By D.B.S.Jeyaraj/Daily Mirror
Colombo, October 5: Sri Lanka’s newly elected ninth Executive President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) continues to be the focus of this column. In the first part of this article published last week, the early years of Anura’s eventful life were delved into in some detail. In this week’s second part, AKD’s steady rise as a political leader within the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) will be related to some extent.
As stated in this column last week, the JVP’s second insurgency was ruthlessly suppressed by the Ranasinghe Premadasa regime. Tens of thousands of youths were killed or made to disappear. Thousands of youths were incarcerated for years. Hundreds of youths fled Sri Lanka for safety. Hundreds of youths avoided arrest and possible execution while in Sri Lanka by changing identities and relocating elsewhere. Anura was among those who stayed in Lanka and evaded capture by going underground.
The JVP’s founder leader Rohana Wijeweera, the second leader Saman Piyasiri Fernando and the third leader Lalith Wijerathne were among the top 14 JVP leaders killed by the state in 1989-90. The only senior top leader and Politburo member to survive was Somawansa Amerasinghe alias Siri Aiyaa. He became the fourth JVP leader. Somawansa escaped to India in 1990 and from there went to Thailand. He later traveled to Italy and from there sought political asylum in France.
Somawansa Amerasinghe
Somawansa Amerasinghe shuttled between various European countries and set up JVP branches among Sinhala expatriates. He also interacted with dormant cadres in Sri Lanka and began a clandestine process of reviving the near extinct JVP. Tiny cells of 5 to 10 members were set up. Somawansa was in contact with these cells from France and the UK and coordinated activities.
Meanwhile the security situation in Sri Lanka began easing. Detained cadres were gradually released but the JVP proscription remained in force. After Premadasa’s death in May 1993, the political climate changed for the better as far as the JVP was concerned. Somawansa Amerasinghe returned to Sri Lanka in 1994 and began re-organising the JVP quietly. When Parliamentary elections were announced, the JVP was still a proscribed party. So Somawansa formed a front entity called Sri Lanka Progressive Front (SLPF) and contested only in the Hambantota district. The SLPF (JVP) got 15,309 votes. Janith Vipulaguna was elected MP. But he resigned soon and Nihal Galappaththi became H’tota MP.
The JVP worked for Chandrika Kumartunga in the 1994 Presidential elections. After she became President, the JVP ban was lifted. The JVP resumed its political work openly again. The JVP under Somawansa Amerasinghe’s leadership held its national convention in Tangalle in 1995.
Kelaniya University
Meanwhile Anura had resumed his tertiary studies again. He became an undergraduate at the Kelaniya University in 1992. AKD adopted a low profile during his undergraduate days but participated in student union activity. He also conducted classes at a tutorial institution. Anura was also in contact with Somawansa and used to convey confidential messages from him to other JVP members. AKD completed his studies and obtained a Bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Physical Science in 1995.
Instead of seeking full time employment AKD turned to full time politics. As mentioned earlier, Somawansa had returned to Sri Lanka and was engaged in reviving the JVP. Somawansa liked Anura and was impressed by the young man’s intellect, ability and convictions. He took Anura under his wing.
Anura’s Rapid Rise
The JVP backed Socialist Students Association was re-organised in 1995 after the national convention at Tangalle. AKD was appointed National Organiser. Thereafter his rise was rapid within JVP ranks. In 1996 he became a member of the JVP central committee. AKD was elevated to the all-powerful JVP Politburo (Political Bureau) in 1998.
The first JVP insurgency of 1971 was aiming for a socialist revolution. The JVP second insurgency of 1987-90 objective was patriotic resistance to an “Indian Invasion”. Now the JVP was in its third phase. It was a bruised and battered JVP. Even though people were sad and horrified about the massacre of thousands of youths by the state, they were also terrified about the atrocities committed by the JVP. The reign of JVP terror was still fresh in memory. The JVP therefore required a new platform to launch its resurgence.
The Sri Lankan forces were at war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The JVP led by Somawansa adopted a Sinhala chauvinist line under the guise of Sri Lankan patriotism and anti-separatism. The JVP backed the war and fully supported the war effort in many ways. They engaged in promotional campaigns to recruit more personnel for the armed forces. The JVP also visited the frontlines with the assignment of boosting the morale of soldiers.
Contesting Elections
Even as the JVP was re-inventing itself in a bid to transform its negative anti-state image into a positive pro-state image, the party commenced contesting in elections regularly. Even though the JVP was against the Indo-Lanka accord and the 13th Amendment, the party was not averse to contesting Provincial council elections. The JVP also contested Municipal councils, urban councils and divisional councils (pradeshiya sabhas). By contesting electoral bodies, the JVP broadened its support base. Party stalwarts gained recognition by becoming elected members.
Parliamentary Elections
The prize sought after most was of course Parliament. The JVP contested the Parliamentary elections of 2000 and polled 518,774 votes. The JVP got 10 MPs (8 elected and 2 appointed).The JVP again contested the 2001 poll and garnered 815,353 votes. The JVP got 16 MPs of whom 13 were elected and 3 were appointed on the National List.
