Now the heavy burden of making decisions has fallen on\nthe tired, old leadership which is clueless and wandering in the new and\ndizzying complexities without a compass. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are\ndrifting between two worlds, one dead and the other struggling to be born. They\nare in transition. They are torn between the past which began with the\nVadkoddai Declaration of War in 1976 and a future of peaceful co-existence in a\nde-Tigerised democracy, however infirm it may be. Despite their braggadocio and\nbravado, it is dawning on them that they had come to end of their tether. They\nhave run through all options from the time S. J. V. Chelvanayakam launched his\nFederal Party in December 1949 at the Government Clerical Service Union in\nMaradana and not in Jaffna, which is supposed to be the heartland of the\nTamils. Since then they had tried (1) confrontational politics with\nsatyagrahas, (2) parliamentary manoeuvres and negotiations, (3) partnership\nwith what they called the Sinhala-governments\u201d, (4) waging war after the\nDeclaration of War at Vadukoddai in 1976, (5) regional pressure through India,\n(6) international pressure through the Tamil diaspora, and (7) establishing\neven a de facto state exhausting practically all options to achieve their\nelusive Eelam. All of which ended eventually in Nandikadal. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So isn\u2019t\nit time for the North to sit down and take a hard look at the journey they had\ntaken, following the footsteps of Chelvanayakam, and consider seriously what\nother options\/opportunities they have in their next mission of figuring out\nwhat is achievable and where they are likely to be in the next five, ten,\nfifteen years, or, for that matter, all the time available in history? The most\nobvious question facing them is to consider whether their future is in going\nback to Vadukoddai and take the same road to Nandikadal without a Prabhakaran\nto lead the way? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nworking out answers to these and other questions the Tamil leadership should\nkeep in mind (1) whether Vadukoddai violence will work for them internationally\nin this age anti-terrorism; (2) whether they can match the military might of\nthe Sri Lankan forces that won at Nandikadal; 3) whether the peninsular\ndynamics that motivated the Vadukoddai Resolution are operative now to mobilise\nthe Tamils into another round of mindless violence?; (4) in the new global\norder where China is a stakeholder in the Indian Ocean whether India can step\nin arbitrarily and arrogantly to play the role it played under Indira and Rajiv\nGandhi?; (5) whether the Tamil leadership is willing to pay the bloody price\nrequired to gamble with violence without any guarantees of victory?; and (6)\nwhether they would like to live in another Kashmir or Palestine with everyone\ntut-tutting at the never-ending tragedies while the privileged Tamils migrate\nto greener pastures exploiting the suffering of their fellow-Tamils left\nbehind?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nreviewing all these issues, the Tamil leadership should remember that that\ntheir ageing predecessors were the first victims of the violence they unleashed\nat Vadukoddai. They armed and encouraged the youth to take the gun and when\nthey began to run amok with the new toy in their hands it is the Founding\nFathers of the Vadukoddai Declaration that were decimated first. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nviolence of all three communities that shook the nation from time to time had\nthe following common characteristics: a) they were motivated by ideologies that\nled to fascist and brutal violence b) the guns and bombs were used by immature\nyouth who fancied that they had the solution to the problems facing them and\nthe nation at large; (c) none of their violent experiments succeeded. All of\nwhich leads to the ineluctable conclusion that there is no future in\nintransigence, dogmatic blindness, political extremism, experiments of the\nfailed past and, above all, violence. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are\nright now left with only a dead Left, moribund Right, a distraught and derelict\nNorth and a wobbly East. The only viable and the positive option is the\npromising Centre. It is inevitable that the North+East+Right+Left (NERL) forces\nwill have to negotiate with the Centre if they and the nation are to go\nanywhere. August 5th<\/sup> will confirm that there is no alternative to\nthe Centre. The future of depends on how NERL will negotiate their way to their\nseparate or collective comfort zones with the Centre. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPresidential election have been fought, and the Parliamentary elections are\nbeing fought, to test the limits of the power of the NERL competing with the\nCentre and vice versa. The unprecedented power that will be vested in the hands\nof the Centre (after the Parliamentary elections) will define the parameters\nwithin which both the Centre and the NERL can operate in seeking their separate\ngoals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nimpending competition of the Centre vs. the NERL — of course, after the\nParliamentary elections — need not be hostile or an intransigent power\nstruggle for one power bloc to dominate the other. In the behind-the-scene\nbargaining there will be ample room for compromises. In between, there will be\na lot of grandstanding by the NERL to claim that they can do better than the\nCentre. That is the name of the game. The reality is that no one \u2013 I repeat, no\none — can do better than the other in a world conquered by Covid-19. Admitting\nand accepting this inevitability imposed by Covid-19 is the first step to\neconomic recovery \u2013 the prime necessity that must be prioritised in the\nnational agenda. There is a time for politics but this is not it. Economics\nmust be given the same priority at Coronivd-19. NERL cannot win either on\nCovid-19 or on Article19. Both must be treated as equal partners.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\npost-Nandikadal phase the Centre has come to stay. NERL , if it fails to\nrecognise the new realities, can either pray or bray.  <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala Social scientists and the commentariat have either failed, or deliberately ignored, to take note of the changes in the surface and subterranean foundations of the political landscape in the post-Nandikadal period. Our pundits are still cackling as if we are in the post-1956 period in which the mono-causal theme of blaming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}