I was born in 1980 and I didn't know a country that was going through "Peace" times until 2009. I am 42 now and I can tell you one thing about Sri Lankans - no matter what race - that people don't want to admit. We are crushed by economic difficulties and so many crises that keep happening one after the other (has been happening from before independence). There is no reckoning or any means or even attempts to unite and calm down the population. People are angry all the time and look for any reason to get violent. Also, every time the common man gets a shred of political power, it's crushed. Gotabhaya Rajapakse did leave under the insurmountable pressure of the public, but the Rajapakse family is still in power through their proxy, their so-called long time rival, the acting President Ranil Wickremasinghe. There is a reason nobody revolts now, even though people are being taxed out of their ears and corruption still reigns. People know how ruthless RW is and that he will stop at nothing to keep what power he has. People don't have freedom anymore. People are poor, they have seen prices of goods increase by 200% within 2022 itself, with no increase in income, and it's not long before something major happens in this country. It's no wonder whoever can leave the country, does. I went to get passports for my kids last year, and there were more than 3000 people lined up where the daily capacity for issuing passports is usually 500. People wait until 1:30 in the morning to get their passports so they can leave the country as soon as possible. The visa processing facilities for countries like UK, Australia, Canada, etc. have long lines of people outside them. Sportsmen (other than Cricketers) have disappeared whenever they have gone to other countries for international competition, because they believe living illegally in another country is better than living in their own motherland.
For your kind information: JVP (Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna/Peoples Liberation Force)is not now a one party.It allinged with another 25 groups including NGO s and created NPP ( national peoples power) in 2015. JVP didn't compete in general elections as a solo party for more than a decade.First they were with Rajapakses.Next switched to UNP,the party of current president Ranil.2005-2010 they helped former president Chandrika Kumaratunga,the husband of Vijaya, the actor killed by JVP and Mahinda Rajapakse to win civil war and accussed Ranil as a traitor who betrays country to LTTE.. in 2010 the leader of Sri lankan army sarath fonseca aligned with Ranil ,then JVP leadership was transfered from Somawansha amaraweera,the survived friend of wijeweera to anura kumara dissanayake who is the current leader.JVP supported Fonseca.but he and Ranil lost. 2010-2015 Anura worked with Ranil and a minister of SLFP (mahinda's party) called Maithreepla sirisena left Mahinda and joined Ranil taking leadership of SLFP.he is still leader of it.Maithreepala and ranil was helped by Anura and JVP to win presidency. in 2015 NPP was formed.After that JVP and other 25 groups of NPP criticised Mahinda for environmental damages and corruptions done by rajapakses hiding behind lotus tower and construction done by Chinese debt and tech such as uma oya,highway,maththal Airport,port city.Maththala Airport corrupted that not a single plane visited it as maththala,hambantota wasn't complex.JVP helped Ranil to make it a paddy store.in 2017 Ranil robbed the central bank. After that he didn't work with Ranil and became sovereign. In 2019 after Easter attacks and martyrdom of Sri Lankan Christians by ISIS Anura candidated for 2019 presidential elections and got only 3% elections.But after 2022 aragalaya or protest done against re-elected rajapakse's economic mismanagement and ranil's deals NPP became popular than 30%-60% (currently 40%) of country.Now it evolved from extremism and criticism to a party handling meetings with academics to gain ruling power of country next time democratically. Now Rajapakses new party emerged in 2017 SLPP ,a coalition government with SLFP ,the former party under Mahinda is unpopular, that even current president Ranil, who lost a single chair for his party UNP in 2020 Parliamentary election ,is popular about 15 % while SLPP is popular about 9% under Mahinda son namal.(rajapakse party got 6914000 ,more than 50% of votes in 2019) .Ranil faced this fate after the presidential candidate Sajith ,the son of Ranasinghe premadasa(the president who swept JVP 2nd rally) left UNP with Earlier mentioned Fonseca to create new party called SJB( Samagi jana balawegaya/Peaceful people's power) .Now it is the opposition and has a popularity same as or slightly high or low than NPP(approximately 40%) In 2024 the main power gaining parties are NPP,the child party of JVP and SJB.Ranil became much popular after he could handle economy bit reducing queues, implementing QR code system to take oil and expanding conferences with IMF 1nd Chinese banks.Now ministers of SLPP and some of SJB like fonseca has moved to Ranil .They are like frogs.😂😂Fourth party is SLPP of rajapakses.Fifth is Sarwajana balaya party (it is like power of every people) created by businessman Dilith Jayaweera and left-wing minister Wimal weerawansha who worked earlier in JVP and left to Mahinda .Next there are tamil and Muslim parties.Aftef that Frontline socialist party.Now NPP isn't completely Marxist neither capitalist. It is a coincidence and a fun fact.Earlier JVP and Ranasinghe Premadasa were enemies.Now NPP and ranasinghe's son are opponents.It is really hot here in Sri Lanka.Now Sri lankans are talking about 88/89 too much😂😂 And you better know that JVP started crimes after President Jayawardena Junior banned it in 1983 unconditionally.😢 What starts the gotabhaya rajapakses' end is that banning fertilisers.
Thank you for doing this. In 1980S Sri Lanka government specially J. R Jayawardena wanted to band JVP and he did it, just after black July 1983. Black July were planed by J. R Jayawardena and other UNP politicians by bringing 13 bodies of Army soldiers' who were killed by the LTTE, to Colombo for their funeral, while informed to the people via media to joint with the final funeral event. At this moment, planned UNP apolitical carders start set fire on Tami business and started looting their assets. The mass killing were speeded over the century more than 4 days and eventually government banned LTTE & JVP at the same time. The leaders worried and scarred loosing power against growing your generation with JVP. JVP had no chose apart of taking weapons for own safety. I don't believed JVP killed Vijaya Kumaratunga, instead I blame to R Premadasa, who killed all valuable people including Lalit Athulathmudali and rest of the young generation who got visions of future.
No way!. This youtuber deffinetly should know about this. REason is he have done researches about the civil war also. He deliberately makes a fool of people. well planed.😂😂
Remember that history is always written by the winner, not the loser. You need to do extensive research to know the hidden history. Or what it seems may not be truth. I accept that this is an unbiased neutral discussion. But this is too brief
Hi alex, In this video you are missing some strings of the big story. As a person who currently living in sri lanka And have some experience on this case I would like to add the missing strings. After 71 Most of the JVP members kept in the prisons. After disabling "Aparada Yukthi Commision" they were released. They were active in their politics. Wijewira participated the election in 1982 and he was the third in the country. J.R. jayewardene was the president for the second time. He had 5/6 parliament portion at that time. Election procedure changed. If paliment election was held with the new system three or four parliament members would have been in the parliament from JVP and J.R. is going to lose that 5/6 portion. But election was postponed. To Postpone an election he (current president) should held an election asking permission from people to do so according to the constitution. Jayewardene did that. But according to the election history it was a corrupted election. All that happened around 1983. Some collecting boxes never came to the counting centers. in 1983 there were small group of rebel teams in the north. Some police officers were killed by them in 1983. President and the government took the advantage and brought those bodies to colombo(Capital).. They led the rage to grow. In July, President Jayewardene announced all the police officers to take a leave. It was an order. Supporters from the ruling party (UNP) started killing tamil cilivilians. They were burnt alive on the streets. It was all planned. Some parliament members Including Gamini Lokuge, Ranil Wickramasinghe (Current president) went to jafna and they burnt the Jafna Library. They took their supporters to jafna. Most of them were police officers. They Started killing tamil civilians in the North. Thats how 30 years of war actually started. Civillians from both sides paid the price. After some days JVP and some other parties were banned from politics saying they are the one who done that disaster. It was all political. Government Released other parties but not the JVP. First JVP member killed in 1984 by the government. At that time they don't have guns or anything. 1985 ,1986 government hunt JVP members and killed them. In 1987 Indian forces landed on North. President was about to going for a agreement with them. First JVP attack was against Indian Army in 1987. Their was a protest against government in1987 in the Colombo forcing government to not to go with that agreement. Government opened a fire, killing 100's of Sinhala civilians monks and University student. (J.R. still President). J.V.P. attacked Sri Lankan military camps to collect weopns. At that time they only had handmade guns and etc. Sometimes Sri Lankan soldiers supported JVP. 1988 December presidential election held. Ranasinghe Premadasa elected as president. J.R. Ruled country for 10 years. Government started to increase JVP hunting. Government has everything including press media etc. Some UNP members started to killing other party members and all the credit went to JVP. Yes of course JVP killed civilians. Most of them were UNP members who gives information to the government. Some JVP members took the advantage to cover their personal problems. They Started to looting houses and shops. Everything went wrong for the JVP side. Government had Para military groups who had guns. Most of them were controlled by parliament members. Yellow cats, Pra, Black cats are some group of them. Some members of these groups still lives today. Those groups started to kill their military leaders. Some Families killed by these para military groups and Only military leader was left alive. Thats how they broke the bond between army and JVP. Strategy worked. Those military leaders becomes Killers. I can give you a example. He passed away few years ago. They started to killing civilians including school children. Some school girls from Kalutara district kidnapped by these military personals, Rap...ed and killed. A well known slauter house situated in Batalanda. Commanded by Ranil Wickremesnghe the current president in Sri Lanka. Those military personal went crazy. Civillians caught by these para military groups or military groups never came home. Boddies was just a every day thing in life. Wijewira captured and killed. in 1993 Karma stopped president actions. He killed by a bomb. It was done by LTTE. But hunting never ended. 1994 1995 until Government released the restriction on JVP it happened. JVP scattered. Nothing left. They started their politics again in the country after release. They won 48 parliament seats just after horror era. Again in 2012 Government Underworld opened a fire in a JVP meeting and killed two civillians in Hambantota District. Government won and they wrote the history. History was written by winners Not Loosers.
