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Four speakers addressed a public forum organised by Australian Advocacy for Good Governance in Sri Lanka on March 22.

It discussed the new National People’s Power (NPP) government, elected last year. The NPP is an alliance of left-leaning organisations led by the People’s Liberation Front (JVP).

Michael Cooke, who has written extensively on Sri Lanka’s history and politics and was an election monitor, gave a historical introduction. After briefly discussing the period of British colonial rule, he spoke about the 1971 JVP insurrection, in which the high level of unemployment among rural Sinhala youth was a contributing factor.

Cooke spoke about the 1983 pogrom against the Tamils, 3000 of whom were murdered. This led to a full-scale civil war on the island.

Cooke linked the ethnic violence to the economy. He said that capitalism was brutally introduced by British colonialism and was continued under a “corrupt and incompetent” local elite. The result was social inequality and increasing foreign debt. The elite responded by scapegoating Tamils.

Activist and author Janaka Biyanwila discussed the new NPP government. He said the NPP’s election victories in presidential and parliamentary elections last year were a product of the 2022 aragalaya (popular uprising) that ousted former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. However, he said the resulting “democratic transition” is a complex process.

Biyanwila said that an “ethno-nationalist state” has been entrenched since the 1950s and Sinhala chauvinist forces are still active. He said the government has been incapable of creating meaningful jobs with a living wage. It relies on exports, tourism and remittances from Sri Lankans working overseas (mainly women domestic workers in the Middle East). These are unstable sources of income for the country.

Biyanwila said there is a need to create “local jobs engaged with the local economy”, but the NPP is “wedded to a neoliberal agenda”. The Sri Lankan state has been militarised over the past 50 years and the army has become a key source of employment.

The north and east of the island are still under military control. “There is a need to de-militarise, in a way that creates jobs for rural youth”, Biyanwila said.  He also spoke of the need to discuss devolution, decentralisation and federalism.

Biyanwila said that, while some criticisms of the NPP government are justified, the success of the democratic transition is not solely dependent on the government. Social movements can push the government to become more radical.

Manoranjan Selliah, an exiled journalist and campaigner for Tamil rights, talked up the need for a “politics of reconciliation”. There is also a need to devolve powers from the central government to local or provincial councils.

Selliah said that reconciliation will be difficult, because “the wounds are deep” as a result of the history of “state brutality” and “violence by and among Tamils”.

Lionel Bopage, a former leading member of the JVP who is now active in the struggle for a more inclusive and economically just society, said “recognition of diversity” is needed to “build consensus”.

There is also a need for accountability for the past, Bopage said. Currently the victims are waiting for justice, while the perpetrators enjoy impunity. He said the new government “shows promise”.

In response to a question from the floor about whether Tamil refugees would be safe returning to Sri Lanka, Biyanwila said that the north and east are still under military occupation. Some political prisoners have been freed, he said, but not all and, hence, the safety of returned refugees cannot be guaranteed. Biyanwila said the safety of Tamils in Sri Lanka could only be guaranteed with de-militarisation.