Sunday Times 2
Aragalaya Vs aged parties
View(s):President Ranil Wickremesinghe last week expressed deep concern about the ‘violence in Brasilia’ while claiming that “Sri Lanka, not so long ago, experienced similar attempts by groups to overthrow democratic structures through unconstitutional means. Such hostilities are condemned and we stand in solidarity with the president, government and people of Brazil in this hour of confrontation. It is imperative that democratic institutions are universally respected by all citizens.”
While some wide similarities between the events in Brasilia and Colombo can be perceived, the Sri Lankan president does not appear to focus on the objectives of the political activists in Brazil and those of Sri Lanka in their demonstrations.
In Brazil, it was a partisan political protest contesting the conduct of a presidential election which they alleged was rigged and wanted the winner Lula da Silva to be replaced by the loser by a very narrow margin, Jair Bolsanaro. In Lanka, the objective of the protests was to throw out a government, which after two years of taking office, had brought the country to bankruptcy: the people were left with no supplies of fuel, scarce supplies of food, and fast diminishing stocks of medicines. The country was being plunged into hours of darkness because powerhouses had no fuel to feed the national grid.
These facts cannot be swept under the carpet even though they were the direct causes of Ranil Wickremesinghe who had only his seat and no other seat in parliament to be made the president of a government that was thrown out by the protestors.
Reports from Brazil said the supporters of former President Bolsanaro battled the security forces deployed to protect the buildings through tear gas, water cannon, and mounted personnel and crashed into of premises of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace, destroying property, and throwing computers, while overturning furniture, including the table used by Supreme Court judges to sit together. They riddled valuable paintings in the presidential palace with gunfire and attempted to set fire to the carpet with the intention of setting the building on fire but it was saved by the automatic sprinkler system.
In Colombo, in contrast, unprecedented crowds began gathering at the Galle Face-Fort area despite a curfew imposed the night before and a near halt of transport into Colombo. A massive river of humanity, unarmed, began flowing into the Galle Face Green from the South and another such river emerged from the Pettah area through Chatham Street into Queens Road. There was no violence seen in the wide TV coverage given by many channels. They shook the towering gates of the President’s House; a vehicle was seen backing into it and some activists were seen climbing over the gates and jumping into the President’s House compound. The only violence we witnessed on TV was a merciless attack with batons on an unarmed youth by military men who had jumped into the compound.
Mercifully the attack was halted by an army officer in uniform.
In contrast, the demonstrators amused themselves looking inside this holiest of political holies which is taboo for ordinary people although the monument is being maintained at the expense of the taxpayer. The hoi polloi pay the expenses involved in maintaining the president and the monument when purchasing their ‘parippu‘, sugar and booze. They found a large amount of money amounting to millions of rupees hidden inside a chamber which they handed over to the authorities.
Of course, these ‘Yakkos’ jumped into the presidential pool without showering themselves and sat on the presidential bed and chairs. Would you like these things happening in your home? Some would certainly not. Bloody cheek, these are acts of terrorism, they will say.
The Archaeology Department, it is reported has estimated the damages done to the monument left by the British going into millions of rupees, although the details of the damages done by the Sri Lankan demonstrators have not been made public and those assessors of these damages have not been named. Damage assessment is a tricky business, those experienced with assessors of the Motor Traffic Department and the Insurance business will tell you.
The pro-Bolsanaro demonstrators have openly declared that their intention was to re-install Bolsanaro as the president but Bolsanaro had condemned their attacks on the three main institutions of governance although he has made official protests that the election was rigged.
The Sri Lankan demonstrators had no leader and no attempt was made to seize power or destroy democratic institutions as alleged. The people only walked into the President’s House, Parliament and the Prime Minister’s office and occupied them.
By last weekend, Bolsanaro was reported to have been in Florida in a hospital taking treatment for ‘abdominal pains’. His supporters, having called off their demonstrations, were in the process of being arrested by the Brazilian authorities for the offences committed.
Wickremesinghe had, for reasons of his own, before being made the President of Sri Lanka by the Rajapaksa (Pohottuwa) government, publicly supported the GotaGoHome protestors (now called the Aragalaya) and advised government officials publicly not to use force against the protestors. But immediately on being made President, low-flying planes along the Galle Face Green drove terror into those gathered there and state forces began enforcing ‘Law and Order’ although it had been held by Supreme Court judgments that peaceful public protests were permissible under Sri Lankan law.
For some inexplicable reason, the former soldier (Lt.Colonel) President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, also the Commander-in-Chief — did not crack down on protestors even though the vortex of the protests was located almost by the Presidential Secretariat. Wickremesinghe within 24 hours of assuming office claiming that he was saving democracy began implementing his Demo-no-Cracy, using the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) enacted to combat Tamil separatist forces fighting government security forces. Peaceful demonstrations of university students have been effectively halted by using strong contingents of police backed by the armed forces.
Student leaders are being jailed under the PTA. Inter-University Student’s Federation Convener Wasantha Mudalige and several others are being held under PTA. Mudalige was arrested on August 18 last year and is still being held in remand with no charges made against him. Whether Mudalige the student leader hailing from the Veddah community in Dambana (His mother is from the Uruwarige Tissahamy’s Clan of aborigines) will be condemned by the people — particularly the youth — as a terrorist or an emerging leader, time will tell.