@@CristoAlb That's what the communists want you to believe. If the government didn't destroy the JVP then, people today would be escaping to India by a raft like how Cubans escape to The USA.
@@AlexRothman Largely because both the victims and the oppressors were singhalese therefore the events not having a racial tilt to be constantly talked about or at least connect any negative emotion with the events that could be commonly felt.
Rohana Wijeweera was a hero amongst many Sinhalese people he helped the poor and gave a voice to the voiceless but he wanted to genuinely help the Sri Lankan poor people in the country from the rich elites the government mass murdered innocent Sinhalese people in numbers to this day people have not been found.
Guy was a mass murdering communist. He was only supported by brainwashed innocent poor people and typical university moronic crowds. Dont try to act like the guy was a saint. One of my relatives lost a close friend to this murderous lowlife because he refused to pay extortion money.
Been waiting for this one for a long time, this video series is the only video series (that I've seen) about Sri Lanka that explains things from a neutral point of view without taking any sides. For that I thank you. Something that is not mentioned in this video is the reason that law enforcement and military were so brutal against the JVP. the thing is certain amount of the law enforcement and military were supportive of JVP because they came from the same towns and villages and they knew the hardships of those people. But since JVP is anti government they started threatening military and law enforcement personnel and their families. I don't know much about the first JVP Insurrection, but specially during the second JVP Insurrection, JVP killed families (Parents, Wives, Husbands Children, and relatives) of military & police personnel (Specially the personnel that fought in the north because they were still in the north after the IPKF came and wasn't around their families to protect them). Imagine fighting for your country day and night, weeks and months just to find out that your entire family has been murdered by the JVP because they were serving their country! so when the government unleashed them they just went out of control.
Thank you so much for your comment! I had read about the JVP targeting of families, and that point was in an early version of the video, but ultimately I cut it to avoid it being too long. However your comment gives some extra detail that I hadn't read about, so thank you very much for sharing!
I don't want to go to any debate over the killing of families of military, but I have an uncle who was an army soldier during 88/89 JVP rebel who has a different experience. As per him these killing of families of military was done by government aided thugs to provoke the members in police and military against the JVP since they also had enough of the then government and at the beginning of the rebel the military also didn’t oppose the rebel. Anyway these are just stories I heard.
@@AlexRothman Also forgot to mention that there were also lot's of good military and police personnel that tried to do the right thing and save many youths from getting killed, but didn't always succeed. Another reason that Soviets' and Chinese also helped the Sri Lankan government instead of the JVP in the 1st Insurrection is that even though Sri Lanka is a democratic country it followed a communist type of economy (IDK How to exactly explain that). for example every family had coupons to buy Rice, Bread and certain other food, and the country had a closed economy where most of the imports were stopped so that we can build our own stuff. at the time it was working quite well, people were making stuff, from cloths to cars. Unfortunately the next governments didn't follow that path and started a open economy and started importing things and all of the Sri Lankan businesses kind of went bankrupt because imported goods were much cheaper. Another thing is that many JVP members and supporters who were university students studying STEM subjects in the universities didn't want to follow that path after they graduated because they came from poor families and had nothing but worked hard to go to college and since they studied in STEM fields most of them got jobs and they went from poor families to well paid engineers, doctors, etc... So they were like "well guess I'm not doing that anymore" I know this because I've met many people like that. Also I've met few people who still follow & support the JVP even though they do have everything they need and want!
Thank you Alex for researching on the JVP insurrection and presenting the facts. This video will undoubtedly enlighten the younger generation of Sri Lanka's modern history together with others which you had done. Thank you.
The JVP insurrections and the Sri Lankan Civil War remind me of the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Except far more violent. I'm glad to see that people in recent years have started bringing up lesser known conflicts from other parts of the world. Keep up the good work.
@@AlexRothman That's something even I cannot tell exactly why as a sri lankan. There's always every kind of religious people speaking about all types of good deeds and stuff and the next day you'll see the exact opposite behavior. I imagine it's caused by the true under developed nature of the country. You may see smiling people but the truth is they maybe struggling to make ends meet, always under pressure. No matter what you were thought in any way or religion if you're hard pressed every day things like that may happen. I think it comes down to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (the pyramid). If you cannot really make it to the stable base you'll always be taken advantage of.
@@AlexRothman Alex whar a great content , i wonder how you found these details even our media donr want to talk..do you know that whole sri lanka now truns toward to JVp and trust only jvp and all young and old men women every one have only one hope that's JVP....the truth cant hide it will pop no matter what..❤❤❤
Sri lanka has always had turmoil all throughout its history. Forgetting is a part of sinhalese mentality, its how they cope with overwhelming misery and brutality each generation has undergone. It is how we recover because we know that good times are short. One might ask how we sri lankans still have a smile on their faces after facing all these odds, it’s because we forget and move one. Im only 27 years old but I have witnessed a war , a tsunami a social revolution that overthrew a government. Only 7 years of my life I have seen stability and peace
What yo missed to compare was rate of killings. The war with LTTE claimed 300000 lives but that was over 25 years. It was about 12000 per year. The JVP insurgency saw 60000 dead in two years. The rate of killings, show it was much more brutal down in south.
Honestly. I waited to watch all your videos on Sri Lanka to leave a comment and the first thing I want to tell you in thank you. Thank you for documenting our history and sharing it in such a captivating way on a platform where our future generations can learn about our bloodied history. We certainly do not have the capability to create such a masterpiece. I hope my fellow Sri Lankans share this with their friends and family so that we never forget what happened and never let this happen ever again
Your work is truly a blessing, I love the way you have edited your travels and merged them with the bloody content. Insightful and amazing as the rest of the series.
Fun fact: the Insurrection was supposed to happen om the 6th and not the 5th. My Grandfather was close friends with Mr. Wijeweera. It was by accident that the Government found out about the Insurrection and that they had to start fighting before they had to be prepared. This was why it was bad in the first Insurrection. Thats all im here for.
16:18 wijeweera never promised or wanted to create sinhalese nation🤚 There was Sinhalese buddhist government even then and he fought against it by misguiding poor sinhalese , please learn more and correct that one and also wijeweera was a christian guy and he is not even sinhalese his grate grandfather was migrated to ceylon from kerala south india ,during colonial period as slave cinnamon maker and after converted to christianity from hinduism. Sinhalese were good enough to treat him as their own brother but as a result nearly 100000 of young village sinhalese had to die during his wars.🤔
To that end, the fact that people embrace JVP ideologies, is very funny. They have forgotten what the JVP got them into, or simply don't have the mental capacity to comprehend.
That’s all you know about Lankan politics. Caste system had a huge influence on Lankan politics. Not directly though. But a long time made certain castes powerful and the rest wasn’t. UNP mostly consisted of westernised sinhalese were belonging to karawa and radala caste in Sri Lanka. Later sinhala buddhist govigama and karawa people in un urbanised were brought to politics by SLFP founded by Bandaranaike. Later Wijeweera found the low caste sinhalese as an opportunity to come to politics. Wijeweera was a halanduru.
@@exoelscan I know which government in history did slaughtering their own majority when they get power.Impossible right? So how NPP can do that.And also for your kind information. AKD was in 9th grade at thambuththegama central college during 88/89.Then his name was not even Anura.He was Aravinda Dissanayake. So do not lie without knowing dummy
Thank you so much for your videos! You are a genius the way you use the travel videos mixed with history. I have learned vital info about Sri Lanka from your teaching
Why did you put Indian music over the videos of Sri Lanka? You are making a documentary about SL but seems like you can’t tell Sri Lanka apart from India.
This was the other thing I thought of saying because I couldn't hear a very clear difference (aside from language) but of course as I'm not super familiar with either type of music, so I'm not sure I would notice the difference anyway
These uprising brought voices to Poorest singalese and tamils who were excluded in Education,jobs and Middle class similar uprising happened all societies all over the world throughout history.
I don't think it's a coincidence that you posted this on Feb 4th, the Sri Lankan independence day! By the way you'll find it far more exciting to learn about the current part played in Sri Lankan politics by the JVP, with its rising popularity among the youth, mostly of the urban middle class. There was even such a loud support in the "Gota go Home" campaign for the National People's Power (NPP) which is a coalition led by the JVP. They actually were kind of social media favourites in the last decade, as most people who use social media platforms such as Facebook are the youth. But this favour didn't reflect in the votes in the elections because most had to choose one from two main forces, which reduced actual votes for JVP who were always the third party. It's really interesting to see what would happen in the upcoming elections of Sri Lanka.
You know, I found it really hard to wrap my head around what the JVP are now. I talked to people about it but it still doesn't make sense to me how they can be considered a normal or semi-normal political party, given what they used to stand for. Any insight? What issues are they mainly campaigning on? And how do they react when they are held to account for the insurrections? Do some people still sympathise with their goals back in the 70s and 80s?
