When will civil society be allowed to prevail?

by Vickramabahu Karunaratne

(November 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Still, the effect of the defeat of the Tamil liberation insurrection could be seen through out the Lankan society. The depression and misery is quite evident in that even supporters of the government are forced to admit the suffering of the people. The views expressed by Pilleyan, Siddharthan were dramatically reported in local and foreign media. The government denied the presence of oppression. In particular, it rejected the report of the attack, but the incident of vandalism at the Jaffna public library is publicized even by the United National Party - the soft opposition. Accordingly there is a state of an alien military occupation in the Tamil homeland, and all degradations one has to undergo in an alien occupied territory are present there. There are reports of discrimination, humiliation, rape, abductions, disappearances and killings. At least, when are they going to send the army to barracks and allow civil society to prevail? This is one question common to all those who are concerned about rehabilitation and normalcy. Lack of autonomy is an entirely separate question. There could be a debate on that. But people should be allowed to return to their homes and start day-to-day living as normal humans. Am I correct, or am I to be shouted down for extreme Trotskyism?.


Huge debts

While such cries are normal in the Tamil homeland, the situation elsewhere is no better. The government is tied down with huge debts; a fall out of the war. Global powers have taken Mahinda by the collar and push him along the path of their agenda. Power he has accumulated through the war is utilized to control the resistance to that agenda. IMF advised the government to cut down the budget deficit to something close to 5%. In order to achieve this, it suggested among other things, a reduction of the education burden. Apparently, education is to be a service that one should buy from the market. Even the government universities should be prepared to earn from teaching and consultations. At the same time, private universities are to be upgraded by the participation of the ministry. A similar policy is to be implemented in relation to other services as well. Irrespective of the commitment shown by the health minister to old populist views, the top officials appear to be working on a different agenda. They are more informed than the health minister about the agenda of drug companies. Obviously, the health minister may have to leave if he does not fit perfectly into the global agenda. The Postal Department, Electricity Board and other such government maintained social services will also have to obey the laws of the market economy. The masses are in for a period of cuts and pains. If they expected that the death of Prabhakaran will bring prosperity and happiness then they were wrong. Of course the calculations made at centres of global capital indicate that Lanka has gone up in prosperity.

What a fraud?

Power and Energy Minister, Patali Champika Ranawaka said a few days back that if the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation decided not to supply residual oil to the Ceylon Electricity Board at a concessionary rate, the public might have to bear the additional cost incurred by the CEB. Also, Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake said that it was the responsibility of undergraduates to do whatever meagre jobs available to them without being a burden to their parents and country. He further said that university students do various odd jobs in other countries to cover up their personal expenses. Both these ministers expressed clearly the government intention to cut welfare measures already enjoyed by the people. Working people heavily depend, on the travel subsidy and low energy supply to the households. If this is cut, it will intensify the agitation for higher wages and the cost of living allowance. Students depend on Mahapola grants for their survival. Of course already many of them do odd jobs in addition, to get out of poverty. Some of them secretly do full time jobs, and study only in evenings! Obviously the cut of grants to students will create a new rebellion of the youth.

The government cannot blame anybody except itself for the unrest that is developing. It is a natural outcome of the situation. The JVP had reacted to its student base. But whether the JVP is there or not, the struggles would have continued. Social democratic tendency too has taken the developing situation seriously. In their interventions they have indicated that the JVP which pushed unashamedly, the Mahinda regime to the genocidal war, is equally responsible for the miserable situation that the country is in. On the other hand, it is possible that the mobilization that JVP achieves from student unrest could be used in future to oppose the struggle of Tamil liberation. That was what the JVP did in 1989.