Hearts and Minds

View Enlarged Photo and CaptionI went to see the local JVP organizers in their Weligama headquarters, where they have established a clinic and a makeshift office. Volunteers were beavering away in the corner as one of the local Weligama leaders Dissanayake Wimalasiri laid down the party line.

"The common people are the source of our power. They are with us, because we are with them."

My Czech-born photographer, Antonin Kratochvil, was smoking a cigar. He also has a scraggly beard, which led Wimalasiri to conclude excitedly that he must be a "comrade" from Cuba. (A Cuban medical team has been working near Weligama.) They embraced profusely.

We later toured a JVP relief camp on the outskirts of Weligama, where 50 homeless families have received temporary accomodation in plywood wooden huts. As relief camps go, the JVP camp is definitely one of the better ones. The wooden huts are much cooler than the corrugated metal huts supplied by a rival political party. The funds for building the camp came from well-wishers in Germany, but it is the JVP that is taking the credit.

Like everybody else involved with the relief effort, the JVP has come under attack from some villagers, who claim that the party distributes aid only to its own members. Banners have gone up along the main road with slogans like, "JVP, your words are beautiful, but your deeds are ugly." JVP officials insist that a rival political party is behind the slogans.

To be fair to the JVP, the charge that only party members have benefited from its relief effort seems to be an exaggeration. By tradition, many Weligama fishermen support a rival political party -- but that did not exclude them from being allocated huts in the JVP camp.

Now that they are in the camp, of course, the homeless fishermen have become a captive audience for JVP propaganda. The struggle for hearts and minds continues...

-- Michael Dobbs

By washingtonpost.com |  February 16, 2005; 11:30 AM ET  | Category:  Michael Dobbs
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