Rajpal's Column

JVP's not so angry young men 

Drop a coin, and the "statue'' comes to life, and greets the giver with a salute.

Among the sights now familiar in Colombo are people talking to themselves. That's until you realise that they are talking to their hands-free phones. Recently, a man was enacting such a drama in Thunmulla junction. 

He was so lost in his conversation on the hands free set, that he didn't realise he was staging a stand-up comedy in full public view.

These cell-phone talkers represent a facet of life that is too difficult to ignore. They represent the economy's "upside''. 

Their phone-bills must be enormous, but somebody pays them. 

They are not representative of the larger and more tangible reality. 

Rising gas prices, an overloaded system of transport, rising consumer prices doesn't seem to bother the economy's upstart sections.

But, even the JVP, which is knocking on the doors of power, seems to be unable to ignore the "upstart factor.'' The JVP finds itself becoming fast "internalized'', speaking to the nabobs and the cheerleaders of the "new economy.'' 

If JVP thought the present government represented the capitalist ogre, they have a funny way of showing it. 

This government went further than any UNP government by way of privatizing public enterprise. Now, this same dispensation wants to privatize the Ceylon Electricity Board. 

The JVP swears that this "government has to go.'' 

But, the JVP still goes to lunch with the government's Chief negotiators, who have recently said "we don't want to negotiate under threat.''

"Don't want to negotiate under threat'' doesn't refer to the boys in the Wanni. The reference is to Ranil Wickremesinghe backed by Rohitha Bogollagama, and such regular board-room terrorists.

The JVP wants on the one hand, to be seen as a politically savvy bunch. But for whose benefit? In recent times, the JVP has been courting the bourgeoisie of Colombo, addressing issues such as the Police Commission, the Media Commission and such other matters that have little to do with the economy or the price of the basket of consumer goods.

The JVP was present when the OPA discussed a new amendment to the constitution. The JVP's truculence is now deep in shadow. The party that JR Jayewardene referred to in his Hambanthota speech as a collective of "animals and brutes'' has been transmogrified into a genteel tribe that negotiates matters such as Police and Media Commissions in polite clipped tones of men of accomplishment.

In many ways, the JVP is psychologically veering closer to the man with the hands-free set. 

The JVP is becoming technocratic. Having arrived at the portals of parliamentary politics, the JVP now wants to show the two established parties that the new technocrats "somehow know democracy better than the hoary old party hurrah-boys of the past.''

The JVP is on the political learning curve. The party is eager to publicly display its idealism, as opposed to the expediency of the established political parties. But, it's doing so in a cultivated manner. "Hear ye'', says the JVP, "we play the system better than those who were in the system from the time your grandmothers were making kokis.''

But, to whom does this call sound better? To the man with the hand-free set.

If the JVP was making a pitch for the members of the hundreds of labour unions, which used to issue periodic statements when the JVP was negotiating with the Sirima led DJV, will the JVP dither about dislodging a government that privatized more public enterprises than the UNP did?

It can be said that if the JVP supports a no - trust motion and dislodges the government, a UNP government will follow, and that could benefit the man with the hands free more than anybody else. But, as things stand, a JVP government itself, might benefit the man with the hands-free set more. 

The JVP doesn't want to rock the boat. It wants to reassure the bourgeoisie including the OPA that the party is establishmentist, that there need not be any worry on that count. 

In fact the JVP seems to be determined to show it is more establishmentist than the UNP or the PA, that it believes that Police Commissions and Media Commissions and such democratically resonant devices can solve national problems.

So, as things stand, it is not out of character for the JVP not to support a no-trust motion against a government that privatized more than the UNP. 

It is not out of character for the JVP, which talks more about Police Commissions than about the price of food and fuel, to dither about a no-trust motion against the government. 

The JVP doesn't represent the radicalization of Sri Lankan politics anymore - at least not as things stand. The JVP represents the arrival of the angry young man at the feet of the man with the hands free set.

Inside the glass house

Editorial/ Opinion Contents