{"id":85082,"date":"2024-11-16T03:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=85082"},"modified":"2024-11-16T12:50:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T16:50:02","slug":"marxism-is-not-a-set-philosophy-it-is-really-about-providing-answers-to-peoples-problems-at-a-particular-time-and-context-we-are-committed-to-doing-that-through-development-elimi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=85082","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMarxism is not a set philosophy. It is really about providing answers to people\u2019s problems at a particular time and context. We are committed to doing that through development, eliminating rural poverty, rooting out political corruption, achieving social justice and national unity We want to build a clean and beautiful Sri Lanka.\u201d \u2013 JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna [JVP or People\u2019s Liberation Front], which leads Sri Lanka\u2019s ruling National People\u2019s Power [NPP], could not have risen to power without widening its appeal and building a mass support base over the last few years, and the current political moment affords the party a chance to rewrite its history, general secretary Tilvin Silva said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you want to obtain power, you need a mass support base,\u201d he said on Friday (November 15, 2024), just as the NPP\u2019s resounding win in the November 14 general elections became evident.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Hindu at the party\u2019s headquarters in Battaramulla near Colombo, Mr. Silva called the election win \u201ca huge achievement\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, the victory in Jaffna and in the upcountry area, where we were able to defeat deeply entrenched traditional parties and political families. This gives us a real chance to build a united country,\u201d he said, referring to the JVP\u2019s historic win in the Tamil-majority northern district.<\/p>\n

The party that once vehemently opposed Tamils\u2019 political rights won three seats in Jaffna, outdoing traditional Tamil parties that were the community\u2019s main voice in national politics. <\/p>\n

In Nuwara Eliya district, in the central hill country that is home to Sri Lanka\u2019s famed tea estates and Malaiyaha Tamils who toil in them, the NPP won five seats and nearly 42% of the vote share.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Barely two months after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected President, the NPP fought Thursday\u2019s (November 14, 2024) election knowing it would win. \u201cEven those who were sceptical of us earlier began seeing that we were very committed to rebuilding the country, its political culture and economy,\u201d Mr. Silva said.<\/p>\n

Broadening the base<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe began appealing to more people just in the last one and a half months.\u201d However, the NPP did not project a two-third majority, which is hard to obtain in Sri Lanka\u2019s proportional representation system. On election day, Mr. Dissanayake said he expected \u201cstrong representation\u201d in parliament, and that two-thirds would not be necessary.<\/p>\n

Mr. Silva told local media on Friday (November 15, 2024): \u201cWe did not ask for a two-thirds majority. The public believed in us and gave us this power. Our responsibility is to carefully use this power and to safeguard their trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Set up in 2019, the NPP is a broad social coalition rather than a conventional electoral alliance of different parties. It identifies as a \u201cpolitical movement\u201d, comprising 21 diverse groups, including political parties, youth and women\u2019s organisations, trade unions and civil society networks. <\/p>\n

The JVP remains its chief constituent, making up its political core. All the same, party general secretary Mr. Silva did not run in the elections, deciding to keep the party and government separate.
\n\u201cThe main problem in our country was the political culture. The foundation of the grave economic crisis we suffered was this very political culture,\u201d he said, referring to political parties and groups \u201cfighting bitterly\u201d in the past for state resources, vehicles, \u201cto enrich their own families\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to defeat that culture, we felt it was important to keep that distinction between the party and the government.\u201d On the relationship among the party\u2019s influential politburo, the NPP, and the government, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s not as if we\u2019re different political groups taking different decisions. We work as one unit [on policy matters].\u201d<\/p>\n

Past vs. present<\/strong><\/p>\n

The JVP has seen considerable shifts in the last five decades. The party with Marxist-Leninist origins led two armed insurrections \u2014 in 1971 and in 1987-89. Its ideological emphasis changed from Marxism and redistributive justice in the 1970s to Sinhala chauvinism in the 1980s, when it resisted power-sharing with the Tamils.<\/p>\n

However, Mr. Silva contended that the party\u2019s history needed to be retold with context. \u201cThere is a wrong perception because our history was written by those who defeated us, the victors. Our path was not willingly chosen, it was forced upon us.\u201d Alluding to the allegations of brutal violence facing the JVP, he added: \u201cIt was not [our] action, but a reaction from our end. If the [state\u2019s] repression was armed, so was [our] response.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his view, the current political moment in Sri Lanka has opened up space to rewrite the story of not just the party, but also of the country, \u201cwithout characterising some as terrorists who took up arms for no reason\u201d. \u201cBut we want to tell this story not with words, but with our action. The present context gives a chance to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queried on concerns among sections that the \u201cMarxist party\u201d might resist the Dissanayake government\u2019s efforts to take forward the ongoing programme of the International Monetary Fund aimed at addressing Sri Lanka\u2019s debt vulnerabilities, Mr. Silva pointed to \u201cmisconceptions\u201d about Marxism. \u201cIt is not a set philosophy. Marxism is really about providing answers to people\u2019s problems at a particular time and context. We are committed to doing that through development, eliminating rural poverty, rooting out political corruption, achieving social justice and national unity that is important for our country. We want to build a clean and beautiful Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna [JVP or People\u2019s Liberation Front], which leads Sri Lanka\u2019s ruling National People\u2019s Power [NPP], could not have risen to power without widening its appeal and building a mass support base over the last few years, and the current political moment affords the party a chance to rewrite its …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘\u201cMarxism is not a set philosophy. It is really about providing answers to people\u2019s problems at a particular time and context. We are committed to doing that through development, eliminating rural poverty, rooting out political corruption, achieving social justice and national unity We want to build a clean and beautiful Sri Lanka.\u201d \u2013 JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85084,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85082\/revisions\/85084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}