@@AlexRothman Well, what I have to say here would be mostly my understanding of the facts. I think people here always tend to see the ruling power - not as a representation of them, but as kind of an "enemy of the people", even though they themselves have elected them. This is kind of fair, because the political system is hugely corrupted, and the blame is pinned on the two major political parties/ camps. With the recent economic crisis, this hate grew much more as people demanded to investigate the corrupt Rajapakse regime, hopefully to regain the state's "stolen money". Rajapaksa family and their cronies became probably the most hated group of people in the country in 2022 as the nepotism and large scale corruption allegations against them were supported by the international incidents like the "Pandora papers", revealing the family's wealth to be even more than all of the country's reserves. This is where the JVP comes into play. As identified in your video, the JVP now mainly campaigns on anti-corruption. They also did some investigation work in revealing the corruption of the Rajapaksas, earning the favor of many people. Also, few of the parliamentarians of JVP once became ministers in an intermediary government under president Chandrika Kumaranatunge in 2004, and the ministers' performances are said to be exemplary. Recently, there's a large number of the educated professionals who sided with the NPP, which is a coalition led by the JVP. Than all of the above reasons, the JVP leaders are seen as a different kind of politicians, who come from humble beginnings, who don't live luxury lives as the other politicians. Therefore they could be seen as "leaders of the people" in the heated times of the "Aragalaya" (protests) of 2022. This is most clearly seen in the May 10th incident when a small group of pro-rajapaksa protestors attacked the peaceful protests at the Galle face. They were mostly "village thugs" brought to Colombo by the regional leaders of SLPP, the Rajapaksas' party. This was clearly a planned attack which started from nowhere other than the official residence of the prime minister at the time: Mahinda Rajapaksa. In the aftermath of this incident, only the leader of the NPP (and JVP) could visit the Galle face because even the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was faced with angry protestors throwing stones at him and his guard. At that moment the JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was praised by the protestors for coming there without having any guards, "ready to face the threat standing side by side with the protestors". At this time, there were also allegations of "state-induced violence" in the form of law enforcement. Ideas were expressed, looking back on the 88, 89 JVP insurrections, stating that "most of the violence back then was perpetrated by none other than the government, which made some of it look like the JVP committed them". Many young people started to believe that they did right in the form of a "rebellion against the corrupt politicians", despite its extreme marxist and sinhalese-nationalist beginnings. Also, as you have noticed, the JVP now has changed its marxist and nationalist motives to a more liberal, modern ideology, mainly with their rebranding as the NPP. This is a successful strategy of giving people what they need to see. Even though the JVP has a very dark past, many of its current supporters only need vague excuses to leave all that past behind. Also, I personally think the change of leadership in the JVP has resulted in much change as there are very few remaining in the leadership from the insurrection times. Another main excuse they provide for the 88/89 insurrections is that after 1971 rebellions, they came wholeheartedly into the democratic politics. But they blame the JR Jayawardena government back then for unfairly banning their party, after the "Black July" incident of 1983 which they claim to have no involvement in. After the ban, they claims that the initial violent acts were also committed by the government, to make them look like the culprit. No one knows the truth as most of the crimes went unpunished and even un-investigated. However, we have to keep in mind: "Winners write the history"
@@PasanMahindapala Thank you very much for such a detailed reply. Everything you say makes sense, and I feel I understand a little bit better after reading your thoughts!
@@AlexRothman It's my pleasure to be of help. Your video series is one of the most informative and unbiased documentaries on Sri Lanka, describing both the surface and also the hidden side. Many thanks!
@@AlexRothman Need to add this to Skippy s comment. . After the 2019 easter sunday bomb attack, the people are starting to believe that all of those events are just politicians playing their Aces to take the advantage of their game of policitcs. As for the context, people belive the bomb attack is just a political campaign to make Gotabaya Rajapaksha, the president. It worked, if that's true. After that, people specially the young generation started to re think about the dark ages in SL with this idealogy and it kinda makes sense in most cases. . Now this generation is skeptical about all of the movements happening around SL more than ever. Whether they are related to a political game. . You ask how much skeptical. The answer is yes. . Personally I feel like this video is also a product of another campaign to bring down the floating votes of NPP. Because the election is near. JK.... Or am I not.
@@AlexRothman For your kind information: JVP (Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna/Peoples Liberation Force)is not now a one party.It allinged with another 25 groups including NGO s and created NPP ( national peoples power) in 2015. JVP didn't compete in general elections as a solo party for more than a decade.First they were with Rajapakses.Next switched to UNP,the party of current president Ranil.2005-2010 they helped former president Chandrika Kumaratunga,the husband of Vijaya, the actor killed by JVP and Mahinda Rajapakse to win civil war and accussed Ranil as a traitor who betrays country to LTTE.. in 2010 the leader of Sri lankan army sarath fonseca aligned with Ranil ,then JVP leadership was transfered from Somawansha amaraweera,the survived friend of wijeweera to anura kumara dissanayake who is the current leader.JVP supported Fonseca.but he and Ranil lost. 2010-2015 Anura worked with Ranil and a minister of SLFP (mahinda's party) called Maithreepla sirisena left Mahinda and joined Ranil taking leadership of SLFP.he is still leader of it.Maithreepala and ranil was helped by Anura and JVP to win presidency. in 2015 NPP was formed.After that JVP and other 25 groups of NPP criticised Mahinda for environmental damages and corruptions done by rajapakses hiding behind lotus tower and construction done by Chinese debt and tech such as uma oya,highway,maththal Airport,port city.Maththala Airport corrupted that not a single plane visited it as maththala,hambantota wasn't complex.JVP helped Ranil to make it a paddy store.in 2017 Ranil robbed the central bank. After that he didn't work with Ranil and became sovereign. In 2019 after Easter attacks and martyrdom of Sri Lankan Christians by ISIS Anura candidated for 2019 presidential elections and got only 3% elections.But after 2022 aragalaya or protest done against re-elected rajapakse's economic mismanagement and ranil's deals NPP became popular than 30%-60% (currently 40%) of country.Now it evolved from extremism and criticism to a party handling meetings with academics to gain ruling power of country next time democratically. Now Rajapakses new party emerged in 2017 SLPP ,a coalition government with SLFP ,the former party under Mahinda is unpopular, that even current president Ranil, who lost a single chair for his party UNP in 2020 Parliamentary election ,is popular about 15 % while SLPP is popular about 9% under Mahinda son namal.(rajapakse party got 6914000 ,more than 50% of votes in 2019) .Ranil faced this fate after the presidential candidate Sajith ,the son of Ranasinghe premadasa(the president who swept JVP 2nd rally) left UNP with Earlier mentioned Fonseca to create new party called SJB( Samagi jana balawegaya/Peaceful people's power) .Now it is the opposition and has a popularity same as or slightly high or low than NPP(approximately 40%) In 2024 the main power gaining parties are NPP,the child party of JVP and SJB.Ranil became much popular after he could handle economy bit reducing queues, implementing QR code system to take oil and expanding conferences with IMF 1nd Chinese banks.Now ministers of SLPP and some of SJB like fonseca has moved to Ranil .They are like frogs.😂😂Fourth party is SLPP of rajapakses.Fifth is Sarwajana balaya party (it is like power of every people) created by businessman Dilith Jayaweera and left-wing minister Wimal weerawansha who worked earlier in JVP and left to Mahinda .Next there are tamil and Muslim parties.Aftef that Frontline socialist party.Now NPP isn't completely Marxist neither capitalist. It is a coincidence and a fun fact.Earlier JVP and Ranasinghe Premadasa were enemies.Now NPP and ranasinghe's son are opponents.It is really hot here in Sri Lanka.Now Sri lankans are talking about 88/89 too much😂😂 And you better know that JVP started crimes after President Jayawardena Junior banned it in 1983 unconditionally.😢 What starts the gotabhaya rajapakses' end is that banning fertilisers.
next election i'm gonna vote jvp led NPP🙂sice 1977 SLFP/UNP parties,get the power and destroyed this beautiful island..Next election will be critical for SL future.(Now there are no 2 parties because they joint and controlling now)funfacts is our president is defeated from election he came to power from parliment not a peoples's vote
@@stephanj7719 You have no idea. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been living in this country since '96. I’m talking about the bigger picture and the fundamental politics behind this destruction. Maybe outsiders can’t fully understand the current situation, but I’m not an outsider to this country..this is my homeland.😁
When it comes to JVP they are JVP alone, when it comes to the LTTE they become LTTE terrorists. You guys are very funny people. How about the people who killed young students taken away from school, any name for those killers.
JVP is so similar to Naxalite movement in India. Both of their leaders sons and daughters live happy life in Capitalist countries while convincing failed communist ideologies to the poor youth.
What you are telling about 1987 rebellion is not entirely true. They did not killed Wijeya Kumaratunga. You are misleading the audience. So, please dig down the facts more.
@@tharinduwiraj2563 it was a plot. He was a rogue cadre of jvp. Mrs CBK was accusing JVP for the assassination untill the presidential commission report on Wijeaya's assassination released. Then, she kept quite as the report said something else.
