- by Interviewer: Floyd Kermode
- The Guardian
- Issue #2127
A cost of living protest organised by the JVP in 2011. Photo: Vikalpa, Groundviews, Maatram, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) – flickr.com (CC BY-NC 2.0)
The National People Power coalition, the NPP, lead by the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have had a good year. In September, their candidate for President, leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the election after a runoff vote, and in November, the party won a two-thirds majority (see “Sri Lanka: Left presidential win” Guardian #2126, 25 November 2024). The Guardian caught up with the JVP’s Gihan Buddhika Weerasundara, media director for the presidential secretariat to discuss the result.
Guardian: Were you surprised by the win?
Gihan: Yes, I’m surprised. Pleasantly, of course. In my country we had 75 years control by another party. They always did corruption and bad things. My country has long been polluted by bad politics. It’s been difficult for a long time, but it’s great to see our hard work paying off!
Guardian: Why do you think you won so decisively?
Gihan: People really need some change. People need some turning point. they need a good life, sustainability, development. They need to make a good country for their children.
Guardian: Do you think the win was down to the situation, or the hard work of the JVP in the NPP?
Gihan: Here’s some background. For a long time, we tried to get some power. We tried some alliances, but they didn’t go right.
After those experiences we thought we’d fight alone. We fought the last two elections alone. We got only 3 per cent.
The difference this time is that we were in an alliance with like-minded groups, not different popular political parties with their own agendas.
Guardian: Will this election make the JVP more powerful in the NPP?
Gihan: No. We have the same political ideas as the community organisations in the NPP – like socialism, and communist ideals.
Guardian: How is the NPP going?
Gihan: It’s working well. We have so many young people working with us, well educated people. A lot of people don’t want political power or anything, they want the country to be in a better place.
Guardian: Besides your resounding win, what else was unusual about this election?
Gihan: Before, politicians divided people by religion, by caste, by money and/or class. …
Other parties got the votes of minorities, like Muslims or Tamils. They got the minority votes but they kept dividing people. In that case Muslims and Tamil people changed their vote to us.
There are Tamils and Muslims amongst our MPs.
The north part of the country has so much suffering. Thirty years ago they voted for the majority party, the party that won power.
This time we won the north part of the country. That’s the most unusual part of this election.
Guardian: Now that you’ve won the presidency and this big majority in parliament, what are the NPPs priorities?
Gihan: Our priority is in the name of the coalition – National Peoples Power! We will try to make Sri Lanka a better place, and treat all people equally. Ending political and other corruption is a top priority. We never want to use our political power to do bad things.
We will try to get government officials to understand this. For decades, government officials have been used to cooperating with political parties in corruption. So now corruption seems normal.
It’s good to have rules and enforcement mechanisms, but we need a change of mindset, so we’re going to educate the officials.
