What Was Behind The Vijaya Kumaratunga Murder?

Vijaya Kumaratunga and JR Jayewardene

By Rajan Hoole -September 6, 2014

Rajan Hoole

Political Murders, the Commissions and the Unfinished Task – 13

We suggest that what was behind the Kumaratunge (VK) murder was not the presidential election several months away, but his support for the solution to the ethnic problem under the Indo-Lanka Accord. To attribute presidential rivalry as the cause of his demise is to trivialise the tragedy. He had almost no chance of becoming president in 1988. If power had been his sole aim, Premadasa would have welcomed him into the UNP. In pitting his charisma and popularity on the side of socialist ideals and a radical vision of ethnic harmony, he was going against the grain of Southern politics. This was his greatness.

His base was again in the same poor working-class areas in which Premadasa had his, and in which Premadasa too had built up his following. It was here that the JVP too was recruiting. Neither Premadasa nor Kumaratunge sought to confront the JVP, which is fair enough. The JVP’s anti-Indian position was a recent volte- face – a quick means to power. The JVP had long maintained regular contact with the Indian High Commission (IHC) and its position as late as 1986 was that the Tamil problem should be resolved with Indian help. This link is not at all surprising in an underground party, which may any time need at least room for refuge in a neighbouring country. In 1987 Premadasa had also staked his drive for power on the anti-Indian cry, creating room for some temporary accommodation between him and Wijeweera, except that in the long run it had to be him or Wijeweera, not both.

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