Somawansa-JVP saga: Doors still open to former Leader

Tuesday, 28 April 2015 00:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

JVPers want Somawansa back, says Tilvin
“I don’t want to break the JVP but will form a ‘true left’,” says Somawansa
JVP Central Committee’s instable decisions a grave threat to JVP’s future, says ex-JVP leader
Nothing can destroy the JVP, claims Lalkantha

By Shanika Sriyananda The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is still waiting to welcome its former Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, who quit the party, causing surprise and shock among the party as well as among political circles in the country. The JVP hopes that Amarasinghe will re-join the JVP before May Day, which would bring solace to people who flocked around the JVP to defeat the previous Rajapaksa regime. “Everyone wants him back in the party. We telephoned him and informed that we want him to be in the party,” JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said. Silva said that the JVP had invited him for a discussion and he didn’t refuse. “He said he needs time to think about it and will let us know,” he said. Many political critics claim that his sudden move was a result of a yet another political conspiracy to divide the party, which has become the third political force in the country.

However, Amarasinghe addressing a press conference soon after his departure from the party said that he didn’t have any intention of destabilising the party and that he moved out to form a new party to give a fresh breath to the JVP. Amarasinghe, who re-organised the party after all prominent leaders of the JVP, including its founder Rohana Wijeweera, were killed during the 1989 insurrection, was the Leader of the JVP until he retired in 2014. The only surviving member of the party’s Politburo, he played a vital role internationally to revive the party. Amarasinghe expressed his frustration over the JVP’s failure to reap the benefits of the defeat of the Rajapaksa regime at the January polls. He said that the JVP had failed to take prompt action against the ‘anti-Government conspiracy’ after the election results were released. “I don’t want to break the party. There is no conspiracy and the entire decision to quit the party is mine. I took this decision to take the JVP on the correct path. There was nothing else on my agenda. I want to form a ‘true left’,” he said. He also said that his new political party would not be formed to go against the JVP. Meanwhile, Silva said since 16 April, the day Amarasinghe announced his departure, the JVP has been trying its best to bring him back as he is still a strength to the party. “Those who were chased away from the JVP spread false rumours that the JVP is in a bad shape and there are more to abandon the party to join Comrade Amarasinghe. We strongly refute those false allegations,” Silva said. “Their intention is to mislead the people and our party supporters but they have already failed.” He said that the party informed the supporters about the present situation and that Amarasinghe leaving the party was his personal choice. “But still our supporters want him to be in the party,” Silva said. It has been reported that the party is facing a major dilemma as the flow of foreign funds to the party has been affected with Amarasinghe’s decision to quit. “Nothing has changed or been affected by his move. The JVP is not a party that collapses with such incidents. So many things have happened and some have left the party, but nothing happened to the JVP and we are in politics with the same vigour,” he stressed. Amarasinghe, however, said he chose to depart as a result of some recent ad hoc decisions taken by the party’s Central Committee (CC), which is the supreme decision maker of the JVP, stating that the instable decisions of the CC posed a grave threat to the future of the JVP and that it was losing internal democracy. “It is a surprising allegation by Comrade Amarasinghe, who was in the JVP for more than half of his life, and also being the former leader of the party,” JVP Politburo member K.D. Lalkantha claimed. According to Lalkantha, the party now moves forward in politics following the decisions taken by the CC, which comprises 29 prominent JVPers. He said that it was surprising to hear that the JVP’s ex-Leader claimed he quit the party following ad hoc decisions by the CC. “There are enough and more times where the proposals put forward by Comrade Amarsinghe were rejected by the CC. This is not a new thing for him and he knows how the CC functions better than anyone else. I think that a person who can’t work according to the views of the majority is not suitable to be a member of even a small society,” he noted. Lalkantha said that it was natural that there would be some kind of shock and confusion among party supporters when its ex-Leader left the party. This feeling among supporters is different when a party member is terminated, he explained, adding that Amarasinghe’s decision was a small drawback to the party’s progress. “No one can take Comrade Amarasinghe’s decision lightly as it is a blow to the party. But the JVP, which has experienced many downfalls, will stand tall against all such shocking incidents. While we are having ‘family disputes,’ we never stopped our mission of being a voice for the oppressed,” he said, adding that the JVP would not abandon its mission in politics because of its ex-Leader had left the party. He stressed that nothing could destroy the JVP, which he stated was the country’s most organised political party which always honoured and respected the majority view of the party. Responding to speculation that he and some heavyweights of the JVP were planning to join Amarasinghe to form his new party, Lalkantha refuted the allegation, claiming that it was a cooked up-story by a bunch of bankrupt ex-JVPers. “We have political goals in life and we joined the JVP since we thought that the JVP would be the best political party to fulfil our aspirations. I am not a person who joined the JVP because of others and I am not ready to abandon the JVP when someone has quit the party,” he said.