One one things

Its been a while since I went out of town with my parents. Uncle B has a place in Ranna, which is near Hambantota, and I’ve never been there before despite it being around for a couple of years. Last time the rents went down there I was not in the country and they returned with rave reviews. So I was looking forward to a long weekend after a couple of hectic weeks of work, and it was nice to leave town early in the day and avoid the annoying traffic. I didn’t sleep much the night before so I fell asleep as we passed Avissawela and woke up when we got to Silver Ray. I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed bc uncle B had promised an interesting breakfast stop, and Silver Ray would hardly count as interesting. Luckily we only stopped for a piss break and set off loaded with some iced coffee. About half an hour (or less) down the road from Ratnapura we pulled up outside a little place just outside Embilipitiya on the left of the road with completely wooden structures and furniture. As we walked in uncle B whispered that the owners are hardcore JVP chaps and that it’ll be interesting to get them talking. At the time i was more interested in the food; string hoppers, red rice, kurakkan pittu with some top quality kiri hodi, fish curry and fresh pol sambol. There were no tables in the place, just wooden chairs arranged in circles. We sat down in a corner and in between munches I overheard the owner’s son having a chat with a friend of his. “Wimal Sahodaraya”, “Mawubima paththaray”, “Mangala Samaraweera”, “Mahinda mahaththaya” were little snippets I heard. The son would have been in his mid 20s, thoroughly pleasant, always smiling and encouraging us to eat as much as we want. Uncle B waved him over, “ithin malli, kiyanna ko meh pathi wala thorathura gena.” The son grinned and asked if he’s referring to the political situation, uncle B nodded, and he was off.

The guy was quintessential JVP. I had only ever spoken to JVP proxies in the past, but this was as real as the real thing could get. He started off on how he had just got back from Colombo bc wimal sahodaraya had held a meeting in Nugegoda the day before, where he had said “everything there was to be said to the government”. The current grievence was the fact that the MR govt had accepted the defections from the UNP in order to protect them from being implicated in corrupt practices. This had severely irked the JVP leadership, MR’s lust for power had compromised the ppl’s faith in the government at a time when the military situation was on a high. He said that the JVP has been trying to highlight errors, injustices and trying to correct the govt when they screw up. When asked about the chances of getting complete power he said that at this stage it is unlikely, but until then they will continue to make the public aware of the govt’s errors in their role as the de-facto opposition leaders. Ranil’s leadership has been marginalised and has in turn marginalised the UNP, which has laid the platform for his own party to show the country that they are a strong, capable party leading the opposition. Thaththi asked him what the JVP would do, if and when they do get into power. He emphasized the need to use national resources, the minerals, the alleged oil, the fertile lands, all of these are more than enough for us to get by without taking loans from the West. We asked him whether this economic process will be led by the state, and interestingly he said that the market forces will be the main player since domestic capabilities certainly exist, but that at this stage corruption at the centre doesn’t allow any honest small businessman to make his mark. He kept going back to the importance of not being slaves to the West, about how previous governments have sold national resources and that now we’re up to our necks in debt and bugger all has taken place for the benefit of the country. He kept saying that honest political leadership is the key, and that the JVP has the bottom up political structure that can provide this stability and leadership. The political decision making in the JVP is apparently driven from the lowest levels of power, and communicated to the highest levels of decision making, with accountability and transparency all along. Seems mildly idealistic. Anyway this was interesting bc it seemed to be the anti-thesis to what I know of communism where the power structures are very much top-down, and that it takes very little for corruption (a broad definition thereof) to set in at the top. When asked about this he said that this could never happen, and that any corruption amongst the leadership is quickly quelled and pointed to Nihal Galappaththi (former JVP presidential candidate) who was recently evicted from the leadership following some little known misdemeanours on his part.

