Many of those who expected JR to have fresh discussions with the Indian government, sighed in relief when JR returned claiming success. Still nothing is really divulged as to the real content of an agreement reached. However, two points are stressed, firstly, the need to devolve power and grant some kind of autonomy to the Tamil areas. Secondly, the ending of the military conflict by mutual agreement between the Army and the Tamil Liberation fighters. India has apparently agreed to put pressure on the liberation fighters to push them towards such a peaceful settlement. Now the question that should be answered is how far JR will be successful in achieving this and whether such a settlement is really the way out.
One thing is clear. That is the capitalist class is not united on this settlement. The SLFP leader Sirima Bandaranaike has already indicated that if she is given the power then she would have arrived at a better solution, meaning more favorable to the Sinhala middle classes. Her argument is that her pro— NAM (Non-aligned Movement) position will put Indians at ease whereas pro-American position of JR makes them suspicious and hard. In addition, the pro-imperialist economic policy has alienated the Tamil entrepreneur. Whereas, they have more confidence in her and hence they will be less intransigent with her.
Not only the SLFP but also the Premadasa led faction of the IJNP, including several Cabinet Ministers, are not with the agreement reached. Premadasa has already stressed that devolution of power cannot go beyond village councils or Gramodaya. According to this thinking even the D.D.C’s (District Development Councils) should be merely coordinating councils. For him the agreement with India should be on the basis of averting a “Marxist threat” to the Indian State. Indian leaders should be awakened to realize the real dangers of revolutionary insurgency breeding under the pretext of Tamil Liberation. With Rajiv shifting to a pro-American position, the Prime Minister is confident that his position will gain ground in the coming period. Once Tamil militants are suppressed, rest can be solved through Gramodaya.
In addition to these major capitalist camps, there are the racists who do not see the necessity of any concessions to the Tamils in the North or anywhere else. Presently most vociferous is Gamini Iriyagolla. They argue that already too many concessions are given to the Tamils. Hence what is necessary is better organized war. Gamini Iriyagolla has already volunteered to take over the National Security Ministry. In addition protest has been launched by some priests demanding JR not to put the unitary Republic in danger. On the other hand can he satisfy the Tamil capitalist leaders and the Tamil Militant youth and make them abandon the slogan of Elam? For this he should win the confidence of the Tamil bourgeoisie, for his ability to continue with his socio-economic programe linking all communities. In particular he should be able to de-link the Tamil bourgeoisie and upper petty bourgeoisie from the Tamil proletarian and semi-proletarian masses. In other words he should split the Tamil nation isolating the Tamil leftists.
Clearly he is today not capable of winning such trust from the Tamil upper classes and to use that as the main lever for national unification. Whatever understanding that he could arrive with the Tamil bourgeois leaders will be extremely fragile. On previous occasions he agreed with the Tamil leaders on various proposals. But abandon them latter with the first wave of protest from the Sinhala pressure groups. JR has, so far, not been able to come out with his proposals even to the government parliamentary group. He has asked the UNPers to be patient and only mentioned about the Indian assurance for containing Tamil youth groups. He knows very well his right-wing mass base cannot in anyway stomach the granting of autonomy to the Tamils of the North and the East nor the full citizenship rights to Kandyan Tamils. Moment these proposals are announced Sirima, Premadasa and the narrow minded chauvinists will start agitations directly and indirectly. Thus it should be very clear that JR neither gets the capitalists to agree nor have a sufficient social base to implement the so called agreements.
Can he go for elections and use that as a means of consolidating an agreement among various capitalist groups? But elections will open the door for masses to come into action and that will release forces which can threaten the entire capitalist systems. Election itself can take the form of a civil war, leading to divisions and conflicts in the Sinhala areas. That means it is difficult for JR to agree to hold elections under present conditions. So, all these point only to one thing. That JR’s regime is drifting into uncontrollable crisis.
It is in this context that we must understand the real meaning of the negotiations that have started with the Rajiv-JR summit meeting. It is true that Rajiv came to power on the basis of the sympathy for his dead mother also. Still, we cannot underestimate the general anti— imperialist, pro Indian Nationalist feeling expressed through this vote. However he has no choice but to shift towards the West and abide by the World Bank/IMF economic and socio-political direction. Present economic crisis does not leave any other option for him. In the meantime he could see the gigantic social unrest developing in India.
