Anarchy or Democracy: Which won on 9 July?

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

Ninth of July 2022 will go down as one of the most remarkable days in our political history; popular protests forced the resignation of a President, elected with a massive mandate and huge expectations, less than three years back. However, what transpired subsequently has cast severe doubts as to whether it was a genuine public protest or an engineered one where some politicians with ulterior motives exploited the suffering of the masses to try to achieve what they are not capable of through democratic means.

It goes without saying that the three Rajapaksa brothers should take the major share of the blame for the mess we are in. At a time when united action was needed, blinded with the delusion of invincibility they worked at cross purposes leading to a totally unexpected downfall. However, their plight pales into insignificance when one considers the suffering of the masses. Worse still, the entire political class led the ordinary person down as, instead of joining hands to solve the economic problems, they were busy finding solutions to political problems.

When belated solutions like the IMF visit seemed to be producing some effect, a mass mobilisation was called for by some in the name of the Aragalaya, perhaps not to miss a golden political opportunity. A flood of protesters descended on places of vital importance of government and it looked as if there was no shortage of fuel! The government underestimated and any attempts by the police was undermined by the BASL which prevailed upon the judiciary not to grant any injunctions which resulted in the public occupation of the President’s House, president’s office and Temple Trees. It was far from a peaceful protest but media around the world portrayed it as people’s power. BBC reported on the public occupation of a non-existent ‘presidential palace’. Pity they did not check to find that it was their own colonial governor-general’s residence previously.

What valuables are lost and whether important documents were destroyed, maybe purposefully, during these invasions we do not know. No one seems to be talking about the economic consequences of these actions. Surely, these can only add to the tanking of our economy! Do some politicians encourage such worsening so that the protests would continue?

Events that followed 09 July, culminating in the near ‘capture’ of the Parliament on 13th night, surely, raises the question whether anarchy has replaced law and order. Worse still were the words of encouragement for anarchy by some elected representatives. Prominent among these was Sarath Fonseka, who still harbours presidential ambitions. When the occupations, which were far from peaceful protests, were in progress he addressed the crowd and, instead of pleading for restraint from the crowd, was instructing security forces not to harass protestors. Subsequently, when others including the BASL was requesting protesters to vacate these sites of strategic importance, he was advising against it. Since then, he has announced that he is prepared to be President!

His actions are overshadowed by the actions of the leaders of the JVP and FSP. The banner headline in the Sinhala sister paper of The Island was the proclamation by Kumar Gunaratnam that the law henceforth would be the law of the Aragalaya! Anura Kumara, visited and subsequently endorsed by the American Ambassador, remains rather quiet allowing others to do the pronouncements but was very emphatic that it is the various tiers of the JVP that was behind the Aragalaya. Whilst Handunnetti was preaching economic vandalism, some others were inviting crowds to invade the Parliament. There was a timely warning in the editorial “Let sanity prevail!” (The Island 12 July):

“Likewise, those who take the credit for having extricated the country from the clutches of the Rajapaksas could become a huge problem if they are allowed to have their own way, given their violent past; they made themselves out to be messiahs and used the blood of the youth to fuel their politico-military projects.

“Some ex-members of death-dealing sparrow units that roamed the country in the late 1980s have crawled out of the woodwork since Saturday’s uprising. They are all out to usurp the powers of Parliament, and if their demand for the establishment of a council above the legislature is granted, they will be able to manipulate it to run a parallel government. It is high time the democratic Opposition sat up and took notice of the dangerous trend; it has to take control of the situation instead of making all the noise in the world and doing precious little to help bring order out of chaos.”

However, the gathering momentum was so great that some feared that JVP may succeed now, having failed twice before in 1971 and 1988/9. No doubt many had sighs of relief when the attempt to seize the Parliament on 13th evening failed but the danger is not over yet. It is the duty of the Parliament to see that democracy prevails now that Gota has resigned. It is a great shame that he had to flee, which is understandable as the fate that befell Gaddafi would have befallen him had he opted to stay. It is a great shame our democracy is not mature enough for a leader to stay safe after retirement. Considering that a major media company is being accused by some of having contributed to the senseless burning of Ranil’s house, worse still the train of events being started by a misleading tweet from a fellow parliamentarian, there is hardly a doubt that Gota would have been subjected to a Kangaroo trial! I do hope his numerous critics would give him breathing space now that he has sent a very decent letter of resignation.

Young relatives of mine say that the tone in social media has changed significantly with the realisation that the JVP/FSP is attempting to capture power undemocratically capitalising on the woes of the public. I sincerely do hope that this is happening and the triumph of anarchy over democracy is only a passing phase.Although some politicians are clamouring for elections in the hope that they may benefit from misery, let us hope the majority of our elected representatives see sense and work together to find urgent solutions to the pressing economic problems whilst safeguarding democracy.