Some Thoughts on the Political Situation in Sri Lanka

Commentary by M. Thangavel, United Lankan Workers Party (Sri Lankan Section of the RCIT), 18 June 2018, www.thecommunists.net

When we look at the current situation in Sri Lanka and worldwide, I must say it is not possible to forget to talk about imperialism. Many countries, respectively the governments of these countries deny talking honestly about imperialism as such. It is very correct to say that all countries campaign according to the agenda of imperialists which means that some rule but most countries obey, including Sri Lanka. Certain countries in the world today which are darlings of the imperialists have also experiments with very destructive and refined missiles (like the imperialists do). It could be a rehearsal for the next world war. What the world and the mankind needs is not destructive missiles but peaceful unity. The destructive situations in the present world are developing in a tempo which is as high as never before. We, the poor people will have to face its destructive impact and we need to be the ones to beat it from different angles.

Imperialism and the NPOs

Everybody who was born on this earth should have the right to enjoy human rights, freedom and a peaceful life. But the proletariat and the oppressed find this credo confined only to words. It is a normal situation for people in “underdeveloped” (semi-colonial) countries to face lifethreatening situations, oppression and exploitation by imperialism very seriously. This is not a surprise. We live in a class society. We live in the last epoch, the most destructive and wardriven epoch of capitalism. Semi-colonial countries which want to act in favour of imperialist forces have to act according to capitalism and the agenda of imperialist nationally and internationally. So far the capitalist puppet leaders like the bourgeois politicians in Sri Lanka have failed to provide regular and adequate solutions to issues faced by the working class and proletariat socially, economically and politically because their sole aim is exploitation and they have no other alternative.

Non-Profit Organisations, including the petty-bourgeois ones, critisize that no decisive steps have  been taken by the so-called leaders in Sri Lanka and in other countries relevant for Sri Lanka to solve the countries problems like corruption, exploitation and racial war. However, the truth is that these organizations do not take side with us, the exploited and oppressed people but rather obey under the rule of imperialist logic. The critisize a system which is supported by them and which is also profitable for them. Money raised by NPOs for Sri Lanka is mainly concentrated in the hands of the NPOs and only very few percent of the funds will reach us poor people in Sri Lanka.

In addition even those petty-bourgeois politicians and political activists who honestly want to help the oppressed people, who travel to semi-colonial countries in order to help have a wrong understanding and with this a wrong method how to help. They ignore the necessity to kill the beast, to smash imperialism as such. They ignore the necessity to organize the armed uprising by the workers and oppressed. Instead of helping the poor in Sri Lanka and other semi-colonial countries they are confusing them. It is equal for a blind person who wants to direct another blind.

However, they know about things such as world bank loans upon the blessings of imperialists, the rulers of world economy which made our country bankrupt. And it is hard to understand what the political leaders of Sri Lanka and the NPOs are trying to improve by having tours to Japan, China, Taiwan and Canada asking them to end the oppression over and over again. By today Sri Lanka has become the best “customer country”, one of the best countries to deal with imperialists which means one of the best countries to be economically exploited by imperialists. The consequence of this “success” of being such a great “customer country” means:  Rocket-like rising prices of commodities, massive unemployment, weak educational system, salary anomalies respectively very small salaries, large gap between rich and poor and other things which affect mainly the workers and oppressed.

The money rules. One simple example for this is that in order to provide further education to a rural child who studies in a rural school in Sri Lanka, all the equipment such as desks, chairs should be provided to the school for free. However, the equipment costs money and will not be payed by the state. Maybe some NPOs will try to collect money to help the child, maybe not. In the end there will not be a school which can be visited by the child. The rural child will stay uneducated although officially Sri Lanka offers free education.

Racism and National Oppression

Furthermore, the racial issue respectively the national issue is a big thing in Sri Lanka. Oppressed minorities like the Tamil people have no fundamental rights, not even the right to use their mother tongue. It takes only few seconds to understand the consequences of national and racial oppression. The political leaders who came into power in this country since the 1950s, all of them failed to provide a reasonable response to the Tamil people but rather opened the road to a brutal oppression of the Tamil people.

A good example to show how widespread general racism is in Sri Lanka, we just need to remember that recently 17 schools, 141 houses and 113 business places in one small town and additional 62 houses, 91 business places as well as vans and cars in another small town have been affected by racist attacks. Lorries, three wheelers and motor cycles have completely been burnt in a terrorist attack directed against Muslim people. This attack was done by a group of racists in Kandy area in March 2018. More than 300 families have been made homeless by the wave of anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka this year.

The racist activists have links to the government. Three members of parliament have connections with the racist lootings in Kandy Area. This was even reported in the media. However the media raised its voice to protect, not to attack the capitalist party leaders who were involved in the racist lootings.

We see it as our utmost duty to organize the workers, the poor, the Tamil people and the Muslim people like all other oppressed. If democracy would be a real thing, all of us would live in peaceful unity. However, the capitalist class society knows only democracy for the rich, for the imperialists and their lackeys. We fight not only against the capitalist governments but also against those opportunist leaders of the labour movement, the so-called left who are open towards racism and national oppression, who ignore the demands and needs of the Tamil people, the Muslism people and all other oppressed. The class struggle from the workers and oppressed against the capitalist rulers, against imperialism, the fight for socialism will let these “left” fall from their hot plate directly into the fire.