The Tamil youth organizations and their activities in Tamil Nadu are having influence on the Tamil and other Indian masses which are far too dangerous for Rajiv’s liking. In the same time JR is made to realize that India and Soviet bloc countries are very important as far as Sri Lankan sagging economic situation is considered. In particular Tea sales cannot be saved without their help. Also neither Americans nor any other western power is going to back him against total opposition from India. If the Tamil National question is developing into a Marxist threat then the obvious thing for him is to seek the support of the Indian bourgeoisie. This is no doubt the advice he got from his imperialist masters. They must have agreed that the struggle of the Tamil masses is influencing the Sinhala masses and a combined island wide struggle may develop and everything should be done to face this.
Thus it is not very difficult for us to understand the basic nature of the agreement reached between JR and Rajiv. With definite backing from imperialism they have agreed to follow a common strategy to suppress the left moving forces in Southern India including Sri Lanka. For this, obviously there is complete backing from Tamil Nadu bourgeoisie too. What are the basic features of the agreement? A semblance of a solution to the Tamil National question should be presented to the Tamil people; at least neutralizing the Tamil mass lobby both in India and Sri Lanka. This will give a breathing space for them to round up the Tamil youth groups and suppress the leftward drive among the Tamil masses both here and the Tamil Nadu. Thus JR will be free to deal with the rising unrest in the South and to go ahead with the implementation of IMF/WB proposals for reducing mass consumption and for privatization of the economy. Rajiv also will have more freedom to go ahead with his programe of cuts and privatization of the economy against the proletarian mass movement. This is their common dream!
Of course there are differences among JR, Rajiv and the Tamil leaders. JR has no intention of becoming a vassal of Rajiv nor wants to lose the Western contacts he has developed and endanger his right flank. Rajiv does not want to let go the chance to get a better foothold in Sri Lanka nor wants to create dissatisfaction among the Tamil capitalist classes. On the other hand Tamil leaders are nursing their alternate plans within this general scheme of things. Neither the pro-West comprador elements nor the “nationalist” sections, orientated towards Indian capitalism are interested in an ambiguous existence within the state of JR. They will not immediately break with the Tamil youth organizations to be with JR. They will try to preserve “the Tamil National Unity” and will make use of any concessions won towards achieving their own goal. They will not shed the suspicion and distrust they have for the Sinhala bourgeois leader. Once, at least district powers with mere co—ordination at provincial level are given, Tamil leaders will make use of this for a separation in one way or another, under their reactionary leadership. Finally they will abandon the so-called ’Tamil National Unity" to suppress the Tamil youth organizations, sometimes, may be seeking even the help of the Sinhala regime in the South.
So, there are several interests in conflict with the present process of negotiations. JR will try to get Rajiv to agree to a mere semblance of devolution in return for the suppression of Tamil youth organizations. With that, devolution will be only on paper with JR’s racist reactionary regime consolidating strongly in Tamil areas. Rajiv, on the other hand expects at least some real powers to Sri Lankan Tamil leaders in order to satisfy Madras middle class. Also he needs some assurances that the Americans and Israelis will have no further intrusions. Such assurance will satisfy his Russian friends too.
Tamil bourgeois leaders will want enough political power in their hands to out-bid the militant youth organizations. They have little faith in a unity with JR. But they do not want national revolutionary war to unfold, displacing them from the leadership. Instead if they could get a tangible concession, then that will give them enough prestige to control the Tamil mass movement.
Negotiated constitutional change for devolution of political power means that the Tamil bourgeois leaders will be able to move with their conservative peasant support base, undermining the interest of the militant Tamil youth. If they get a share of the reactionary military, police apparatus in their hands then that will be a definite step towards a separate state under fresh neo-colonial enslavement. Because. Even within the Tamil bourgeoisie, the conservative comprador sections will emerge into dominance. Devolution of power from above in a cold conservative manner will necessarily give more importance to the comprador elite. This tendency will be enhanced by the economic situation that prevails under JR. With the present open economic policy with private sector calling the tune, district councils or any other regional power will not be mere devolution of political and administrative powers. Tamil bourgeoisie will see to that it leads to the separation of economic activity.
Centrifugal tendencies based on a separate economic formation meant separating district or the region from the centre. The Tamil bourgeoisie will want to continue a better and a closer understanding with imperialism. Thus the centrifugal tendencies based on a separate economic formation means separating the district or the region from the centre. The Tamil bourgeoisie will want to continue a better and a closer understanding with imperialism. Thus the centrifugal forces will be more powerful than that existed in the OCEC, where things became so shady, even the Finance Minister had to ask for fresh power to make inquiries into the activities which undermine the interest of the country.
