{"id":106870,"date":"2020-09-21T17:20:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T00:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106870"},"modified":"2020-09-21T17:20:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T00:20:27","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-c-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/21\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-c-10\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 17 C 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

JVP  \nwas   out to create a failed\nstate. Firstly, it set out to weaken government authority at village level.  In 1971 insurgency, JVP killed government representatives\nin the village, such as GA postmaster, station master, and co-op manager. The\nfirst killing took place in Tangalle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1987 insurgency, even Grama sevakas were\nnot welcomed in the villages. JVP issued threats to government officials,\nfollowed by killing of such officials and their families. In April 1989\nunprecedented number of government officials, grama sevaka, and security forces\nwere killed. It did not matter whether they were UNP or SLFP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a\nsmall family estate at Mawaramandiya, near Kadawatha,    said Garvin Karunaratne. the community\nleader of the area was one Wijesinghe. He was the President of the Cooperative\nsociety and was helpful to anyone that wanted anything done. He happened to be\nclose to the leaders of the United National Party but he helped everyone\nirrespective of political party affiliations. I too visited his home when\nanyone known to me in the area had to face a problem with the government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 He was hacked to pieces one night. The JVP had\nheld him guilty of attending the funeral of a victim of its violence.\nWijesinghe had arranged for a proper funeral to take place. The JVP order was\nthat no funeral be held and the body be carried below the knee level and buried\nincognito. Wijesinghe\u2019s murder sent creeps through everyone in the area. His\nbrothers too left the village and his death left a power vacuum never to be\nfilled ever again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP also\nembarked on a comprehensive agenda to destroy the economy. JVP was instructed\nby its handlers, obviously, to create difficult economic conditions that would make\nthe public rise against the state. A senior academic had designed the blueprint\nfor this economic destruction to be implemented by JVP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP succeeded\nin doing this, and by October 1989 the economy had been crippled. JVP and its\nhandlers hoped that the resulting hardship would turn the public against the\ngovernment. However,   this did not\nhappen. Instead the\nacademic who had    designed the plan\nfled the country with his family when the insurgency failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group\nwishing to take over and run a country does not start by ruining its economic infrastructure\nas JVP did. The JVP burnt down 245 out of 545 agrarian service centers in the\ncountry along with paddy stocks and storage facilities in 1987-89.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara elaborated on this aspect.\nThe JVP insurrection of 1986 to 1987 too took a toll of the rural areas, he\nsaid. Thanks to the JVP, the well to do people in the rural areas, the estate\nowners, the rice millers, lorry owners and traders all left the rural areas for\nthe cities.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my subsequent visits to Matara I met many a rice miller and\nmany a merchant who were the live wire in their rural habitat in Kamburupitiya,\nHakmana etc. They had got rid of their rural possessions and migrated to the\nMatara town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people who had been living happily on their estates left for\ngood. Some have never stepped into their estates since the JVP uprising of\n1987-1989. They have allowed their workers to manage the estates are satisfied\nwith whatever returns they got. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development of the rural areas requires the services of every\nentrepreneur and entrepreneurs come from the rich families with enough money to\ninvest. They are not in the rural areas now. That was the legacy left by JVP\nwith their two insurrections concluded Karunaratne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP carefully\nand methodically hit the key sectors in the economy. Tea estates in the Uva\nBadulla areas and coconut and rubber estates in the south were badly hit. Over\n2,09,000 kilograms of tea were destroyed by the JVP in the central provinces.\nThe JVP targeted the transport sector \nand  this paralyzed the country\nand brought it to a standstill. Public and\nprivate transport  was reduced to such\nlow levels that food shortages threatened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two\ntactics used by JVP   to hit the economy were orders to close\nfactories and work places and secondly, order to workers to strike. In 1987\nRamya Weerakoon\u2019s apparel business was contacted by the JVP. Little notes were\ndelivered to the security guard in the factory by JVP errand boys, she said.  Close the factory today with full pay for\nworkers the notes said. A slip usually came on Friday or Monday, Ramya\nrecalled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the two\nadjoining factories were also losing, she also closed her factory. The days of\nlost production hit them hard but they had to obey. A factory owner had defied\nthe JVP order and they ordered him to shut down for a week. Another factory in Horana\nwas burned down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1987\nand 1989, JVP called many strikes. In September 1988, JVP ordered nationwide\nstrikes with widespread compliance. Shops, transport, hospitals and government\nservices were shut. Bank, Postal\nand telecommunications virtually halted. On\n15 August 1989, the JVP called for a total island wide general strike on Indian\nIndependence Day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 90,000\ntea plantation workers in the southern Ratnapura district went on a week-long\nstrike from 7 September 1989 in response to a JVP call. Neither the imposition of emergency nor the threat of dismissal\nhad any effect on the workers, possibly\nbecause of the terror the JVP inspired. The striking workers also could not be\ndismissed as that might have resulted in a wave of sympathy strikes in other\nsectors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees of\nthe government road transport service went on strike, demanding higher wages.\nThey were later joined by the private run mini-buses and railways crippling the\npublic transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transport\nstrike was followed by several token and one-day strikes. On 26 June 1989 the\nJVP called for a 24 hour general strike to sympathize with the 52,000 striking\ntransport workers. Telecommunications\nand postal workers had walked out of their posts in support of the bus workers\ndemands. Port workers and state sector workers staged a wildcat strike. Oil\nrefineries remained closed due to JVP instigated strikes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twelve key\ntrade unions had announced that they would launch agitations to seek Sri Lankan\nRs. 2,500 as basic minimum wages, the amount which was being offered to the Jan\nSaviya families under the poverty line. The JVP had instigated these strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP also took\nan anti India stance.    Wijeweera, set a\ndeadline of 14 June 1989 for a complete boycott of Indian goods, departure of\nall Indians of Sri Lankan and Indian origin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This call  had a devastating effect on the economy and\nbring the country to a standstill. Not only is Sri Lanka dependent on India for\ncertain essential goods, there were eighteen private and public sector Indian\ncompanies operating in Sri Lanka, including state Bank of India, Indian\nOverseas Bank, Indian Airlines  Air India,  Pugoda Textiles, Bombay Dyeing and the Taj\ngroup of hotels. Over 70 per\ncent of the state Transport Board buses were of Indian make and the Sinhala\ndrivers could not defy the JVP boycott call. (Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP   was   out to create a failed state. Firstly, it set out to weaken government authority at village level.  In 1971 insurgency, JVP killed government representatives in the village, such as GA postmaster, station master, and co-op manager. The first killing took place in Tangalle. In 1987 insurgency, even Grama sevakas were not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106870","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=106870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}