Some notes on the recent elections in Sri Lanka
Featured image: Anura Kumara Dissanayake, new president of Sri Lanka. Source: India Today
On Saturday, September 21, Dissanayake won the elections in the second round against Sajith Premadasa. The outgoing president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, only achieved a third place. Dissanayake was the candidate of the electoral coalition Jathika Jana Balavegaya or National People’s Power (NPP), led by the People’s Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna – JVP). He was sworn in on Monday, September 24. The bourgeois media around the world described Dissanayake and the NPP-JVP as “Marxist”, “Stalinist”, etc., for example American media of various kinds, as well as the BBC and Al Jazeera. However, the illusions of many about the supposed ideology or revolutionary intentions of this new president have quickly vanished: on Wednesday, representatives of the International Monetary Fund met with the Sri Lankan government. At this meeting, the government confirmed its “commitment to the $2.9 billion bailout package” agreed by the previous government and that it simply “hopes to renegotiate certain conditions.” The narrative imposed by the bourgeois media does not fit with reality, so we must make an evaluation of the new president, his party and the path that Sri Lanka seems to be following and its relation with imperialism.
The trajectory of Dissanayake and the NPP-JVP
Before being elected president, Dissanayake had already been a representative in Parliament for many years, since 2000, and he had government positions such as Minister of Agriculture from 2004 to 2005. In 2019, he already ran for president, obtaining only 3 percent of the vote. Involved with the JVP since the mid-1990s, in 1997 he took over the leadership of the JVP youth, in 1998 he joined the party’s Central Committee and its Political Committee. Since then, he has been participating in elections. In 2008, he took control of the Party’s Parliamentary Group, and in 2014 he was elected as leader of the JVP. He has apologized and rejected the path of violence attempted by his party on repeated occasions since he became a well-known parliamentary figure.
The JVP, a party founded and led for decades by Rohana Wijeweera, emerged from the bosom of the Communist Party of Ceylon, which at that time had joined the world revolutionary trend, defending Marxism-Leninism and the line established by Chairman Mao. Wijeweera had been trained in the Soviet Union. Together with other agents he carried out a subversive operation within this Party to split from it and form what would become the JVP. This new Party followed the theses of Soviet social-imperialism and was strongly intoxicated by Sinhala chauvinism, the main population group in Sri Lanka.
The JVP attempted several insurrections with resounding failures, first in 1971 and again in the 1980s. The latter ended in a bloodbath, in which its leaders, including the founder Wijeweera, were assassinated by the Sri Lankan State in 1989. However, the JVP combined this policy with parliamentary cretinism, supporting various electoral candidates in the 1970s and 1980s and presenting its leader in elections. In the mid-1990s, the JVP agreed to abandon the insurrection and it joined the electoral farce. Thus the JVP would be resurrected in a context in which it was useful to have a supposedly left-wing party, running in elections and winning some parliamentary candidates. Since the 1990s, the JVP has been seen as a Sinhalese chauvinist Party, defending the Buddhist religion and national unity against the independence aspirations of the Tamil people1 and camouflaging it with a supposed anti-Indian expansionist discourse. From this moment on, its drift as a purely parliamentary and nationalist Party has not stopped until today. In 2015, together with 25 other organizations, it formed the NPP coalition and the JVP since then competed in the electoral farce through these name2.
As for the present, the NPP-JVP only has 3 deputies, so Dissanayake has dissolved Parliament as part of the presidential powers, to call parliamentary elections that will allow it to have greater support in the legislative chamber. The NPP-JVP has seen considerable growth since the massive protests of 2022, when it somehow brought together the discontent of the people and led the mass protest movement (known as Aragalaya) against the Rajapaksa brothers’ government and against the IMF. In a similar way to many other mass protests, the NPP-JVP then plays the role of DRIVING the anger of the people inside the ballot boxes. It also acts as an element of calm and of throwing water on the flames that have ignited the prairie, and of masking the oppression, exploitation and the country-selling to foreign monopolies. We have seen similar movements of the ruling classes in the same area, for example in Bangladesh with the recently formed Yunus government.
