JVP not to reveal Presidential candidate till August 18

COLOMBO (The Island/ANN) - JVP General Secretary says party will not reveal it’s presidential candidate till August 18 at an event which will be attended by JVP’s hierarchy and constituent parties in the alliance.

JVP has decided on its candidate for the forthcoming presidential polls but the name will not be revealed till Aug 18, says party’s General Secretary Tilvin Silva.
In a brief interview with The Island, Silva declined to say whether it was party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake or its Kalutara District MP Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa. Instead, he said that his party would not be the only party in a progressive front contesting as a single block and it was unfair for him to reveal the name as he constituens of it had agreed to reveal the candidate only on Aug 18 at a rally at Galle Face Green, which will be attended by JVP’s hierarchy and constituent parties in the alliance.
"Well, we will not go it alone at the next presidential election. There is a joint front comprising intellectuals, left parties and civil organisations. We have already established the Jathika Jana Balavegaya front. Our candidate will be decided by that front. We will be holding our convention on Aug 18 at Galle Face Green, and the candidate will be announced there," he said.
"It does not matter whether other parties will name their candidates or not; we will name ours. Those parties are embroiled in internal struggles. We do not have any such problem. We can announce our candidate as schedued," the JVP General Secretary said.
Asked to comment on e allegaion against the JVP that it was affected by a fresh internal struggle, Silva said: "There is no internal crisis in the party. We have achieved many victories in recent times. We conducted the a successful protest march in the recent times and held a massive rally. If the party had not been riddled with internal struggles we would not have been able to do so. In parliament, we are doing well. The general consensus is that our MPs are the most active members in Parliament."
Silva said that his party had never departed from the path shown by its founder leader Rohana Wijeweera, but adapted various strategies in order to move forward as per the needs of time. "We have never deviated from the path shown by our late Leader. His aim was to change this capitalist society and create a socialist democratic society. We struggle for that. There is a way to achieve it and we are moving ahead along that path. Marxism is only a philosophy that could help us understand political situations. With that understanding we can choose political strategies. We change with the process of evolution but we will not change our policies. We change the strategies, instead. We cannot survive without changing. Our goal remains the same."
Asked whether he JVP would take up arms, Silva said: "There are various ways of capturing power. In Russia, a regime change was effected through an armed struggle. The same is true of China and Cuba. After 1990s with the collapse of the socialist camp including the Soviet Russia that method lost relevance. As I have said previouslyaways poin out Fidel Castro once said that the present generation would not fight with guns but with ideas. We subscribe to that view. We took up arms to save ourselves. In 1971, there was a plan to eliminate our party overnight. So, we took up arms and fought back. We took up arms in self-defence.
"In 1987, we took up arms as the then government suppressed us. It banned our party in 1983, the Indian Peace Keeping Force was brought here. There was no democracy and we had no option but to fight. So, we took up arms. Now, our society is different and we are an established political party. There will be no need to take up arms again."

Source(s)

  • JVP says no more armed struggles

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