Gunaratnam Abandons Devolution: Front Line Socialists Or Sinhala Nationalists?
By Kumar David -August 18, 2012
Prof. Kumar David
Despite some grumbling from comrades I kept up hope that the JVPbreakaway faction, now the Front Line Socialist Party (FLSP), would overcome the two birth defects of the JVP – infantile adventurism and narrowSinhala nationalism. Both have been widely written about and that relieves me of responsibility of producing a summary here. I intend to write today from within the FLSP’s own avowed standpoint, a Marxist paradigm, but I will not assume the reader is familiar with this background. Many people outside the cognoscenti are not familiar with the Marxist position on these issues to judge from the asinine comments that proliferate about Marx, Lenin, the national question (NQ), ultra-leftism and Marx’s crisis or catastrophe theory. Nevertheless rising curiosity in this nexus of persons and issues is recognition of its central relevance to a collapsing world. It is the NQ that will be my focus today and neo-liberalism, socialism and the like, only to the extent that they intrude upon the discussion.
What motivates this piece is a Premakumar Gunaratnam interview by Peter Boyle of website Links, “an international journal of socialist renewal” based in Australia. Gunaratnam is one of two FLSP leaders abducted by the Lankan state and tortured in a secret location, but rescued from assassination by the Australian High Commissioner. He holds an Australian passport and was hurriedly deported. The interview includes an account of the abduction and leaves the reader in no doubt who is behind this and similar white van abominations now commonplace in Lanka.
Though hopeful of some progress I never had expectation that a JVP off-shoot could gain a thorough Marxist understanding of self-determination. It seems to be beyond the grasp of even leading Tamil politicians, so what can you expect from a JVP rump? The inanities that Sumanthiran serves up as “internal and external self-determination” in Groundviews are a reminder that being a TNA leader does not ensure you have a clue about fundamentals. Though not asking for expertise from Gunaratnam and the FLSP I certainly was not prepared for a big let down. He has dashed hope that the FLSP could escape from narrow minded Sinhala nationalism and grasp what underlay Lenin’s exploration of the national question. I know that the FLSP follows these discussions with interest and this one reason for writing this piece.
