Wimal: Are You Reckless Marxist?

(April 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to Marx, religion is an expression of material realities and economic injustice. Thus, problems in religion are ultimately problems in society. Religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. It is used by oppressors to make people feel better about the distress they experience due to being poor and exploited. This is the origin of his comment that religion is the “opium of the masses” - but as shall see, his thoughts are much more complex than commonly portrayed.

However the course is different in Sri Lanka. What happening to last chapter of the Sri Lankan Marxists? Wimal Weerawansa the dissident JVP Parliament Group Leader , who acquired a resounding reputation along with his party for alleged double crossings, double deals and gross betrayals of the people while being within the Party , and charged now by his own Party as well, after his ousting , paid a visit to the Dalada Maligawa on last Sunday (20 April)

Weerawansa and his Party need not be reminded of their atrocious past ; Weerawansa’s desperate attempt earlier to form a so called ‘patriotic’ alliance after his rejection by the Party went only so far as to show the truth in the old adage that ‘patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel’. Now, his visit to the Temple to project a ‘holier than thou’ act is clearly understood by one and all as nothing more than a perfect piece of hypocrisy! In the light of the vicious attacks launched on the holiest of Buddhist shrines, the sacred Dalada Maligawa 19 years ago by the JVP.

It is therefore better that he and the JVP realize that people’s memories are not that short, although they may they can think they can fool their voters and the people with a pliant hypocritical tongue and a Billingsgate noise (voice) as they have done so far.
- Sri Lanka Guardian