A party that serves the interests of imperialism and the local ruling classes
While the mobilizations spurred and absorbed in 2022 by the NPP-JVP were strongly directed against the austerity imposed by the IMF through the lackey government of US imperialism, all this rhetoric has soon been forgotten. From the moment when Dissanayake could be a serious and useful electoral candidate for the ruling classes, the discourse radically changed.
Local analysts in Sri Lanka explain that the economic program presented by Dissanayake represents a significant shift from what would be understood as a “traditional socialist position.” Thus, they affirm that “Now he advocates a pro-market approach, emphasizing the simplification of the tax structure, the improvement of the environment surrounding companies, the reform of tax administration, ending corruption and positioning the private sector as the axis of growth.” They confirm another key issue: Dissanayake has “expressed his commitment to remain within the current IMF program”.
The issue regarding the IMF is central to understand what Dissanayake really is, as it allows us to analyze his position on imperialism in general and on US imperialism in particular. Despite the rhetoric displayed by the NPP-JVP, Dissanayake has been very clear about the IMF, stating one time after another that he will not raise any objection or withdraw from the agreement and conditions imposed. At a forum with businesses on September 4, he calmed the Sri Lankan big bourgeoisie by stating: “We deeply understand the seriousness of the economic collapse. There is no room for making instant changes in this economy. Even a minor adjustment can be disastrous. (…) All our international economic relations are linked with the International Monetary Fund. (…) Therefore, anyone who considers a unilateral withdrawal from the programme, denies his responsibility to the country and its people. We guarantee that we will never unilaterally withdraw from the IMF.” In turn, regarding the businessmen, he stated that he would not ask them for anything nor bother them because “As politicians we have our own needs, and you as businessmen, have yours.”
This idea regarding subjugation to Yankee imperialism was reinforced on September 16 in a morning political program where Dissanayake was interviewed and stressed that “they do not oppose the economic objectives” set by the IMF. He even showed himself willing to implement the agreement, stating that in the meetings with the IMF they want to “explain that laws and mechanisms alone are insufficient. Practical measures are necessary to strengthen these regulations, and we will need the assistance of the IMF for this.” He stated: “We have not come to power to destabilize the country, but to develop it. If negotiations with the IMF take too long and we do not reach agreements, we must adjust to the current program. Our approach is to work with the IMF to achieve a better agreement, not to withdraw from it.”
On the other hand, Dissanayake’s good relationship with Yankee imperialism is obvious, as the multiple meetings and joint declarations with the Yankee embassy headed by Julie J. Chung show, extolling the importance of continuing to strengthen relations between both countries. Even before forming the government, there were meetings that the NPP-JVP itself made public between representatives of US imperialism and its Party. On the other hand, although the NPP-JVP has also been characterized by its rhetoric against free trade agreements, Dissanayake stated in a recent interview the following: “In fact, we do not want to end these agreements. Sri Lankan exporters have not been able to make use of them in an appropriate way. We have identified bottlenecks in some of these agreements.”
Reactionary friends: the old Indian State
Related to US imperialism is the role of the Indian State, which is used by US imperialism to penetrate the region without being directly accused of controlling or subjugating the countries to which it exports its financial capital. For example, this is seen with the Adani group, which, as reported by Indian media, has US financing to implement its projects in Sri Lanka, for example the expansion of the Western International Terminal in the port of Colombo. There are other examples such as the wind energy project that Dissanayake has criticized. But this is part of the necessary rhetoric that he must use to justify his chauvinist policy and to win votes in the electoral farce, by pretending that he is a true patriot and an anti-imperialist. In reality there is no confrontation with Yankee imperialism, which is the one that directs the movements of the old Indian State.
In the same way, one of the main creditors of the Sri Lankan public debt3 is the old Indian State. But at the same time, it is through a joint fund in which Yankee imperialism together with other imperialist powers is the one that has put the capital, using the old Indian State as a simple visible face and intermediary. And so, it is no coincidence that the electoral manifesto of the NPP-JVP itself states that no one will be allowed to use “Sri Lanka’s land, sea or air to threaten the security of India.” In line with this, after the victory of the NPP-JVP, multiple representatives of the old Indian State have rushed to congratulate the electoral victory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself congratulated Dissanayake and expressed his desire to advance bilateral cooperation. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jiashankar also highlighted the “depth of ties between the two civilizations.” India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha, stressed that India and Sri Lanka are “civilizational twins.”
