Everything elegantly pushed into the future

During the last few weeks, the Mahinda regime had to face several defeats. The most important loss was undoubtedly the death of Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.

As a person from a Tamil speaking Catholic community, he was a great defender of the chauvinist war mongering government. Also, he was a remarkable populist politician who won the esteem of the enemy. He worked tirelessly for the cause he was committed to.

This is precisely the reason for Tamil militants to strike him down. As far as the Tamil militants are concerned, Hector has been removed from the Trojan regime!

Then, the second tragedy for the Government was the break-up of the JVP.

Mahinda came to power with the support of the mobilization of all battalions of the JVP. At that stage, Wimal appeared to be the undisputed superstar of the party. Nobody would have dreamt at that stage that he could lose the strings of the party, and get thrown out in this manner.

Popular JVP leader

Wimal, as the popular leader of the JVP, was a great asset to Mahinda because Wimal could bring the JVP forces to defend the Government whenever it was crucial to do so. Now Wimal has lost the party, though he can still muster the support of a section of the upper class Sinhala chauvinists.

However he is useless as a controller of the Sinhala plebian discontent. Of course Mahinda may get a majority in Parliament; but he will definitely loose access to the poor Sinhala youth. This was the second defeat for the Mahinda regime.

Then there were several reports from India depicting new developments that may not be pleasant to the Mahinda regime. The Indian premier has given a hearing to Vaiko, the pro-Tamil liberation politician from Tamil Nadu and denied any support to the military efforts of the Mahinda regime.

It is not clear how seriously the Indian PM took the suggestions made by Vaiko and also, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. But the fact that the central government is concerned about the noise made by Tamil Nadu politicians is a serious matter indeed. In particular, in the context where the Gandhi family is making peace moves towards the LTTE.

Fourthly the Government failed to make any real victory in the war, as promised before the Sinhala New Year. They have failed to capture Madhu so far, and could not move significantly in any of the battle fronts.

The best that could be said was stated by Ranga of Lakbimanews. Ranga said

“the security forces are poised to continue with the gradual strangulation of the LTTE through regular attrition attacks. Yet the Tigers are not a spent force, at least for the moment. All this portends that bitter battles are ahead as the troops move further into Tiger territory.”

Thus every thing has been elegantly pushed into the future. But I believe that the most devastating blow came from the side of the leading trade unions.

Mahinda made several attempts to have a dialogue with leading trade unionists in order to form a stable collective communication forum with them. He could not achieve that mainly because of his war mongering policy. As long as the Government carries on a military policy it puts all working people in acute misery and insecurity; no compromise is possible.

The document issued by Bala Thampo on behalf of the CMU, explains in detail the problems faced by workers after Mahinda became the President.

Consensus

There is a consensus among leading trade unions to support the perspective given by Bala Thampo. This appeal has been sent to all important trade union centres, both locally and internationally.

In the meantime the split in the JVP will put Lal Kantha and the JVP trade unions in a position opposed to that of the Mahinda regime. It is possible for a new common action front to emerge in the trade union sector. That depends on how far Lal Kantha is prepared to drop his version of Sinhala chauvinism!

May Day is around the corner and this time around, May Day could very well be a pointer to the mass alignments in the coming period. It is necessary to protest against intolerable inflation, the war mongering policy of the Government and the agenda enforced by the global capital.

The May Day march organised by the CMU, CBEU, and the UFL and led by Bala Thampo, M.R. Shah and Linus Jayathilaka could be the starting point for a series of such protests.

This march will start around 1 pm at Galle Road, close to the CMU office and the meeting will be at Hyde Park. I want to participate at this event.