Sumanasiri Liyanage’s Mis-“Reading Election Manifestos”
Dr. Laksiri Fernando
If there is any positive contribution, at this stage of the forthcoming presidential elections, in what Sumanasiri Liyanage has outlined as “Reading Election Manifestos,” then that is his mentioning of several social movements that emerged in the recent past, raising several socio-economic and political issues and opposing the repressive nature of the Rajapaksa regime.
Even here he has segregated them into two, and conveniently undermined the first as “urban and elitist.” He has added that they work within the “economic-legal structure of neoliberalism.”
As far as I am concerned, a democracy movement, by definition is a multiclass movement. Therefore, his segregation is not only counterproductive but also divisive. However, he has another point in vaguely saying that what was present before 1994 is now absent.
To him that is the “power-sharing element” or “going beyond the 13th Amendment.” In my generic terms, what is lacking is multiculturalism or multi-ethnicity. This is something I have pointed out in my previous articles. To me, any forceful democracy movement in Sri Lanka should be both multiclass and multicultural/multiethnic. What specific elements that such a movement should entail is a matter left for the participants. What is important first is the participation and encouragement of diverse communities in such a movement and not mere lip service.
Connection
What is particularly mistaken in his interpretation of the present situation, in my view, is his failure to see a connection between the emergent social movements and the common opposition. Not that he is completely oblivious to such a connection, but he seems to believe that the common opposition has already betrayed the social cause which I don’t subscribe to. His analysis or interpretation is too much of leftish or pseudo-leftist.
