Sri Lanka: ‘Given Power Will Be Used to Fulfill The Aspirations of the People’

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva assures that the power given by the people will be used to fulfil their expectations. He made this assurance while addressing a press conference of the National People’s Power held at the JVP head office at Pelawaththa on November 15th afternoon after the release of the election results. The general secretary of the National People’s Power, Dr Nihal Abeysinghe, its national executive members, Saroja Paulraj, and lawyer Sunil Watagala were also present at this press conference. Below we publish the details of the press conference.

JANATHA Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) General Secretary, Tilvin Silva said, “The final results of the parliamentary elections have been released. The National People’s Power won a great victory in this election. It’s a historic political turning point. It is the first time a political party has won such a significant victory since the introduction of the proportional voting system. It is a mandate given by the people of our country with the aim of ending one era of governance and starting a new era.

We can clearly see the politics in this mandate. We have managed to win 159 seats in the 225-seat Parliament. The National People’s Power has won all the districts except Batticaloa. A special kind of politics has come to the fore by winning both the districts of Jaffna and Wanni in the north. We have won the two districts of Ampara and Trincomalee in the Eastern Province. We have achieved victories in the plantation areas in the hill country that had been dominated by a certain kind of politics in the past. We have achieved victories in Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Kandy and Ratnapura districts. All the people of our country have come to one goal and joined hands for victory. Accordingly, we consider this victory to be very special. Also, public servants have contributed to this victory by giving 80 per cent of the votes.

The mandate that we have received is a full-fledged mandate with political weight. So far, this victory has a political depth and substance more than the victories built by the alliances of several government parties. Therefore, we have a responsibility to thank the people first. Many people endured the hardships they faced in bringing this movement to this victory. Many people have sacrificed and worked hard. Moreover, there are those who helped and cast their vote for us. As the National People’s Power, we pay our tribute to those who have endured hardships for a long time and supported the movement. It is the courage of all those people that has given us the opportunity to build a new country. We take this as an opportunity to express our gratitude and respect and bow our heads to all those who supported, voted, and helped in this victory.

The people of the north especially have trusted a leader from another region for the first time in history. We are incredibly thankful to the people of the North, the East and the people in the plantations for putting aside racism and joining hands with the people of the South. We thank them for thinking together as a country and joining hands with us without believing the lies, canards, misconceptions and fiction spread by racist leaders.

Some people helped us by giving us money to take our opinion to society, but without expecting anything for themselves. Some journalists helped us, even ignoring the dangers of losing their jobs. There were a large number of people who helped with a common goal with the aim of changing the country. We thank all of them.

We have understood the weight of the victory we have received. People have put much trust in us. We have to maintain that trust as well. This victory was achieved by defeating the political parties that held political power in the country for 76 years. Looking at the momentum of our victory in the last presidential election, we got approximately 56,34,000 votes. We have managed to increase it to 68,63,000 in this general election. We have managed to increase by 1.2 million in one and a half months. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya got about 43,63,000 votes in the presidential election. However, in this election, the number of votes it received decreased to 19,68,000. They have lost almost 2.4 million votes. They have failed to get even half of the votes obtained in the presidential election. Ranil Wickremesinghe got about 22,99,000 votes in the presidential election. He has only been able to get about 500,000 in this election. About 1.7 million have gone away from him. These political parties have collapsed in these one and a half months. During the presidential election, Ranil and the people of Samagi Jana Balawegaya told lies and intimidated people, so people became somewhat hesitant. But in the past month and a half, people have realised the extent of their lies. They said if we came to power, the economy and the stock market would collapse, property would be confiscated, and the rupee would depreciate. They said one of the two cars would be taken, blood would be shed, peace would be broken, and the country would be destroyed. They said that the practice of religion will not be allowed if we win the presidential election. We won the presidential election in a society that had been made fearful in that way. However, in the one-and-a-half months that passed after that, people realised that all those statements were false. So it was easy for people to help us. Those who tried to win with lies have been defeated due to their lies. The old, privileged, family-controlled, elitist-dominated politics that were dependent on public money are now over. We tell the people that the old era is over. Now, there is a politics of the ordinary people. This victory had the support of the people who recognised it.

It can be seen from this result that the people of our country have rejected communalism. The communalist leaders of the north went to the north and tried to incite communalism. They distorted some of our statements and tried to show them as statements made against the Tamil people. Also, efforts were made to incite the Muslim people against the National People’s Power and to sow communalism among the Muslim people. They started to stir up religious extremism. However, the results have shown that neither the Tamil people nor the Muslim people accepted their lies.

The people have stood ahead of the political leaders and acted with understanding. The old politics based on communalism and extremism has ended. In the past 50 days, it has been seen that the people of our country have accepted the practice of National People’s Power. We started a simple government. We proved how to work without wasting public money. We did not behave like aristocracy, which stood above the people. We showed that we are simple people who work with people and work honestly. It may have been the reason for the increase in our votes. We are grateful to our people for trusting us in this way. We have the challenge of protecting the trust people have placed in us. We have been given a power in Parliament that exceeds a two-thirds majority. We will be cautious about using this excessive power.

Why was there an opinion that Parliament should not be given a two-thirds majority? After 1977, the rulers used excessive power to oppress and suppress the people, not listening to the voice of the people but enjoying public property as much as possible. In the past, there was a politics that was placed above the people, swelled with power, and was intoxicated. It had to be defeated. We are not going to be intoxicated with political power. This power is a power given by the people. We have a responsibility to use it very carefully for the benefit of the people. We assure the people that this power will be used not to oppress the people or for the survival of those in power, but to build this country, to establish democracy, to create good governance free from fraud and corruption, and to fulfil the aspirations of the people.

We have before us a country with huge poverty; there are people unable to eat three meals a day, crime has increased, the use of drugs has increased, and our image has been destroyed in the international community. Our country is where rulers have lived on public money all their lives. We should build a good country instead of that system. We must build a good country. We have before us the unfairness of democracy and the economy. We have to solve the essential problems of the people, eliminate rural poverty, create a clean Sri Lanka, create a disciplined country, and create a people’s political culture; we have to pay off the debt, rebuild the fallen economy, create a country for the people to live with dignity. We assure the people that this power will be used to win those challenges and not for the benefit of a political party.

The political culture was changed in the last presidential election and this election, and there was no post-election violence. We did not create a culture of celebrating victory that oppressed those who did not vote for us, so it was easy for those who did not vote for us in the presidential election to vote for us this time. We have achieved a significant victory. We did not lose our heads with this victory. After this, there are no two groups called winners and losers. The politicians have lost. Our country’s politics does not need them. We are all citizens of this country. It is a victory for the country. Muslims, Tamils, Sinhalese, Burghers, Malays, Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus, all of us should come together, and it is our responsibility to recover this fallen country. We invite all of them to join us. Let us all work from now on to create a national renaissance, an economic renaissance, a political renaissance, a renaissance of culture, a renaissance of human thought, and make our country shine in the world. We assure our people that the mandate given to us by the people will be used only to bring victory to the country. I express my sincere thanks to all those who supported this victory in every way.

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