Generation before these brave young men and wome who died were very uneducated and used to live under a society where the elites ruled common man what ever the way they wanted. These people tried to eliminate this corrupted system which prevails in Sri lanka up until today
Came to know about JVP insurrection which I had been interested for many years , although I’ve heard different stories and conspiracy theories from my grand parents and elder citizens I know of none of them were clear and transparent. Also I just went on a safari ride which I have never been on 😅 , bro should start a whole Netflix series at this point I’m pretty you are among top 5% of creators based on content quality . Keep up good luck 🫡
In the 1990s I was an undergrad in the USA. At my university a classmate of mine was drom Sri Lanka. He told me how he was caught up in the JVP problem. He was a Sri Lankan Muslim and Tamil.
Hello Alex You must also note that there were interconnections where JVPs manipulation of people to fight each other sinhala* and Tamil* , they executed their own political agendas so they could succeed their goals by breaking down the government…💯 the interconnection here was connection to the LTTE war in the end I’m a Sri Lankan, all these are 100% true. Peabhakaran, JVP, got their advantage through innocent people’s lives
First ofall i appreciate to u make video for us , but there ve some issue with some info , plz if u dont know the reality i mean abt histry dont talk about it , ❤
Bloody hell...your basically digging up purposely deleted history ...I am living in sri lanka and my dad was A/L student during 1971 and stories he told me about that and 1988/89 terror times weren't this detailed..Now I can't wait to go home to show this video to dad..
Thanks a lot for watching and commenting! I've put a ton of work into the vids and it's great to get a response like yours. More videos are on their way!
The JVP didn't kill all those people. Do your research-both sides, including the UNP government, were responsible. The UNP suppressed and committed killings as well. They genocided the cream of Sri Lanka's university youth
And if JVP start another insurgency like this again, we the Nationalistic Sinhalese will end them once and for all. Letting them go, after such horrible atrocities against Sinhalese people was a huge mistake. The government should have end them there.
6:57 sinhalese against sinhalese? Is that true or are you trying to make a division between the races here? Or you meant Sri Lankans against the Government? Just need a clarification from someone thanks😊
Has there been Justice done in way of enquiry, conviction of miscreants, the guilty any where in the world? Any government or any other "militant" group?
But I am not here to tell That JVP didn’t kill any people or anything but What did The UNP do ,Were they not involved in killings of 1988/89 and the Batalanda Killings
Dont tell lie we know the truth you dont know 88 89 may be you not bron in that time or you was a child maybe this is properganda for attack npp or jvp
In terrorism conflicts such as this, it is difficult to separate the terrorists from their opponents. The JVP started the process of unmitigated violence and wholesale murders of innocents, and the forces of law and order eliminated them largely by extra judicial means. There was no time for arrests, prosecutions, and proportional punishments. It was kill or be killed. But, make no mistake, ordinary people whose lives had been upended, largely approved of the actions of the government, for it restored stability and security to their lives! The JVP sowed the wind, and they reaped the whirlwind. After the first insurrection of the JVP, they were rehabilitated with great kindness by then PM Srimavo Bandaranayake. They didn't learn from their experience and repeated the process even more violently in 1987-1988, and received a devastating response. Sinhalese people are largely committed to the middle path of moderation, and are slow to anger, but are not unwilling to defend themselves with great courage as and when necessary. Woe to those who mistake that gentleness for cowardice ! Now, the presumably rehabilitated JVP is contesting the general elections, in a youthful electorate that has no memory of their history of previous violence. Given their opinionated tendency to run roughshod over people's inalienable right to exercise freedom of choice, I fear the rise of this articulate group of violent professional revolutionists attempting to exploit the economic problems of Sri Lanka, once again ! I hope and pray that a patriotic coalition of middle of the road parties would be elected to govern this resplesdent land with a massive mandate from the majority of its people! Jayaweva, Sri Lanka, Jayaweva! 🇱🇰! 🇱🇰! 🇱🇰!🙏! 🙏!🙏!
So the Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lankan state was neither a state for a common Sinhalese nor a common Tamil. It was a genocidal racist state that was fuelling racism among the common people among the majority community and diverting them towards the community that was made minoirty by putting them under a single state and was leeching all the communities in the Island
It's the rulers. The rulers are not real sinhalese. They were Vijaya nagara rulers/ war lords in the past. They have no feeling for Tamils or Sinhalese, they have feeling only for power and money.
Nope anura was just 19 year old when this happened.. But JR,Premadasa,ranil was in the front of commiting genocides in 1977,1981,1983,1988/89, 1990 -1992
@@thenukarathnayake1133 he was the president of the student union at Kelaniya university. And directly support JVP. Like now, in present most student unions directly support Perataugami party and Anthare directly supports JVP. That is not a secret anymore!
@@Wealthify4u yep but that was in 1995 ithink..after that he got the oppotunity to join to jvp 1997 or 1998 as i remember..during 88/89 he witness the murder of his brother (punchi ammage putha) it made clear that he should join to the main stream politics
@@thenukarathnayake1133 And he got a public apology in Toronto for the JVP violence against civilians. Both the government and jvp party did the same thing to each other and the civilians.
Our current president had the biggest JVP execution camp during that time period.
I was born in 1980 and I didn't know a country that was going through "Peace" times until 2009. I am 42 now and I can tell you one thing about Sri Lankans - no matter what race - that people don't want to admit. We are crushed by economic difficulties and so many crises that keep happening one after the other (has been happening from before independence). There is no reckoning or any means or even attempts to unite and calm down the population. People are angry all the time and look for any reason to get violent. Also, every time the common man gets a shred of political power, it's crushed. Gotabhaya Rajapakse did leave under the insurmountable pressure of the public, but the Rajapakse family is still in power through their proxy, their so-called long time rival, the acting President Ranil Wickremasinghe. There is a reason nobody revolts now, even though people are being taxed out of their ears and corruption still reigns. People know how ruthless RW is and that he will stop at nothing to keep what power he has. People don't have freedom anymore. People are poor, they have seen prices of goods increase by 200% within 2022 itself, with no increase in income, and it's not long before something major happens in this country.
It's no wonder whoever can leave the country, does. I went to get passports for my kids last year, and there were more than 3000 people lined up where the daily capacity for issuing passports is usually 500. People wait until 1:30 in the morning to get their passports so they can leave the country as soon as possible. The visa processing facilities for countries like UK, Australia, Canada, etc. have long lines of people outside them. Sportsmen (other than Cricketers) have disappeared whenever they have gone to other countries for international competition, because they believe living illegally in another country is better than living in their own motherland.
❤ from Noakhali, Bangladesh 🇧🇩
For your kind information: JVP (Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna/Peoples Liberation Force)is not now a one party.It allinged with another 25 groups including NGO s and created NPP ( national peoples power) in 2015.
JVP didn't compete in general elections as a solo party for more than a decade.First they were with Rajapakses.Next switched to UNP,the party of current president Ranil.2005-2010 they helped former president Chandrika Kumaratunga,the husband of Vijaya, the actor killed by JVP and Mahinda Rajapakse to win civil war and accussed Ranil as a traitor who betrays country to LTTE..
in 2010 the leader of Sri lankan army sarath fonseca aligned with Ranil ,then JVP leadership was transfered from Somawansha amaraweera,the survived friend of wijeweera to anura kumara dissanayake who is the current leader.JVP supported Fonseca.but he and Ranil lost.
2010-2015 Anura worked with Ranil and a minister of SLFP (mahinda's party) called Maithreepla sirisena left Mahinda and joined Ranil taking leadership of SLFP.he is still leader of it.Maithreepala and ranil was helped by Anura and JVP to win presidency.
in 2015 NPP was formed.After that JVP and other 25 groups of NPP criticised Mahinda for environmental damages and corruptions done by rajapakses hiding behind lotus tower and construction done by Chinese debt and tech such as uma oya,highway,maththal Airport,port city.Maththala Airport corrupted that not a single plane visited it as maththala,hambantota wasn't complex.JVP helped Ranil to make it a paddy store.in 2017 Ranil robbed the central bank.
After that he didn't work with Ranil and became sovereign. In 2019 after Easter attacks and martyrdom of Sri Lankan Christians by ISIS Anura candidated for 2019 presidential elections and got only 3% elections.But after 2022 aragalaya or protest done against re-elected rajapakse's economic mismanagement and ranil's deals NPP became popular than 30%-60% (currently 40%) of country.Now it evolved from extremism and criticism to a party handling meetings with academics to gain ruling power of country next time democratically.
Now Rajapakses new party emerged in 2017 SLPP ,a coalition government with SLFP ,the former party under Mahinda is unpopular, that even current president Ranil, who lost a single chair for his party UNP in 2020 Parliamentary election ,is popular about 15 % while SLPP is popular about 9% under Mahinda son namal.(rajapakse party got 6914000 ,more than 50% of votes in 2019) .Ranil faced this fate after the presidential candidate Sajith ,the son of Ranasinghe premadasa(the president who swept JVP 2nd rally) left UNP with Earlier mentioned Fonseca to create new party called SJB( Samagi jana balawegaya/Peaceful people's power) .Now it is the opposition and has a popularity same as or slightly high or low than NPP(approximately 40%)
In 2024 the main power gaining parties are NPP,the child party of JVP and SJB.Ranil became much popular after he could handle economy bit reducing queues, implementing QR code system to take oil and expanding conferences with IMF 1nd Chinese banks.Now ministers of SLPP and some of SJB like fonseca has moved to Ranil .They are like frogs.😂😂Fourth party is SLPP of rajapakses.Fifth is Sarwajana balaya party (it is like power of every people) created by businessman Dilith Jayaweera and left-wing minister Wimal weerawansha who worked earlier in JVP and left to Mahinda .Next there are tamil and Muslim parties.Aftef that Frontline socialist party.Now NPP isn't completely Marxist neither capitalist.
