NPP’s about face on IMF a welcome turn

Yet, they made a 180-degree turn in their policy towards the IMF with the power approaching them fast was a fact. What is important is whether we accept this about-face or not

Nothing can take anyone by surprise twice, but it seems to happen given the repeated media reports and cartoons about the ironical relationship between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the National People’s Power (NPP) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

In the latest of such media stories, Minister of Agriculture, Land, Irrigation and Livestock Development K.D. Lalkantha, while addressing the media had asserted that the government would comply with the IMF programme, regardless of public protests.

When a trade union leader of a political party that still claims to be Marxist who mobilsed many struggles against the IMF-sponsored policies of past governments says:  “We will comply with the IMF programme regardless of public protests,” the irony is clear even to a child. Yet, with repeated highlighting of this irony are we calling them to get off track?

With such stories, many people want to show the inconsistency in the JVP/NPP policy in respect of the IMF while the purpose of some others, especially those follow leftist theories seem to be to saying that the government was pursuing a course of action that leads to negative consequences. Some dogmatic political parties and those who attempt to view the world as viewed by Karl Marx during the late 19th century or by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in early 20th century, openly pressurise the government to sever links with the IMF.

It goes without saying that the JVP/NPP has so deviated from its initial line of political thinking that one would hesitate to call the JVP a Marxist-Leninist or a leftist party any longer. It happened so swiftly that it could literally be called a summersault in 2023 in a context where the NPP which was nowhere near  state power was fast racing to capture it in the aftermath of the Aragalaya, the unprecedented public uprising of 2022.

This transition could be traced in three speeches made by three top leaders of the JVP/NPP within a period of about 18 months. On March 21, 2023, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva, referring to the previous day’s IMF board approval of the $ 2.9 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement for Sri Lanka stated: “No country in the world has succeeded after going with the IMF. It’s not going to work. The IMF does not exist for the people but to save thieving governments.”

Within six months the NPP had something different to tell the people. Another frontliner of the party, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa told media on September 26, 2023 that a future National Peoples’ Power (NPP) government would never hesitate to work with the IMF and other institutions. He noted that the government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe was forced to adhere to whatever conditions set by the IMF as it had failed to seek assistance at the right time.

Two days prior to the September 21 Presidential election last year, the icing on the cake was done. The leader of the JVP/NPP Anura Kumara Dissanayake during a televised interview said we would be tied to an IMF sponsored programme until 2028. It was against this backdrop the people voted the NPP into power and hence nobody can now say that they are acting against the people’s mandate.

Yet, they made a 180-degree turn in their policy towards the IMF with the power approaching them fast was a fact. What is important is whether we accept this about-face or not. The IMF is being accused by left-leaning critics of promoting neoliberal economic policies that harm developing nations, particularly through austerity measures and structural adjustment programmes, exacerbating inequality, undermining social welfare, and prioritising the interests of wealthy nations and multinational corporations over the well-being of local populations. 

Regardless of the veracity of these allegations, Sri Lanka was going around the world with a begging bowl in 2022, with foreign reserves depleting at one point to $ 50 million and no country coming forward to assist. Thus, the IMF became the last resort. No leftist showed an alternative way out then. Now that a bailout package is already at work, the country has to complete the process. The NPP has to be commended for not rocking the boat due to ideological pressure. 

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