Kicking down ladder

Wednesday 19th April, 2023

The Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime is doing everything possible to consolidate its hold on power, regardless of the consequences. It has, in its wisdom, decided to allow only entertainment and religious events to be held on the Galle Face Green! Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena, addressing the media yesterday, said the Cabinet of Ministers had made that decision. Thus, the popular oceanside park will not be available for political rallies or anti-government protests hereafter, and the Opposition and others will have their work cut out to hold protests either in Colombo or any other urban area. The police do not allow protests to be held in public places; they, at the behest of their political masters, either obtain court orders banning anti-government agitations or use brutal force to crush such events. Two persons have already died due to tear gas and water cannon attacks on anti-government protests during the past few months. The situation is likely to take a turn for the worse with the passage of time.

Interestingly, the ban on political events at GF has come on the watch of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was the greatest beneficiary of last year’s GF protest campaign, which came to be dubbed Aragalaya. After being appointed Prime Minister, he went so far as to ensure the GF protesters’ welfare, and even appointed a committee for that purpose. But for the GF struggle, the Rajapaksa family would still have been in power; needless to say, Wickremesinghe would have been an ordinary MP. The UNP has admitted that it had been involved in the GF protest from its inception. It was thus responsible for letting the genie out of the bottle and causing unprecedented chaos that descended on the country due to anti-government protests that spun out of control. Some savages among the Aragalaya activists torched Wickremesinghe’s house, and they must be made to pay for their crime.

Wickremesinghe chose to kick down the ladder after becoming President, last July. The Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe dispensation is apparently labouring under the delusion that it will be able to foreclose the resurgence of anti-government protests by banning political events on GF, the cradle of Aragalaya, as well as elsewhere. The ban at issue is a warning to the Opposition, trade unions and others who have taken on the government that they will have to face the full force of the law plus police brutality in case they try to march on GF. This could be considered just a foretaste of what is to come, and how bad the situation will be if the Anti-Terrorism Bill is ratified is not difficult to imagine.

One can only hope that the aforesaid ban will not go unchallenged both legally and politically. The swingeing course of action the government has resorted to, out of sheer desperation to stem the tide of public anger, is like closing public conveniences during a cholera outbreak instead of taking steps to tackle the epidemic. Mahatma Gandhi has pointed out the futility of such action. He has said it is the cause of public anger, and not the effect thereof, that has to be eliminated, if a sustainable solution is to be found to a conflict. As long as fire continues to burn under a cauldron of water, it is an exercise in futility to use a lid to control the jet of steam emanating from it, he has said. The government had better heed these words of wisdom instead of inviting trouble.

There is no way the resentful people could express their anger and seek redress to their grievances in a democratic manner because the police swoop on anti-government agitations and make short work of protesters; the government keeps imposing restrictions on protests. Worse, the police are now ably assisted in the task of crushing protests by unidentified men in military uniform, armed with assault rifles, and iron rods to boot. Are we witnessing the end of democracy in Sri Lanka?