DAWN OF A NEW POLITICAL ERA IN SRI LANKA

As the island nation votes for a new parliament, it's clear that the people are rejecting an earlier generation of politicians. It's nothing short of a power transition

- DILRUKSHI HANDUNNETTI

Less than three months after the installation of a new executive president, Sri Lankans are voting on Thursday to elect 196 members to the next parliament.

The new parliament will be significant as it completes a power transition from traditional and elite political parties to the non-elite, with the high possibility of the National Peoples' Power (NPP) securing a comfortable majority. It is politically significant as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) comes full circle, poised to set up the next government nearly 60 years after the party was birthed.

Founded in 1965 by Rohana Wijeweera, the leftist JVP, the NPP's main constituent party, is not a new political outfit. The former revolutionary movement sought to create a socialist state through revolutionary means and was responsible for two armed uprisings, in 1971 and in 1987-1989, against the Sri Lankan government.

Forming a part of the JVP's violent history is the bombing of the Sri Lanka parliament on August 18, 1987, a period of political turmoil. By then, the JVP had launched its second armed rebellion, condemning Indian interference and aggression, opposing the ruling United National Party government and Tamil separatism in the island's North.

It was a tumultuous time. The Indo-Lanka Peace Accord was signed on July 29, 1987. During islandwide protests, over 100 people were killed and 700 injured, including Buddhist monks. As protests continued, a ruling party MP from the deep south, Jinadasa Weerasinghe, was killed on August 1. As public opposition mounted, the government declared curfew, and resorted to armed suppression.

As the government's popularity plummeted, with serious criticism on its inability to contain India from pushing Sri Lanka to enter an agreement, the spontaneity of protests proved advantageous to the JVP, and its armed wing, the Patriotic People's Movement mounting further pressure.