It is a coincidence and a fun fact.Earlier JVP and Ranasinghe Premadasa were enemies.Now NPP and ranasinghe's son are opponents.It is really hot here in Sri Lanka.Now Sri lankans are talking about 88/89 too much😂😂
And you better know that JVP started crimes after President Jayawardena Junior banned it in 1983 unconditionally.😢
What starts the gotabhaya rajapakses' end is that banning fertilisers.
@@arunawijesuriya5317
How many members are in the Executive Committee of NPP?
How many are from JVP? 20%? 75%?
@@nutl00se73 20%
@@nutl00se73 they are acting like changing name can erase their history. more than 90% jvp members are present in NPP.
Thank you for doing this. In 1980S Sri Lanka government specially J. R Jayawardena wanted to band JVP and he did it, just after black July 1983. Black July were planed by J. R Jayawardena and other UNP politicians by bringing 13 bodies of Army soldiers' who were killed by the LTTE, to Colombo for their funeral, while informed to the people via media to joint with the final funeral event. At this moment, planned UNP apolitical carders start set fire on Tami business and started looting their assets. The mass killing were speeded over the century more than 4 days and eventually government banned LTTE & JVP at the same time. The leaders worried and scarred loosing power against growing your generation with JVP. JVP had no chose apart of taking weapons for own safety. I don't believed JVP killed Vijaya Kumaratunga, instead I blame to R Premadasa, who killed all valuable people including Lalit Athulathmudali and rest of the young generation who got visions of future.
this is the truth, well said
This is the truth all should be aware of.
No way!. This youtuber deffinetly should know about this. REason is he have done researches about the civil war also. He deliberately makes a fool of people. well planed.😂😂
Exactly
This is totally the truth and i think jvp didn't kill vijay kumarathunga because chandrika said unp killed him in a interview
Thanks very much for this. Srilankans easily forget the truth but jumping to wrong solutions 🎉
Yep akd won
Remember that history is always written by the winner, not the loser. You need to do extensive research to know the hidden history. Or what it seems may not be truth. I accept that this is an unbiased neutral discussion. But this is too brief
JVP is the main reason our country fell so far behind others in the region. Thank you for reminding this to our people!
jvp or inproper expenses ?
Capitalism and imperalism* JVP tried to fix it which made the ruling class show their true faces
Hi alex,
In this video you are missing some strings of the big story. As a person who currently living in sri lanka And have some experience on this case I would like to add the missing strings.
After 71 Most of the JVP members kept in the prisons. After disabling "Aparada Yukthi Commision" they were released. They were active in their politics.
Wijewira participated the election in 1982 and he was the third in the country. J.R. jayewardene was the president for the second time. He had 5/6 parliament portion at that time.
Election procedure changed. If paliment election was held with the new system three or four parliament members would have been in the parliament from JVP and J.R. is going to lose that 5/6 portion.
But election was postponed. To Postpone an election he (current president) should held an election asking permission from people to do so according to the constitution. Jayewardene did that. But according to the election history it was a corrupted election. All that happened around 1983. Some collecting boxes never came to the counting centers.
in 1983 there were small group of rebel teams in the north. Some police officers were killed by them in 1983. President and the government took the advantage and brought those bodies to colombo(Capital).. They led the rage to grow. In July, President Jayewardene announced all the police officers to take a leave. It was an order.
Supporters from the ruling party (UNP) started killing tamil cilivilians. They were burnt alive on the streets. It was all planned. Some parliament members Including Gamini Lokuge, Ranil Wickramasinghe (Current president) went to jafna and they burnt the Jafna Library. They took their supporters to jafna. Most of them were police officers. They Started killing tamil civilians in the North. Thats how 30 years of war actually started. Civillians from both sides paid the price.
After some days JVP and some other parties were banned from politics saying they are the one who done that disaster. It was all political. Government Released other parties but not the JVP. First JVP member killed in 1984 by the government. At that time they don't have guns or anything. 1985 ,1986 government hunt JVP members and killed them. In 1987 Indian forces landed on North. President was about to going for a agreement with them. First JVP attack was against Indian Army in 1987. Their was a protest against government in1987 in the Colombo forcing government to not to go with that agreement. Government opened a fire, killing 100's of Sinhala civilians monks and University student. (J.R. still President). J.V.P. attacked Sri Lankan military camps to collect weopns. At that time they only had handmade guns and etc. Sometimes Sri Lankan soldiers supported JVP.
1988 December presidential election held. Ranasinghe Premadasa elected as president. J.R. Ruled country for 10 years.
Government started to increase JVP hunting. Government has everything including press media etc. Some UNP members started to killing other party members and all the credit went to JVP. Yes of course JVP killed civilians. Most of them were UNP members who gives information to the government. Some JVP members took the advantage to cover their personal problems. They Started to looting houses and shops. Everything went wrong for the JVP side. Government had Para military groups who had guns. Most of them were controlled by parliament members. Yellow cats, Pra, Black cats are some group of them. Some members of these groups still lives today.
Those groups started to kill their military leaders. Some Families killed by these para military groups and Only military leader was left alive. Thats how they broke the bond between army and JVP. Strategy worked. Those military leaders becomes Killers. I can give you a example. He passed away few years ago. They started to killing civilians including school children. Some school girls from Kalutara district kidnapped by these military personals, Rap...ed and killed. A well known slauter house situated in Batalanda. Commanded by Ranil Wickremesnghe the current president in Sri Lanka. Those military personal went crazy. Civillians caught by these para military groups or military groups never came home.
Boddies was just a every day thing in life.
Wijewira captured and killed.
in 1993 Karma stopped president actions. He killed by a bomb. It was done by LTTE. But hunting never ended. 1994 1995 until Government released the restriction on JVP it happened. JVP scattered. Nothing left. They started their politics again in the country after release. They won 48 parliament seats just after horror era.
Again in 2012 Government Underworld opened a fire in a JVP meeting and killed two civillians in Hambantota District.
Government won and they wrote the history.
History was written by winners Not Loosers.
There are evidance to say JVP did these.
But these were done mostly by government.
The government did what it had to do
By slaughtering innocent workers revolting because they couldnt even buy food?@@TheBasedDude
@@CristoAlb That's what the communists want you to believe. If the government didn't destroy the JVP then, people today would be escaping to India by a raft like how Cubans escape to The USA.
This is an event that is being largely forgotten by most of us. This MUST keep on being spoken about.
Why do you think it isn't?
@@AlexRothman Largely because both the victims and the oppressors were singhalese therefore the events not having a racial tilt to be constantly talked about or at least connect any negative emotion with the events that could be commonly felt.
Rohana Wijeweera was a hero amongst many Sinhalese people he helped the poor and gave a voice to the voiceless but he wanted to genuinely help the Sri Lankan poor people in the country from the rich elites the government mass murdered innocent Sinhalese people in numbers to this day people have not been found.
Guy was a mass murdering communist. He was only supported by brainwashed innocent poor people and typical university moronic crowds. Dont try to act like the guy was a saint. One of my relatives lost a close friend to this murderous lowlife because he refused to pay extortion money.
Now it is the most famous political party in Sri Lanka.
@@ShashakaArchana-lu6ys May for some heards. Though its hard to digest, listen - JVP will never taste the victory forever.
@@rockitnomans5548you bet
Been waiting for this one for a long time, this video series is the only video series (that I've seen) about Sri Lanka that explains things from a neutral point of view without taking any sides. For that I thank you. Something that is not mentioned in this video is the reason that law enforcement and military were so brutal against the JVP. the thing is certain amount of the law enforcement and military were supportive of JVP because they came from the same towns and villages and they knew the hardships of those people. But since JVP is anti government they started threatening military and law enforcement personnel and their families. I don't know much about the first JVP Insurrection, but specially during the second JVP Insurrection, JVP killed families (Parents, Wives, Husbands Children, and relatives) of military & police personnel (Specially the personnel that fought in the north because they were still in the north after the IPKF came and wasn't around their families to protect them). Imagine fighting for your country day and night, weeks and months just to find out that your entire family has been murdered by the JVP because they were serving their country! so when the government unleashed them they just went out of control.
Thank you so much for your comment! I had read about the JVP targeting of families, and that point was in an early version of the video, but ultimately I cut it to avoid it being too long. However your comment gives some extra detail that I hadn't read about, so thank you very much for sharing!
@@AlexRothman Anytime, and we Thank you again for this video series. Keep up the good work and we are looking forward to the next one💪
I don't want to go to any debate over the killing of families of military, but I have an uncle who was an army soldier during 88/89 JVP rebel who has a different experience. As per him these killing of families of military was done by government aided thugs to provoke the members in police and military against the JVP since they also had enough of the then government and at the beginning of the rebel the military also didn’t oppose the rebel. Anyway these are just stories I heard.
@@thats_whatshesaid Yeah, I've heard the same stuff about the government involvement though. But can't say for sure.
