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Protests mount over ‘protestful’ city
View(s):With traffic police facing an uphill task to minimise disruption to daily life in the face of various groups taking to the streets regularly and public anger mounting, does the Govt. have a solution? Sandun Jayawardana reports
Protests during evening peak hour have created traffic chaos
Authorities are overwhelmed by a barrage of street protests, which in turn is causing severe hardship to the public and negatively impacting on the country’s already fragile economy.
Law enforcement agencies, particularly the Traffic Police, are finding themselves hard pressed to handle the sheer number of almost daily protests. According to police, there are now on average, two protests in Colombo City on any given working day. The primary responsibility of ensuring they cause as little disruption as possible to daily life lies with the city’s Traffic Police.
According to Deputy Inspector General (Traffic), Palitha Fernando, there are currently 1137 Traffic Police officers on duty at 24 police stations in the city. These numbers are not adequate to meet major protests on Colombo’s roads. As such, officers from other branches have to be pulled out from their normal duties to direct traffic. This in turn affects the functioning of other police work.
Last Wednesday (22) when DIG Fernando met with the Sunday Times, four different protests were taking place in various areas of Colombo. “A protest anywhere in the city is sure to cause some level of disruption,” he told us.
Senior Professor at the Department of Transport and Logistics Management, University of Moratuwa, Amal Kumarage said on the one hand, protesters were attempting to make the maximum impact without breaking the law and on the other, they were prepared to use such protests as a means of drawing attention to whatever issues they were protesting about. “However, more and more people are now starting to resent this.”
Prof. Kumarage said the economic impact too was considerable. Even a 10 minute delay costs about Rs.500 on average per vehicle caught in traffic congestion. If one were to multiply that by the number of vehicles on the road, the loss amounts to millions of rupees, he pointed out.
Amid mounting criticism from the public, authorities are taking some steps aimed at preventing matters from spiraling into protests. Accordingly, a Senior Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Law and Order has now been designated to coordinate with different Ministries after receiving information from police regarding a protest. The official’s task is to ensure that senior officials at Ministries are notified and are available to meet with representatives of trade unions when there are issues to be discussed.
Speaking in Parliament earlier this month, Colombo District MP S.M. Marikkar called for the allocation of separate areas for public protests. Mr. Marikkar told the Sunday Times he made the proposal as protests were inconveniencing the public, causing traffic congestion, hurting the economy and causing environmental pollution. He said many cities in developed countries had separate protest zones. “I myself have seen such zones in London and Tokyo,” he said. The MP added Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake had assured him that the proposal would be taken into consideration and the Government would soon introduce new laws regarding protests.
“No one is saying that people’s right to protest and free expression should be curbed. But it is a real fact that there are elements who are openly abusing that right and it’s infringing on the rights of others,” the MP argued.
The Sunday Times made repeated attempts to clarify from Minister Sagala Ratnayake when the new laws regarding protests might be introduced. However, he was unavailable.
| A right or a hindrance: A view from the streets The latest of these protests occurred on Thursday (23) afternoon when the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) held a protest opposite the Colombo Fort Railway Station against the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM). The protest did not culminate in clashes, but as the Sunday Times team made its way to Pettah, we saw barricades and water cannon positioned along Lotus Road near the Presidential Secretariat – something which has become standard operating procedure for police given the tendency of protesters to march on to the Secretariat or Temple Trees.  Mohamed Huzni The protest ended by 5 pm, sparing the public of lengthier delays on the road during evening rush hour. People we spoke to also praised the JVP for ensuring that they did not leave any discarded rubbish along the route of the protest march. There was however, general complaints that many protests were disruptive. At the World Market complex next to the Fort Railway Station, Mohamed Huzni (44) said the constant protests were bad for business. Foreign tourists tend to avoid the area entirely when there are protests, due to traffic congestion and fears of clashes between police and protesters, he claimed. Mr. Huzni has run a shop at the market for over 20 years and said he has never seen this many protests in Colombo. While Mr. Huzni hoped the Government could find designated areas for these protests, he conceded that street protests were an effective method of getting people’s voices across. “The Government won’t feel it if they stay off the streets,” he quipped. At the other end of the complex, Athula Premasiri (50) and Upul Chandrasiri (48) told us business was slow anyway for everyone and it was hard to make ends meet. “But it’s worse on protest days,” said Mr. Premasiri, who had worked at the World Market for 32 years. They conceded that the area was a convenient place for a protest, with thousands of people sure to see it. The market is also the first place people, including protesters run to during clashes with police, Mr. Chandrasiri said. “They run into the complex. We give them water, wash the tear gas off their faces,” he added. Even MPs have run into the complex during clashes, he claimed.  Krishan Marambage At the three-wheeler park of the railway station, Fazil (53) from Wellampitiya said he and his fellow three-wheeler drivers don’t get any hires if there is a protest in the area. “People would rather walk some distance to get a three-wheeler on the road due to the traffic congestion,” he observed. The driver was grateful that this particular protest ended before the arrival of the 5.30 train from Rambukkana, which was full of passengers disembarking at the station. “If a protest goes on after 5.30, we won’t get hires from those passengers.” Mr. Fazil said it would be better if protesters were allocated to an area such as Galle Face as it would not inconvenience the public so much. Thirty one -year-old Wasantha Witharanage from Kurunegala spoke just after he missed boarding the train. While stressing that this particular protest had nothing to do with him being late, Mr. Witharanage, who works in Kollupitiya, said there have been occasions where protests had caused him to miss the train. “This means that I have to take the next train and I end up arriving in Kurunegala after 1 0 p.m.” He also said he had been struck by tear gas on two occasions this year during protests while walking from his Kollupitiya office. | |