President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the public are the main judges in the forward journey of the government. “We are being tested by the public today. Public have placed their full faith, partial faith and also a tentative faith in us. We must pass the test of faith. We should always have the mindset that we are being tested by the people. If we act with the mindset, that we can do anything within the mandate given by the people, we will definitely fail the test. Our goals will be subject to failure in the scrutiny of the public,” he said.
The 35th Il Maha Viru Samaruma, the ‘Commemoration of the November Heroes’ in remembrance of those who laid down their lives, including the founder of the Party, Comrade Rohana Wijeweera, was held by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) yesterday (14) at the NPP Headquarters in Battaramulla.
“We first commemorated our heroes as a struggle for power and as a movement to move forward, by absorbing their examples and sacrifices to acquire power. Today, we celebrate them as a movement that gained power. Today, we have to face a big difference between the challenges of the past year and the challenges of the new era. We have to understand that.
“A large number of people, including the founder of the Party, Comrade Rohana Wijeweera, other comrades of the political body, members of the Central Committee and several others in the Party were brutally assassinated. The nature of the ruling class and the true extent of its antagonistic attitude towards us was clearly understood by entering into such cruel actions.
“We re-entered the democratic political stream in 1978, very peacefully. While doing so, we were banned in 1983, using events of their own making. What causes us to be politically banned? Were we out of democracy? Did we intervene to create unnecessary conflicts? No. It’s our goals that made them ban us. We were going for victory along the path we have chosen to achieve our goal. So they had a great desire to defeat our goals. They were afraid of that goal.
“We had two paths to choose from, at that time. One was the abandonment of our goals. The other was to work for the goals subject to prohibition. The unique characteristic of Il Maha heroes is that they gave up a comfortable path to achieve goals, and chose a difficult path for their goals. Our old comrades, heroes, marched in corresponding actions for the cause. So what did the ruling class want next? If the objectives could not be killed, the next step was to kill the people who held the objectives. At that time, some incidents happened which should not have happened. A number of discussions were held about those events within society. But those incidents were not the reasons for the killings. If we have committed some things at that time, those incidents were not the reasons for killing and destroying us. The reason for killing and destroying was our goals. They thought that our goals can be defeated only by killing and destroying the people who carry those goals. So much so, that they wanted to kill not only the middle circle of a political movement, but even the peripheral circles. At the end they said the match was over. From that, they expected that our goals were finished, and the people who carried the goals were also finished.
“This power will be protected and strengthened for us again and again, only if we are ready to fight without giving up our goals. We have to strengthen our goals more than ever before, to give justice for the dead heroines and heroes. Now we have to fight to achieve our goals. Gaining power is not our ultimate goal. The goal should be made a reality.
“Today, this 35th Il Maha Viru commemoration is held in a special way. Until now, we have celebrated Il Maha as a generation that strives for power, fights for it, and makes sacrifices. Today, for the first time in history, we are celebrating Il Maha Samaruma at a time when the power of this country has passed into the hands of the common people, as a generation that strives to build this country by consolidating power. Last year, when we celebrated Il Maha Samaruwa, we said that the next conference will be held under our government. We have been able to achieve it today.
JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said that, this 35th Il Maha Viru commemoration is held at a special moment. Until now, we celebrated Il Maha Samaruma as a generation that strove for power.. Today, for the first time in history, we are celebrating Il Maha Samaruma at a time when the power of this country has passed into the hands of the common people, as a generation that strives to build this country by consolidating power.
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