@@AlexRothman Also forgot to mention that there were also lot's of good military and police personnel that tried to do the right thing and save many youths from getting killed, but didn't always succeed. Another reason that Soviets' and Chinese also helped the Sri Lankan government instead of the JVP in the 1st Insurrection is that even though Sri Lanka is a democratic country it followed a communist type of economy (IDK How to exactly explain that). for example every family had coupons to buy Rice, Bread and certain other food, and the country had a closed economy where most of the imports were stopped so that we can build our own stuff. at the time it was working quite well, people were making stuff, from cloths to cars. Unfortunately the next governments didn't follow that path and started a open economy and started importing things and all of the Sri Lankan businesses kind of went bankrupt because imported goods were much cheaper.
Another thing is that many JVP members and supporters who were university students studying STEM subjects in the universities didn't want to follow that path after they graduated because they came from poor families and had nothing but worked hard to go to college and since they studied in STEM fields most of them got jobs and they went from poor families to well paid engineers, doctors, etc... So they were like "well guess I'm not doing that anymore" I know this because I've met many people like that. Also I've met few people who still follow & support the JVP even though they do have everything they need and want!
Thank you Alex for researching on the JVP insurrection and presenting the facts. This video will undoubtedly enlighten the younger generation of Sri Lanka's modern history together with others which you had done. Thank you.
The JVP insurrections and the Sri Lankan Civil War remind me of the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Except far more violent. I'm glad to see that people in recent years have started bringing up lesser known conflicts from other parts of the world. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for watching!
As always great content. Truth is, there's always unimaginable blood shed throughout the history of this tiny island.
Sadly so true. And yet on a personal level, Sri Lankans are so wonderful and kind. It's really difficult to understand how both things coexist
@@AlexRothman That's something even I cannot tell exactly why as a sri lankan. There's always every kind of religious people speaking about all types of good deeds and stuff and the next day you'll see the exact opposite behavior. I imagine it's caused by the true under developed nature of the country. You may see smiling people but the truth is they maybe struggling to make ends meet, always under pressure. No matter what you were thought in any way or religion if you're hard pressed every day things like that may happen. I think it comes down to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (the pyramid). If you cannot really make it to the stable base you'll always be taken advantage of.
@@AlexRothman Alex whar a great content , i wonder how you found these details even our media donr want to talk..do you know that whole sri lanka now truns toward to JVp and trust only jvp and all young and old men women every one have only one hope that's JVP....the truth cant hide it will pop no matter what..❤❤❤
Sri lanka has always had turmoil all throughout its history.
Forgetting is a part of sinhalese mentality, its how they cope with overwhelming misery and brutality each generation has undergone. It is how we recover because we know that good times are short.
One might ask how we sri lankans still have a smile on their faces after facing all these odds, it’s because we forget and move one.
Im only 27 years old but I have witnessed a war , a tsunami a social revolution that overthrew a government. Only 7 years of my life I have seen stability and peace
they killed the backbone of a country and what happen we r dead nation with great humans with corrupt politcs,hats off sir u done great
What yo missed to compare was rate of killings. The war with LTTE claimed 300000 lives but that was over 25 years. It was about 12000 per year. The JVP insurgency saw 60000 dead in two years. The rate of killings, show it was much more brutal down in south.
Great doco. One of the best short ones I have seen on the JVP issue.
Sri Lankans didn't forget !
Sri Lankans forgive !
Honestly. I waited to watch all your videos on Sri Lanka to leave a comment and the first thing I want to tell you in thank you. Thank you for documenting our history and sharing it in such a captivating way on a platform where our future generations can learn about our bloodied history. We certainly do not have the capability to create such a masterpiece. I hope my fellow Sri Lankans share this with their friends and family so that we never forget what happened and never let this happen ever again
Your work is truly a blessing, I love the way you have edited your travels and merged them with the bloody content. Insightful and amazing as the rest of the series.
Wow, thank you! I'm trying to get the next ones out asap, but they do take a while
Fun fact: the Insurrection was supposed to happen om the 6th and not the 5th. My Grandfather was close friends with Mr. Wijeweera. It was by accident that the Government found out about the Insurrection and that they had to start fighting before they had to be prepared. This was why it was bad in the first Insurrection. Thats all im here for.
I waited for this since your last series, this is amazing. Thank You
Thanks Akbar!
16:18 wijeweera never promised or wanted to create sinhalese nation🤚 There was Sinhalese buddhist government even then and he fought against it by misguiding poor sinhalese , please learn more and correct that one and also wijeweera was a christian guy and he is not even sinhalese his grate grandfather was migrated to ceylon from kerala south india ,during colonial period as slave cinnamon maker and after converted to christianity from hinduism.
Sinhalese were good enough to treat
him as their own brother but as a result nearly 100000 of young village sinhalese had to die during his wars.🤔
To that end, the fact that people embrace JVP ideologies, is very funny. They have forgotten what the JVP got them into, or simply don't have the mental capacity to comprehend.
@@VisithDantanarayana1993 Thinking that modern JVP is similiar to current NPP is ignorant.
@@heransd Anura was also a part of the insurrection in 88 89, he is no different 😅😂 I know people will elect him and disaster might happen
That’s all you know about Lankan politics. Caste system had a huge influence on Lankan politics. Not directly though. But a long time made certain castes powerful and the rest wasn’t. UNP mostly consisted of westernised sinhalese were belonging to karawa and radala caste in Sri Lanka. Later sinhala buddhist govigama and karawa people in un urbanised were brought to politics by SLFP founded by Bandaranaike. Later Wijeweera found the low caste sinhalese as an opportunity to come to politics. Wijeweera was a halanduru.
@@exoelscan I know which government in history did slaughtering their own majority when they get power.Impossible right? So how NPP can do that.And also for your kind information. AKD was in 9th grade at thambuththegama central college during 88/89.Then his name was not even Anura.He was Aravinda Dissanayake. So do not lie without knowing dummy
Thank you so much for your videos! You are a genius the way you use the travel videos mixed with history. I have learned vital info about Sri Lanka from your teaching
Great video
Learnt alot about my country
I was born in 1990 and missed all of the JVP riots.
Why did you put Indian music over the videos of Sri Lanka? You are making a documentary about SL but seems like you can’t tell Sri Lanka apart from India.
Do we have a distinctive sound from India?
Because it is very hard to find royalty free Sri Lankan music.
@@AlexRothman Fair point
This was the other thing I thought of saying because I couldn't hear a very clear difference (aside from language) but of course as I'm not super familiar with either type of music, so I'm not sure I would notice the difference anyway
If anyone knows of a good place to find royalty free Sri lankan music, please do share
fantastic video. I would love to see one on the other Tamil insurgent groups such as TELO, TELA, EPRLF, TEA, PLOTE and EROS.
getting recomendded this right after the election is wild
These uprising brought voices to Poorest singalese and tamils who were excluded in Education,jobs and
Middle class similar uprising happened all societies all over the world throughout history.
ආ ඒකට කමක් නෑ මේ පාර චන්දේ මාලිමාවට තමා 🤣🤣🤣🤣
පිස්සු නමි දුන්නට කමක් නැ 70/87-90 අමතකද? කි දාහක් මැ රැවද
😂😂😂 Guu hathai
නාකි හැත්ත මේ රට කාල ඉවරයි. අපි ගම් පිටින් මිනිස්සු එකතු කරල ඉවරයි.
මාලිමාව දිනල ඉවරයි....🚩🧭
Today a JVP leader is set to become the president
I don't think it's a coincidence that you posted this on Feb 4th, the Sri Lankan independence day!
By the way you'll find it far more exciting to learn about the current part played in Sri Lankan politics by the JVP, with its rising popularity among the youth, mostly of the urban middle class. There was even such a loud support in the "Gota go Home" campaign for the National People's Power (NPP) which is a coalition led by the JVP.
They actually were kind of social media favourites in the last decade, as most people who use social media platforms such as Facebook are the youth. But this favour didn't reflect in the votes in the elections because most had to choose one from two main forces, which reduced actual votes for JVP who were always the third party.
It's really interesting to see what would happen in the upcoming elections of Sri Lanka.
You know, I found it really hard to wrap my head around what the JVP are now. I talked to people about it but it still doesn't make sense to me how they can be considered a normal or semi-normal political party, given what they used to stand for. Any insight? What issues are they mainly campaigning on? And how do they react when they are held to account for the insurrections? Do some people still sympathise with their goals back in the 70s and 80s?
@@AlexRothman Well, what I have to say here would be mostly my understanding of the facts.
I think people here always tend to see the ruling power - not as a representation of them, but as kind of an "enemy of the people", even though they themselves have elected them.
This is kind of fair, because the political system is hugely corrupted, and the blame is pinned on the two major political parties/ camps. With the recent economic crisis, this hate grew much more as people demanded to investigate the corrupt Rajapakse regime, hopefully to regain the state's "stolen money".
Rajapaksa family and their cronies became probably the most hated group of people in the country in 2022 as the nepotism and large scale corruption allegations against them were supported by the international incidents like the "Pandora papers", revealing the family's wealth to be even more than all of the country's reserves.
This is where the JVP comes into play. As identified in your video, the JVP now mainly campaigns on anti-corruption. They also did some investigation work in revealing the corruption of the Rajapaksas, earning the favor of many people. Also, few of the parliamentarians of JVP once became ministers in an intermediary government under president Chandrika Kumaranatunge in 2004, and the ministers' performances are said to be exemplary. Recently, there's a large number of the educated professionals who sided with the NPP, which is a coalition led by the JVP.
