A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, February 3, 2018
Changing Political Culture From The Bottom Up: Role Of The Middle Class

By Siri Gamage –February 1, 2018

In my view, it is high time that we reflect on why the
country has not been able to generate a progressive political party free
from corruption and truly seek to offer service to the people based on
altruism rather than self-interest from the middle class that embodies
considerable talent, wisdom, foresight, drive and ambition? In this
article I offer some thoughts.
Commentators are using yahapalanaya or good
governance and promises made during last national elections by party
leaders as a yardstick to measure current doings and undoings of the
national government. For the average Sri Lankan, this is not a problem
of this or that democracy, old or new model. For them, it is a matter of
how to correct the course on ground practically rather than political
theory. Thus it is important to dwell on the composition of middle class
and its role in a movement for course correction by way of a new
progressive party or some such outfit.
The middle class comprises of two layers or fractions.
One is lower middle class (LMC) and the other upper middle class (UMC).
Strictly speaking, we could consider JVP and Peratugamee Pakshaya or
Frontline party etc. as progressive political parties that seek to
improve the conditions of existence for those segments of society that
are disempowered by the existing economic, political and social systems.
Their political strategy seems to be to work in a bottom up manner. LMC
includes workers, peasants, policemen and soldiers, school teachers and
clerks without land and other wealth, carpenters, masons, labourers,
fishermen etc. Nava Sama Samaja Pakshaya led by Bahu also falls into the category of a progressive party though some question its support for the yahapalanaya government? This is a charge levelled against JVP also.
During Dr. Newton Gunasinghe’s time, there was an Institute for Workers and Peasants to
study and promote the welfare of these neglected social strata. Newton
was Sri Lanka’s foremost Marxist activist anthropologist who obtained
his PhD from the university of Sussex but passed away some decades ago
prematurely. Some upper middle class intellectuals who supported the
movement led by Rev Sobitha prior to last Presidential elections are
supporting the JVP at the Local Government elections. This is a new
trend.