Ceylon Today Editorial

JVP ‘s SHABBY TREATMENT OF CHITHRANGANIE

Sunday 15th November 2015

George Orwell once wrote, "In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."

As a Cold War writer Orwell was against authoritarianism and the socialism that was brimming in Russia during the era. However, he also faced an identity crisis as a colonial police officer in Burma. If he were alive today to witness the predicament concerning the Wijeweera family and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, it would have definitely helped him pick a side.

Chithranganie Wijeweera broke silence recently by audaciously suing the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna charging that the party had violated the provisions of the Intellectual Property Act of the country by printing and distributing seven of her late husband's books. Chithranganie in the past said that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna did not pay attention to her and her family and only paid them an allowance of Rs 5,000. That amount was later increased by twofold, but the family of Rohana Wijeweera, the founder of the party, continued to face hardships. She was promised a house in relation to which former JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe said, the party had allocated an amount of Rs 10 million for the family of their former comrade.

To the general populace, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is in disarray and is on the knife's edge of being consumed by chaos. Once a proud Marxist party which scoffed at the defections in the two major political parties of the country, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the United National Party which are now the proud owners of their own defections.

After the 1971, 1988 and 1989 insurrections the party saw the exodus of several party members. The exodus commenced with their firebrand member Wimal Weerawansa who left the party to join their opponents the SLFP by creating the National Freedom Front. He was followed by several other small time members such as Kumar Gunaratnam who initiated the Frontline Socialist Party. However, the biggest letdown of the century to the party was when its former leader Somawansa Amarasinghe left the party this year following the presidential election.

Wijeweera's wife claims that even if the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna had collected funds that amounted to a staggering sum of Rs 10 million to purchase a house for her family, it had never materialized.

Chithranganie earlier asked whether the JVP was collecting funds from overseas and international sources. Now she has gone before the courts over the intellectual property of her late husband. She claims that the party has printed and sold seven books by her late husband and had earned its income since he disappeared on 13 November 1989. If these claims are true and if it in actuality something similar was perpetrated without the Wijeweera family's approval, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has certainly breached the provisions of the Intellectual Property Act and should be held accountable for their actions.

The Sri Lanka Navy recently granted a six month period of refuge to the Wijeweera family. Who would look after them thereafter, is a question which should be an answered by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, as Rohana Wijeweera was the founder of the party where they are standing their ground. Would the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna denounce their Marxist heritage and adopt a legacy of elitism and capitalism?

Another question that has to be answered is regarding the ultimate fate of the revenue that was collected by the party in printing and selling seven books written by Rohana Wijeweera.
Regardless of this, the socialist history in Sri Lanka will record Chithranganie Wijeweera as the first widow of a socialist leader to take a socialist party, which was founded by her late husband to the Court.