Tamil bourgeoisie, whether those orientated towards imperialist metropolitan centers or those, evolving towards Indian big capitalists, will try to use every opening they got through the devolution to collaborate with the external capitalist world. Open economic policy will tilt the balance towards those who want ties with metropolitan centers. This will propel the province towards separate relation with imperialist economic system. Thus however small it may be the devolution of power under Tamil reactionary bourgeois hegemony, obtained from JR within his open economic policy in a cold conservative manner will certainly result in separation of the Tamil areas into a reactionary imperialist out—post over the heads of Tamil workers and peasants and the Tamil youth. It will not even be a partial victory for the Tamil national liberation struggle. Rather it will be a cold counter revolution from above disarming the Tamil youth and suppressing the Tamil workers and peasants to sell the Tamil Elam to American imperialism.
In the whole process there will not be any autonomy or self determination as far as the Tamil workers and peasants are concerned. Reactionary Tamil bourgeoisie will say good—bye to the “Nation” the moment they lay hands on any kind of substantial state power. They will disarm the youth, workers and peasants getting help from anybody. Tamil reactionary bourgeoisie will not hesitate to offer a real military and naval base to imperialism in order to move towards their dream “of a Singapore or an Israel”. Even those sections that are looking towards India and Tamil Nadu will only have a secondary place.
However, the tragedy as far as Tamil nationalists are concerned is that even these Tamil capitalist dreams will not be successful. If Tamil left moving forces and the southern workers and peasants were incapable of arresting the flow what is more likely to happen is the betrayal of the Tamil liberation struggle to JR’s Bonapartism for nothing. Over the blood of Tamil youth JR, Rajiv and Tamil reactionary leaders will arrive at a peace which will give JR sufficient confidence to face the radical opposition in the south. That means primarily the Sinhala and Tamil workers in the South.
The Tamil masses who have made such gigantic sacrifices for the sake of their freedom cannot expect any good whether from Bonapartism or from Tamil capitalists. Tamil youth definitely made mistakes in both aims as well as methods of struggle. That we have pointed out repeatedly. But in the end they were arming the “Tamil Masses” in general; they were forced to do so. They have a definite influence within the Sinhala oppositional masses. At the same time even Rajiv has seen the danger of having left moving Tamil youth freely operating in India.
But the most important factor which compelled the government to some kind of negotiations is the growth of the left movement in Sri Lanka. Of course the left front of 3 parties (CPSL, LSSP and SLMP) did not move as far as the NSSP to accept the right of self determination of the Tamil people, but they came out very clearly on the side of regional autonomy. It is very clear to us that our unbending and uncompromising stand for the rights of Tamil and for a united struggle to throw—out the regime of JR was fruitful. The working class agitation was growing and goes without much regards to the communal cry. If JR continued with his cuts and privatization programe, things would aggravate to a combined struggle inviting both Sinhala and Tamil masses. In the context of this development JR and his propagandists screamed of a “North-South Marxist conspiracy”. Even the Anuradhapura incident did not arouse communal violence; it only intensified the thrust against the government. Right wing attempts to turn to Marshal Law with arming of semi-fascist youth produced a general revulsion. Thondaman was forced to start a strike demanding protection for workers. Thus facing unrest JR turned to negotiations in order to neutralize the Tamil liberation struggle. He has only one aim that is to disarm and demobilize Tamil masses with the help of Indian and Tamil capitalists. So that he can deal with the southern working class and other radical forces.
We appeal that both Sinhala and Tamil left should come together to expose this conspiracy against the exploited classes of all communities. If anyone is participating in the negotiations then it should be with the hope of exposing JR and smashing the counter revolutionary compromise between JR and reactionary Tamil capitalism. Of course left in Sinhala areas should unconditionally defend any concession given to the Tamil people. They must be in the forefront against Sinhala racists who will oppose any concession. That will go a long way to educate the masses. But there cannot be any question of supporting JR. That amounts to supporting the murderous plan of Bonapartism against the working masses of both communities. No, there cannot be any support from the left to the counter revolutionary plan of crisis ridden Bonapartism. We must expose the Bonapartism conspiracy. Both Sinhala and Tamil leftists should come together to put forward a real democratic solution to the Tamil national question. In particular it is the duty of left movement to show clearly that a unity based on complete democratic understanding between the two nations is possible.
The NSSP has put forward that a unity can be preserved on the basis of the following principles:
1. Equality of all citizens (all racial religious and communal discrimination should stop.) Full citizenship to all permanent residents.
