Cassandra cries in alarm

Cassandra cries out of turn, on Tuesday when her cry is heard on Fridays. Why this jump? Alarm, fear and hopelessness. Alarm and fear after listening to a press interview on Saturday or Sunday – July 16/17 – when Joseph Stalin of the SL Teachers’ Union, and Wasantha Mudalige of the Inter-university Students Federation, flanked by stony faced men and a yellow robe, threatened they would come out in full force on 19 July to …. (?) Cass cannot remember their stated reason. But she guesses their real reason: to cause as much mayhem as possible the day before Parliament meets to elect an interim president; to demonstrate they represent Peoples’ Power which is all powerful now, having driven away a president of the country and occupied three of the most important state institutions/buildings and attempted breaching the Parliament building on two previous occasions. We condemn unreservedly these latter travesties. This July 19 protest will confer no benefit at all to the country, people, or the radical protesters themselves. It will only worsen the situation the country is sunk in. Supposedly, members of the Frontline Socialist Party, too, were present.

Cass said she feels fear and hopelessness. The last because no amount of appealing will stop the protestors in their perilous (to the country and people) marches. Cass suspects the real but unstated and even hidden motive is to provoke the police and armed forces. She suspects they wish to promote the armed forces to resort to an act of resistance and containment worse than tear gas and water shooting. They provoke the armed forces to yes, shoot and then savour the uproar that follows. Theirs is the aim of de-stabilisation: the worst state to occur in our already unstable condition. Anarchy is their aim.

These groups do not represent the original Aragalaya. They, the originals, decent members of civil society disregarding race, religion, age, educational standards and status came together with one cry: Go Gota Go. That was achieved. The original protestors would have departed to their homes and business. Other names cannot be added on to the go list. This is what is being done now, by infiltrators to the original protestors at Gotagogama. The originators were much respected and much thanked and they achieved much – the demise of the Rajapaksas. This new lot is dangerous, to say the least. Stalin led teachers to protest when the country was in the throes of the Covid pandemic and the IUSF have more than once broken barriers and literally battled with the police, who have been exceptionally forbearing. They seem to want to breach the barrier of forbearance and provoke those in uniform to use stronger measures on them. Cass and most others fervently hope this won’t happen and the uniformed ones will tolerate spat venom right on their faces and physical assault.

Advice (never heeded) is for Stalin to gather his teachers and have classrooms cleaned, toilets redone and schools got ready for reopening. His concern should be school. Mudilage should return full time to his undergrad (or graduate) studies and emerge an educated mature man to help Sri Lanka in the true sense of the word.

Cass could be eliminated without even a white van ride, but we have to cry and scream for sanity to rule.

Cassandra