A reactionary religious chauvinist Party
In fact, this rhetoric of false confrontation with India is in sharp contrast to the genuinely good relations that are developing between Dissanayake and the old Indian State. The NPP-JVP is not a revolutionary Party, nor even a progressive one, but in fact has much in common with the BJP model of government. In many aspects they are very similar at the ideological level: a religious chauvinism, unitary and racist, anti-popular and which is against the peoples or nationalities of the country who are struggling for their liberation. The old Indian State governed by the BJP, fully aware of this, invited Dissanayake to India before he had won the elections, at the beginning of this year, making clear again the good harmony between both.
On the issue of religious chauvinism, the NPP-JVP has made its position clear on numerous occasions: for example, on September 17 this year, NPP-JVP parliamentary leader Vijitha Herath promised the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress that his party would defend the privileged position of Buddhism within the State, stating that: “Article 9 says that ‘the republic of Sri Lanka should give Buddhism a primary position.’ We will also implement this in the future.” Furthermore, in 2019, the party demanded that all Muslims prove their loyalty by publicly denouncing the attacks that took place during Easter 2019 by an Islamist group, as if the entire Muslim population would be collectively responsible for it.
On the other hand, the party’s distinguishing factor is its chauvinism with a clear confrontation with the Tamil people. Following the civil war and repression of the Tamil people, which included extrajudicial killings, bombing against the people and civilian targets, kidnappings, rape, etc., Dissanayake said that the NPP-JVP will not seek to determine responsibilities and denies that any investigation will be carried out in this regard.
On this issue, further proof of his advocacy of genocidal policies and war against the people has been the occasion on which Dissanayake has attended meetings convened by the NPP-JVP with veterans of the national armed forces, police, etc., strengthening ties with veterans of the war against the Tamils. Thus, he has even created associations such as the “Three Forces Collective”, led by a retired general from the Eastern Province (where most of the operations took place). Dissanayake stated that the military plays a crucial role in the liberation of the country by ensuring economic development under law and order.
Some conclusions
Dissanayake represents an attempt by the ruling classes, the big bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the big landlords in Sri Lanka, to calm or channel the rebellion of the masses, which made the rulers flee in 2022 and which has shown to have a fearsome power. In addition, the experience of Bangladesh this summer, as well as many other protests that have occurred in these years in South Asia, show the explosiveness of the region and how easy it is to set fire to the prairie and let it burn incessantly. Therefore, faced with the absolute discredit of the traditional political Parties that have led previous governments, the ruling classes and imperialism have decided to use a new option: use the social democrats in an attempt to mask the class character of the State and the oppression that is being suffered, trying to demobilize the masses and behead the social movements.
Added to this is the deeply reactionary character of this new president and his Party, who, if he faces any attempt of revolt by the Tamil people or the working class in the face of new crisis situations, will not hesitate to apply harsh repressive and even genocidal policies to try to resolve the situation and continue governing for the benefit of the ruling classes and imperialism.
Thus, during the electoral farce carried out in Sri Lanka, Dissanayake and the NPP-JVP have carried out a campaign full of lies, promises and misleading statements to attract the Sri Lankan people into the electoral quagmire. The new government has not been in power for even a month and several of the statements made, including the most notable ones, have already collapsed under their own weight. Promises and tirades were made against the IMF, against so-called Indian expansionism, in defense of the oppressed and exploited, against the crisis and previous governments… just in order to continue fulfilling the task that the previous presidents fulfilled: to govern in the interest of the local ruling classes and imperialism.
1Who carried out an independence war since the 80’s until 2009, when the armed movement was annihilated by a bloody and brutal repression supported by the old Indian State among others.
2As an additional prove of the parliamentarian cretinism by Dissanayake, he states that the NPP is a national liberation movement.
3Regarding them, we recommend the reader to read one article we previously wrote on the debt crisis in Sri Lanka, where we explained more in detail this type of questiones: https://redherald.org/2023/09/02/sri-lanka-protests-against-the-debt-trap-and-imperialism/