As stated earlier Anura was by now a key member of the JVP. He was the national organiser of the Socialist Students Association, central committee member and member of the politburo. AKD was rather influential as the student union organiser. The students were the mainstay of the JVP when it organised demonstrations. Under Anura’s direction, the pro-JVP students union had expanded considerably and established itself in most universities and institutions of higher studies. So when the JVP contested polls, AKD was placed on the National List so that he could engage in propaganda all over instead of being tied down to the district as a candidate. He had blossomed into an able speaker but did not indulge in fanciful rhetoric. AKD was a direct, straight to the point kind of speaker who appealed to reason. Sometimes he was emotional too.
National List MP
Thus in 2000 AKD was appointed as national list MP and entered Parliament for the first time. In 2001 Anura was re-appointed as National List MP for the second time. Soon AKD made his mark as a powerful orator and skilful debater in Parliament. Although Chandrika Kumaratunga was the president in 2001, her party the People’s Alliance (PA) came off second best in the election. The United National Front (UNF) led by Ranil Wickremesinghe came first with 4,086,026 votes and obtained 109 MPs. The Chandrika Kumaratunga led People’s Alliance (PA) got 3,330,815 votes entitling it to 77 MPs. The JVP with 815,353 votes got 16 MPs. It was obvious that if the PA and JVP votes were combined the UNP led UNF could have been relegated to second place.
JVP Part of UPFA
It was on this basis that former minister Mangala Samaraweera forged an alliance with the JVP for the 2004 elections. The envoy of a concerned country stationed in Colombo also facilitated this axis. Thus the JVP contested as part of the SLFP led United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the 2004 elections. The UPFA polled 4,223,970 votes entitling it to 105 seats. The UNF with 3,504,200 votes got 82 seats. The JVP performed very creditably in the 2004 election. The party fielded three candidates in each district as part of the UPFA list. JVP cadres worked hard to get the maximum number of preference votes for their candidates. Due to this, the JVP obtained 39 MP seats in the 2004 election.
Cabinet Minister AKD
2004 was a watershed year for Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The April 2004 election was his electoral baptism. AKD contested in the Kurunegala district on the UPF ticket. He was elected with 153,868 preference votes. When President Kumaratunga formed the Cabinet, four portfolios were allocated to the JVP. AKD was appointed as the Cabinet minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation. AKD was delighted over his portfolio as farming and agriculture was a subject close to his heart. He set about his duties diligently and worked out plans to rejuvenate the country’s agricultural and livestock breeding sectors. Unfortunately matters took a different turn. Anura’s ministerial duties came to an abrupt end. Dissanayake along with other JVP colleagues in the UPFA Government resigned their posts. All 39 MP’s of the JVP quit the Government.
2004 Tsunami
What had happened was this. The country had experienced a terrible calamity in December 2004 in the form of Tsunami. Deaths, destruction and displacement occurred on a mammoth scale. Large coastal areas in the regions controlled by the LTTE were also affected by the Tsunami. So too were other coastal areas in the North and the East. International donors were prepared to allocate 3 billion dollars aid for rehabilitation and reconstruction of Tsunami affected families and areas. A strict condition for aid was that the money had to be spent equitably to help affected Tamil speaking regions also. President Kumaratunga entered into discussions with the LTTE through Norwegian facilitation. An unconventional joint structure with the LTTE was set up by the Government. This was known as the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS). The P-TOMS was set up to enable equitable distribution of funds procured through foreign assistance to affected Tamil speaking areas under LTTE control. The P-TOMS was a joint Govt-LTTE mechanism.
JVP Opposes P-TOMS
However, the JVP Led by Somawansa Amarasinghe strongly objected to the P-TOMS. The JVP forgetting its own past described the LTTE as terrorist and condemned the P-TOMS for equating the LTTE on par with the Government. Incidentally the JVP had opposed the ceasefire and Oslo facilitated talks with the LTTE. When the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe initiated the peace process in 2002, the JVP organised huge protests against the talks with the LTTE. When the P-TOMS agreement came into being the JVP demanded that the Kumaratunga Government abandon the project and set the deadline of June 15th 2005 to do so. When President Kumaratunga refused, the JVP quit the Government en masse on 16 June 2005. All the four ministers including Dissanayke resigned their posts.
Somawanasa Amerasinghe, the JVP leader said at the press conference, “We now announce our leaving the United People’s Freedom Alliance with a sense of deep regret of work unfulfilled.” Thereafter all 39 MPs of the JVP filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court against the P-TOMS agreement that had been signed between the Government and the LTTE. The JVP parliamentarians including AK Dissanayake cited five reasons in their FR petition for seeking an injunction against the P-TOMS. A three- judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva heard the petition and issued an interim order restraining the key operational clauses of the agreement for the P-TOMS.
With Presidential elections being scheduled for November 2005, the P-TOMS became a non-starter. The JVP welcomed the injunction saying it had “effectively stopped” the implementation of the joint mechanism. “There are no wheels in the bus,” the JVP’s former propaganda secretary, Wimal Weerawansa, gloated.
JVP Supported Mahinda
JVP Parliamentarians were now in the opposition. However, the JVP supported Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2005 presidential elections after signing a memorandum of understanding with him. The JVP helped Mahinda win in 2005. 19 years later the JVP has won a Presidential election on its own. Anura Kumara Dissanayake who was a short lived cabinet minister in 2004-05 is now the ninth executive President of Sri Lanka.
The story of Anura’s political ascendancy within the JVP and within the country at large will be narrated in the third part of this article.
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D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at [email protected]