Than all of the above reasons, the JVP leaders are seen as a different kind of politicians, who come from humble beginnings, who don't live luxury lives as the other politicians. Therefore they could be seen as "leaders of the people" in the heated times of the "Aragalaya" (protests) of 2022.
This is most clearly seen in the May 10th incident when a small group of pro-rajapaksa protestors attacked the peaceful protests at the Galle face. They were mostly "village thugs" brought to Colombo by the regional leaders of SLPP, the Rajapaksas' party. This was clearly a planned attack which started from nowhere other than the official residence of the prime minister at the time: Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In the aftermath of this incident, only the leader of the NPP (and JVP) could visit the Galle face because even the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was faced with angry protestors throwing stones at him and his guard. At that moment the JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was praised by the protestors for coming there without having any guards, "ready to face the threat standing side by side with the protestors".
At this time, there were also allegations of "state-induced violence" in the form of law enforcement. Ideas were expressed, looking back on the 88, 89 JVP insurrections, stating that "most of the violence back then was perpetrated by none other than the government, which made some of it look like the JVP committed them". Many young people started to believe that they did right in the form of a "rebellion against the corrupt politicians", despite its extreme marxist and sinhalese-nationalist beginnings.
Also, as you have noticed, the JVP now has changed its marxist and nationalist motives to a more liberal, modern ideology, mainly with their rebranding as the NPP. This is a successful strategy of giving people what they need to see. Even though the JVP has a very dark past, many of its current supporters only need vague excuses to leave all that past behind. Also, I personally think the change of leadership in the JVP has resulted in much change as there are very few remaining in the leadership from the insurrection times.
Another main excuse they provide for the 88/89 insurrections is that after 1971 rebellions, they came wholeheartedly into the democratic politics. But they blame the JR Jayawardena government back then for unfairly banning their party, after the "Black July" incident of 1983 which they claim to have no involvement in. After the ban, they claims that the initial violent acts were also committed by the government, to make them look like the culprit. No one knows the truth as most of the crimes went unpunished and even un-investigated. However, we have to keep in mind: "Winners write the history"
@@PasanMahindapala Thank you very much for such a detailed reply. Everything you say makes sense, and I feel I understand a little bit better after reading your thoughts!
@@AlexRothman It's my pleasure to be of help. Your video series is one of the most informative and unbiased documentaries on Sri Lanka, describing both the surface and also the hidden side. Many thanks!
@@AlexRothman Need to add this to Skippy s comment.
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After the 2019 easter sunday bomb attack, the people are starting to believe that all of those events are just politicians playing their Aces to take the advantage of their game of policitcs. As for the context, people belive the bomb attack is just a political campaign to make Gotabaya Rajapaksha, the president. It worked, if that's true. After that, people specially the young generation started to re think about the dark ages in SL with this idealogy and it kinda makes sense in most cases.
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Now this generation is skeptical about all of the movements happening around SL more than ever. Whether they are related to a political game.
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You ask how much skeptical. The answer is yes.
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Personally I feel like this video is also a product of another campaign to bring down the floating votes of NPP. Because the election is near.
JK.... Or am I not.
Ahhhh finally! I’ve been checking your channel every now and then for weeks for the next video. Can’t wait for you to cover the civil war period.
Starting work on it now! They are big videos though, so it might be a few weeks
@@AlexRothman
For your kind information: JVP (Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna/Peoples Liberation Force)is not now a one party.It allinged with another 25 groups including NGO s and created NPP ( national peoples power) in 2015.
JVP didn't compete in general elections as a solo party for more than a decade.First they were with Rajapakses.Next switched to UNP,the party of current president Ranil.2005-2010 they helped former president Chandrika Kumaratunga,the husband of Vijaya, the actor killed by JVP and Mahinda Rajapakse to win civil war and accussed Ranil as a traitor who betrays country to LTTE..
in 2010 the leader of Sri lankan army sarath fonseca aligned with Ranil ,then JVP leadership was transfered from Somawansha amaraweera,the survived friend of wijeweera to anura kumara dissanayake who is the current leader.JVP supported Fonseca.but he and Ranil lost.
2010-2015 Anura worked with Ranil and a minister of SLFP (mahinda's party) called Maithreepla sirisena left Mahinda and joined Ranil taking leadership of SLFP.he is still leader of it.Maithreepala and ranil was helped by Anura and JVP to win presidency.
in 2015 NPP was formed.After that JVP and other 25 groups of NPP criticised Mahinda for environmental damages and corruptions done by rajapakses hiding behind lotus tower and construction done by Chinese debt and tech such as uma oya,highway,maththal Airport,port city.Maththala Airport corrupted that not a single plane visited it as maththala,hambantota wasn't complex.JVP helped Ranil to make it a paddy store.in 2017 Ranil robbed the central bank.
After that he didn't work with Ranil and became sovereign. In 2019 after Easter attacks and martyrdom of Sri Lankan Christians by ISIS Anura candidated for 2019 presidential elections and got only 3% elections.But after 2022 aragalaya or protest done against re-elected rajapakse's economic mismanagement and ranil's deals NPP became popular than 30%-60% (currently 40%) of country.Now it evolved from extremism and criticism to a party handling meetings with academics to gain ruling power of country next time democratically.
Now Rajapakses new party emerged in 2017 SLPP ,a coalition government with SLFP ,the former party under Mahinda is unpopular, that even current president Ranil, who lost a single chair for his party UNP in 2020 Parliamentary election ,is popular about 15 % while SLPP is popular about 9% under Mahinda son namal.(rajapakse party got 6914000 ,more than 50% of votes in 2019) .Ranil faced this fate after the presidential candidate Sajith ,the son of Ranasinghe premadasa(the president who swept JVP 2nd rally) left UNP with Earlier mentioned Fonseca to create new party called SJB( Samagi jana balawegaya/Peaceful people's power) .Now it is the opposition and has a popularity same as or slightly high or low than NPP(approximately 40%)
In 2024 the main power gaining parties are NPP,the child party of JVP and SJB.Ranil became much popular after he could handle economy bit reducing queues, implementing QR code system to take oil and expanding conferences with IMF 1nd Chinese banks.Now ministers of SLPP and some of SJB like fonseca has moved to Ranil .They are like frogs.😂😂Fourth party is SLPP of rajapakses.Fifth is Sarwajana balaya party (it is like power of every people) created by businessman Dilith Jayaweera and left-wing minister Wimal weerawansha who worked earlier in JVP and left to Mahinda .Next there are tamil and Muslim parties.Aftef that Frontline socialist party.Now NPP isn't completely Marxist neither capitalist.
It is a coincidence and a fun fact.Earlier JVP and Ranasinghe Premadasa were enemies.Now NPP and ranasinghe's son are opponents.It is really hot here in Sri Lanka.Now Sri lankans are talking about 88/89 too much😂😂
And you better know that JVP started crimes after President Jayawardena Junior banned it in 1983 unconditionally.😢
What starts the gotabhaya rajapakses' end is that banning fertilisers.
next election i'm gonna vote jvp led NPP🙂sice 1977 SLFP/UNP parties,get the power and destroyed this beautiful island..Next election will be critical for SL future.(Now there are no 2 parties because they joint and controlling now)funfacts is our president is defeated from election he came to power from parliment not a peoples's vote
Comprehension skills are null ah? Woosh missed the whole point of the video
@@stephanj7719 You have no idea. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been living in this country since '96. I’m talking about the bigger picture and the fundamental politics behind this destruction. Maybe outsiders can’t fully understand the current situation, but I’m not an outsider to this country..this is my homeland.😁
You will never know what happened during 1977 - 1994 UNP cursed era
@@thenukarathnayake1133 That is why i m voting NPP 😂
@@tharukajayasinghe7958 agree
Correct the infomation priminister R Premadasa kill by LTTE terrorists not jvp
*it was an attempted assasination of Premadasa, as I say in the vid
Oh Do you mean Terrorist Singhalese government.
When it comes to JVP they are JVP alone, when it comes to the LTTE they become LTTE terrorists.
You guys are very funny people. How about the people who killed young students taken away from school,
any name for those killers.
@@AlexRothman because R premadasa killed 60000 boys and girls in vain.
@@internetmoney5983you were involved too bud
Someone Deleted All the Comments which included the details about what really happened back then and left only the agreeing ones , I wonder why??
Bro can you point what the deleted comments said?
The comment section has more history told than the video itself. Thank you for the knowledge.
Excellent video!
THIS IS A WRONG PROPAGANDA GIVING BY THIS MAN, SOME ONE MUST HAVE PAID HIM
TO THIS.
100% correct it's a paid capitalist
It seems like this guy owns this channel is just a selling toy to corrupted politicians
Womp womp 😂
Yeah truth hurts
Alex-your videos are superb!
JVP is so similar to Naxalite movement in India. Both of their leaders sons and daughters live happy life in Capitalist countries while convincing failed communist ideologies to the poor youth.
Absolutely
Communism basically in a nutshell.
Hmm
Hi bro, How much ranil uncle paid for you ?
What you are telling about 1987 rebellion is not entirely true. They did not killed Wijeya Kumaratunga. You are misleading the audience. So, please dig down the facts more.
Who is the comrade Lionel? How did he get Ak47 gun?
@@tharinduwiraj2563 it was a plot. He was a rogue cadre of jvp. Mrs CBK was accusing JVP for the assassination untill the presidential commission report on Wijeaya's assassination released. Then, she kept quite as the report said something else.