2. Autonomy for regions (every distinct set of people have the right to govern themselves)
3. Right of self determination (acceptance of the right of every nation to decide on its own destiny, unity should be entirely on a voluntary basis).
On this basis we have put forward the following programe:
1. Right of secession is
included in the constitution in order to make it absolutely clear that unity is based on voluntary decision of both parties. That will express very clearly the in alienate right of Sri Lankan Tamils to a homeland in this country. Also, it means no one dominates and
that there is un enforced un coaxed and ungrudging unity.
2. Equality and end of discrimination in citizen ship, jobs, education, land allocation, etc. and particularly in the national armed forces. Granting of citizenship to all Kandyan Tamils.
3. Autonomy for Tamil speaking areas with powers over regional security or police functions, colonization and education etc. Home Guards or Defence militias for minorities in other areas.
4. Right to use Tamil in dealing with the central government.
5. Fare share of national income to develop Tamil areas.
On this basis it is possible to build a united left movement throughout the country challenging the government. From those who keep faith in negotiations with JR’s Bonapartism, we have to ask what guarantee will there be for the safety of Tamil people.
There is no question whatsoever that today wide scale massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka is avoided because Tamils are armed. Of course the main reason is the strength of the working class. Kandyan Tamil workers are asking for arms and even Thondaman insists on armed Home Guards. These shows very clearly even Tamil Cabinet ministers defend the arming of Tamils for safety. We have to ask the government, and also the Tamil capitalists; what will be the future of armed Tamils of North and East? What will happen to the Tamil Home Guards in the upcountry and elsewhere? Are these gentlemen capable of integrating the Tamils by at least creating a Tamil regiment and handing over a separate armoury to this regiment? Now that there are Sinha, Gemunu, Gajaba regiments, will there be at least a regiment in the name of a Tamil leader during the colonial period i.e. Sankili, Ramanathan etc? Are they going to continue with the Tamil Home Guards as a regular feature? These are very relevant questions because the Tamil people should have a right to exist before they discuss anything further. Bonapartism has no answer. That is why JR announces nothing.
Failure of JR could lead to a threat from the right. If JR collapses without dissolving parliament, Premadasa could come to power with majority backing. Or there could be a right—wing conspiracy. In any case there is no solution from the right except provoking the inevitable civil war with possible foreign interventions. In any case left parties and the working class organizations should be prepared to take up the challenge.
On the other hand JR may be forced to dissolve parliament and may expect the new parliament to come to a consensus. But that will only postpone the crisis and the instability will continue to grow. Left may make use of the elections to present an alternative. We must show the people of all communities that the real way out is through overthrowing this capitalist power and the establishment of a revolutionary left government. Such a government will be based on workers’, peasants’ and soldiers’ councils with devolution of power and democracy at highest level. In addition such a government will get the support of the left-moving sections of the Tamil masses i.e. the workers and peasants. This means Tamil Nation too will split isolating the Tamil bourgeois leadership. Once the unity between Tamil and Sinhala workers is built through the unity of the left parties based both on Sinhala and Tamil areas, strong political basis will be laid for a united country. Confidence in the class unity will over—ride national sentiments on the other hand the implementation of the above programe will consolidate the unity without damaging the national identity of any community of Sri Lanka. Under such a regime there won’t be any terrorizing of civilians anywhere.
At the same time Left government will put a stop to the so-called open economy. All large capitalist property including import—export wholesale trade and banking will be nationalized. Under such conditions devolution of political and administrative power will not result in centrifugal tendencies. On the contrary now the economic pressure will be towards closer participation. Implementation of the above mentioned programe will consolidate the confidence among all communities and as such full participation of all people can be obtained. Planned economy will be a source of unity between the two nations and other communities opposed to the imperialist dictated open economic policy.
We will be able to establish such a government only by meeting the challenge of Indian capitalist too. If we are going to be successful Indian capitalist will really intervene in Sri Lanka, (probably under the pretext of saving “democracy”) with full backing from imperialist masters. In that even Tamil left and worker organizations will be the real platform through which we can appeal to the Indian workers and peasants thus extending the revolutionary appeal to the subcontinent. Even now it is the duty of the Tamil leftists to take the real picture behind Rajiv-JR talks to the people of Tamil Nadu. We must expose an attempt by Indian capitalists to collaborate with JR to suppress the Tamil youth under the pretext of a solution. We must expose the attempt to evict the Tamil refugees without any guarantee for safety.
If the Sinhala and the Tamil left could come together for such united coordinated campaign both here and in India then victory will be assured.
VBK
10th June, 1985