We then pointed out that it would be very difficult to ignore the fact the the US, the EU and the rest of the west is still the major player in the world economy, and being a small nation, surely we cannot completely alienate them? He agreed, but also said that global power structures are also undergoing change, and that countries like China, Venezuela and Iran are rising fast. The latter two were quite surprising, and then he went on to quote Chavez at the UN General Assembly, referring to the devil and the smell of “vedi beheth” (sulphur) following Bush’s speech the previous day. He said that oil power has allowed Venezuela to stand up to the US, and that we no longer need to be ruled by a quasi-imperialism of the West. He went on with his perfect Sinhalese rhetoric while we ran through a good many delicious strings between the four of us. What we kept going back to was the fact that JVP has never as yet put forward a clear indication of what constructive actitivities they would do when they do get power, they only ever seem to say that such and such is wrong, but never give a cohesive solution of their own. He never quite answered this, continually referring to the fact that the time is not right as yet. He did say that they need to be patient, that they will continue to put pressure on the government to maintain the “right” stance in all its activities. Amusingly he gave the example of the 4 ministries they ran in the 2004 government as “success stories”. Now anyone who thinks fisheries was a success must be smoking something thoroughly potent, and the same can be said of the other ministries (well not much to be done in culture), and while the 1000 tanks program was very visible and sensationalised, the actual outcomes were minimal. Even though the 4 ministries were completely ineffectual, the JVP rhetoric is such that ppl may well start to believe that hey they’re right, they were successful at the time. Even in terms of economics, there seemed to be an underlying confusion despite his plucky, colourful language. He seemed to waver between the need for state sponsored equality of opportunity and the need for market led efficiency, all without any external influence, I guess the capital is going to come from the oh-so-fertile soils.

The final issue that came up in discussion was the ethnic conflict. His answer to this started off positively, recognizing the futility of racial differentiation and the fact that the average tamil and sinhalese have no problem with one another. He did not however feel that there needed to be any change in political power structures, and insisted that the problem was an issue of terrorism, not of political imbalances between centre and regions. His answer was that the military needed to continue to push the LTTE into a corner, and force them to the negotiating table to lay down arms, and then the government’s duty is to ensure a proper distribution of “manawa himikam”, and that way everyone can live in a just manner under the laws of one country, in equality. I hadn’t heard that much rhetoric in a long time, and I don’t think I will do for a long time. But unfortunately that was about it, rhetoric. His arguments had little depth and solidity when the surface was scratched, but like Wimal W, he expressed it in such a clear and confident manner, that for a moment you almost believe it yourself. I was impressed with some of his knowledge, particularly of international politics, he was well versed in the developments in the Maoist conflict in Nepal and in new left politics in latin America. But I realised later that this would have been enhanced by listening to Wimal Sahodaraya the day before. His arguments were also quite clearly well drilled and trained, he’s probably heard the same stuff at heaps of lectures that grass roots organizers like him undergo. Nonetheless, it was a thoroughly interesting chat in what was an entirely pleasant environment despite the divergence of ideology between the two groups (he had another uncle friend who backed him up most of the way). We set off after an extended lunch lasting over 90mins, and enjoyed the rest of the drive. Ranna itself is fantastic, and our first day there pretty much shaped the pattern for the rest of the journey. No sooner we arrived all of us wasted no time in getting into the sea. It was baking hot and we had to run across the sand to save our soles. Unlike where we normally sea bathe ie. kinross, unawatuna, hix, there’s no reef or bay to temper the sea in Ranna. It was violent and unwelcoming, but once you get past the initial waves its a good deal calmer, and the water is clean and refreshing against the late morning heat. Over here you need to give the sea the respect she deserves, you need to be aware of exactly where you are relative to the shore and you need to be tuned into her subtle mood changes. If you do this, she’ll tolerate you. Just. Thaththi caught the rough end of a wave and twisted his hip as he was swept onto the beach, so we called it an afternoon and eased into three days of conversation, interspersed by outstanding meals, naps, sea baths, sunset walks and star gazing. Ranil may have been marginalized as a leader, but he sure wasn’t wrong calling this the Sri Lankan Riviera.