Generation before these brave young men and wome who died were very uneducated and used to live under a society where the elites ruled common man what ever the way they wanted. These people tried to eliminate this corrupted system which prevails in Sri lanka up until today
Came to know about JVP insurrection which I had been interested for many years , although I’ve heard different stories and conspiracy theories from my grand parents and elder citizens I know of none of them were clear and transparent. Also I just went on a safari ride which I have never been on 😅 , bro should start a whole Netflix series at this point I’m pretty you are among top 5% of creators based on content quality . Keep up good luck 🫡
Great Alex, This is a good unbiased commentary on this subject , Thanks.
Very simple yet detailed. Great stuff. Keep it up mate.
The LTTE and JVP are two sides of the same coin.
Nope UNP & LTTE are two sides of same coin
You are wrong
👍👍👍👍👍👍
#POWERTOTHEPEOPLE ✊🇱🇰✊
Why did youtube recommended me this video after Anura WON?
Some of the things you said were wrong!
Fact check is a must when you do a video like this.Keep up the good work!Your presentation skills are great.
In the 1990s I was an undergrad in the USA. At my university a classmate of mine was drom Sri Lanka. He told me how he was caught up in the JVP problem. He was a Sri Lankan Muslim and Tamil.
Yes, some muslims who sit at student unions in sri lankan universities directly supported JVP.
Hello Alex
You must also note that there were interconnections where JVPs manipulation of people to fight each other sinhala* and Tamil* , they executed their own political agendas so they could succeed their goals by breaking down the government…💯 the interconnection here was connection to the LTTE war in the end
I’m a Sri Lankan, all these are 100% true.
Peabhakaran, JVP, got their advantage through innocent people’s lives
great video looking forward to see your next video
Thanks a lot! More to come!
Your videos are amazing, keep it up Mr. Alex!
Thanks for watching Colm!
There's a huge misunderstanding about jvp within people
First ofall i appreciate to u make video for us , but there ve some issue with some info , plz if u dont know the reality i mean abt histry dont talk about it , ❤
What’s up with the Indian music doesn’t match the Sri Lankan videos
Can you do a content about rajapaksha family too my brother
Bloody hell...your basically digging up purposely deleted history ...I am living in sri lanka and my dad was A/L student during 1971 and stories he told me about that and 1988/89 terror times weren't this detailed..Now I can't wait to go home to show this video to dad..
Thanks a lot for watching and commenting! I've put a ton of work into the vids and it's great to get a response like yours. More videos are on their way!
@@AlexRothman seriously your production quality is top notch...I love it...
From now on jvp ( currently Npp ) holding power in sri lanka ♥️
💪🚩
Same thing happened to Tamils over 30 yrs, over 250 000 Tamils got killed in the name of war. Genocide in the name of war.
Shame on the SL government.
Well now you have a chance to elect the right party to the power that will do for both ethnic groups
@@ShashakaArchana-lu6ysfunny cause a large number of Eelam Tamils were displaced by the war and probably can’t vote so yeah…
@@Ghost-ze3dw Next solution is leave the island as my family did. (We were pissed off by this dead deal politics)
@@Ghost-ze3dw any citizen can vote
The JVP didn't kill all those people. Do your research-both sides, including the UNP government, were responsible. The UNP suppressed and committed killings as well. They genocided the cream of Sri Lanka's university youth
Love the opening themes, extra credits to that
And if JVP start another insurgency like this again, we the Nationalistic Sinhalese will end them once and for all. Letting them go, after such horrible atrocities against Sinhalese people was a huge mistake. The government should have end them there.
@@lifo365 I don't care about who ever comes to power. As long as it's not JVP
Who killed 60000 sinhala youth?
You are using racism to protect the 100 corny capitalist families
Your videos are wildly underrated 👏☯️
6:57 sinhalese against sinhalese? Is that true or are you trying to make a division between the races here? Or you meant Sri Lankans against the Government? Just need a clarification from someone thanks😊
Communists against the government
lots of false information i think >50%
cannot accepet the bitter truth ne gon jeppa.
@@KingRayleigh Fool
@@KingRayleigh ane ban hondada hoyala igena gena waren moda kalakaniiya UNP haraka
umbata monada puluwan umbatath karanna puluwan comment karana eka tjmai
@@KingRayleigh except it's not the truth. ub thama gona.
This content is kinda false.I think its not the youtuber s faults but the source and rumors
Any way i'm glad and appriciated at least you have gathered some info correctly and with some still we can debate on... Thank you.
Bcs people who rule the country are not Sinhalese or Tamils, they are kandy nayak telugus. Watch Kandy nayak movie time 1h 16 min.
I agree and I'm Sinhalese
My aunts saw heads on top of their local bus stand when they were going to school
Has there been Justice done in way of enquiry, conviction of miscreants, the guilty any where in the world? Any government or any other "militant" group?
Super video
But I am not here to tell That JVP didn’t kill any people or anything but What did The UNP do ,Were they not involved in killings of 1988/89 and the Batalanda Killings
and wijaya kumaranathung was not assisinated by Jvp . do a proper research before posting fales shananigans
Dont tell lie we know the truth you dont know 88 89 may be you not bron in that time or you was a child maybe this is properganda for attack npp or jvp
Great video 👍🏻
Thanks 👍 Glad you enjoyed
In terrorism conflicts such as this, it is difficult to separate the terrorists from their opponents. The JVP started the process of unmitigated violence and wholesale murders of innocents, and the forces of law and order eliminated them largely by extra judicial means. There was no time for arrests, prosecutions, and proportional punishments. It was kill or be killed. But, make no mistake, ordinary people whose lives had been upended, largely approved of the actions of the government, for it restored stability and security to their lives!
The JVP sowed the wind, and they reaped the whirlwind. After the first insurrection of the JVP, they were rehabilitated with great kindness by then PM Srimavo Bandaranayake. They didn't learn from their experience and repeated the process even more violently in 1987-1988, and received a devastating response. Sinhalese people are largely committed to the middle path of moderation, and are slow to anger, but are not unwilling to defend themselves with great courage as and when necessary. Woe to those who mistake that gentleness for cowardice !
Now, the presumably rehabilitated JVP is contesting the general elections, in a youthful electorate that has no memory of their history of previous violence. Given their opinionated tendency to run roughshod over people's inalienable right to exercise freedom of choice, I fear the rise of this articulate group of violent professional revolutionists attempting to exploit the economic problems of Sri Lanka, once again !
I hope and pray that a patriotic coalition of middle of the road parties would be elected to govern this resplesdent land with a massive mandate from the majority of its people!
Jayaweva, Sri Lanka, Jayaweva! 🇱🇰! 🇱🇰! 🇱🇰!🙏! 🙏!🙏!
Amnesty International say's that 60,000 has disappeared or killed
How much money did you get to make this video ? 😂😂😂😂😂
mr the information about 1989 killing totally wrong government para military groups done the most of killings .. how you got this wrong information ..
I HAVE A FEELING SOME ONE MUST HAVE HIRE THIS IDIOT TO SPREAD FALSE INFOMATION AGAINST JVP.
Amazing mate 🫡
Sri Lanka has been socialist ever since the remarkable Bracegirdle incident, and my own father was a communist in his youth.
Super ❤😊 🇱🇰
Great content 👌 keep it up bro
Thanks, will do!
well done!
Hoo nose maybe sri lanka wood become the next cambodgia iff this lvp win
then vote for fox ranil and bullshit rajapaksa thieves..
So the Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lankan state was neither a state for a common Sinhalese nor a common Tamil. It was a genocidal racist state that was fuelling racism among the common people among the majority community and diverting them towards the community that was made minoirty by putting them under a single state and was leeching all the communities in the Island
It's the rulers. The rulers are not real sinhalese. They were Vijaya nagara rulers/ war lords in the past. They have no feeling for Tamils or Sinhalese, they have feeling only for power and money.
Winifred Shore
😂 this guy knows nothing go deeper on history before you speak about it
Government is to be blamed for the past blood baths.
Okay but you could have done more research on Sri Lankan music… you’re using Indian music on a docco about Sri Lanka ??😭 bye ✋🏼 😭
Srilanka is almost like Bengal ❤
Young sinhala boys and girls and after young tamil boys and girls killed
Anura kumara is a murderer 😐
Nope anura was just 19 year old when this happened..
But JR,Premadasa,ranil was in the front of commiting genocides in 1977,1981,1983,1988/89, 1990 -1992
@@thenukarathnayake1133 he was the president of the student union at Kelaniya university. And directly support JVP. Like now, in present most student unions directly support Perataugami party and Anthare directly supports JVP. That is not a secret anymore!
@@Wealthify4u yep but that was in 1995 ithink..after that he got the oppotunity to join to jvp 1997 or 1998 as i remember..during 88/89 he witness the murder of his brother (punchi ammage putha) it made clear that he should join to the main stream politics
@@thenukarathnayake1133 And he got a public apology in Toronto for the JVP violence against civilians. Both the government and jvp party did the same thing to each other and the civilians.
@@thenukarathnayake1133 yeah he has been born in 24th Nov 1968
❤️❤️❤️JVP💪💪💪
💣🔫💣🔫💣🔫💣🔫💣🔫💣🔫
Mr Alex may be the reader but it's apparent who the writers are 😂 JVP was correct all along!!
Ledner Mill