What Mirihana outrage signifies

The previous version of this piece was written soon after the Mirihana Incident, but I was unable to send it to The Editor of The Island as intended due to some reasons which are of no importance to the reader. Whilst accepting that during the past one month many developments had taken place beyond anybody’s control, I am sending an edited version to the Editor of The Island as it consists a preamble to a publication, I am compiling tentatively titled, “End of Democracy in Sri Lanka?” Anybody is free to argue if any semblance of democracy is in existence in Sri Lanka now and call the writer a prophet of doom! Since things are unfolding at a rapid pace it is difficult to cluster them in an abridged form in a one-off article.

In the evening of 31 March, as a friend of mine telephoned me that a large body of protesters had assembled at the Jubilee Post Junction, I just went there to see what was happening.  The protesters in their outward appearance and by the language they used seemed to belong to a cross section of middle and upper middle classes. In the midst of the simmering crowd I was able to identify a couple known to me, staunch haters of MR from the days of his presidency who later collaborated with the Yahapalanists rejoicing at his downfall in 2015. It is true that some carried toddlers and the demonstrators were behaving peacefully at that time. But the slogans they chanted and what was written on the placards they carried were provocative and inciting people to rise against the Rajapaksas.   The biggest question is who drew this peaceful crowd towards Pengiriwatta Road to besiege President’s private residence. Earlier Hirunika Premachandra, the SJB defeated candidate had set an example for these protesters to proceed towards the President’s private residence without any obstruction. It was fascinating to watch mostly the women demonstrators taking selfies as they have done before at nine arches bridge at Demodera and immediately posting those photographs in social media platforms to say that with the hashtag, “I was there” or “it’s me”.

News spread like a wildfire, thanks to FB friends. Protesters converged from Maharagama, Delkanda and Thalapathpitiya areas and occupied the main road from the Embuldeniya Junction up to Pengiriwatta. This was how a peaceful demonstration of middle and upper middle classes that started at Jubilee Post Junction peacefully was hijacked by some unidentified political elements and rabble rousers.

Around midnight, the Embuldeniya Junction was set ablaze ruining the magnificently carpeted road. Parapet walls on either side of the road were smashed and brickbats were used as projectiles to attack the security personnel. I was a witness to this mayhem until the wee hours of the following day. The rest is known to all.

So, this was the beginning. The ‘Gota Go Home’ cry gathered momentum. By carefully watching all the television footage and social media posts and identifying the men and women shown therein we were able to come into the conclusion that none of these celebrities who protested at the early stages of this protest campaign have languished in long gas and kerosene oil queues and had problems in feeding their kids. Most of these  protesters who assembled in front of Nelum Pokuna, represent  anglicised, pro-Western, comprador bourgeois interests who live in luxury apartments, who dine at luxury hotels, whose children attend either private denominational schools or international schools, having one foot here and the other in a Western country, who go on safari tours not to either Yala or Wilpattu as ordinary folk do, but to Maasai Mara in Kenya, Serengeti in Tanzania and  Kruger National Park in South Africa. Some were on vacation, as furlough during the time of the Britishers! (This is not a figment of imagination of the writer; I stand for what I write).

Why this sudden change in behaviour of this privileged lot?  The answer is a simple one. It’s all economics and related to business and disturbances to their lifestyles; not love and solidarity to toiling masses who undergo severe hardships. It was an irony of history that these elitist groups protesting along with petty-bourgeoisie, toiling masses and different elements of the lumpen proletariat

The culmination of these protests was the establishment of a “Gota Go Gama”. If Ranasinghe Premadasa could establish villages within villages which had a historical foundation giving those clusters of homes esoteric names, why can’t a set of protesters do the same in the heart of the city? Evidence is not needed to state that most of the other protests held in the city and elsewhere and in front of the houses of ruling party politicos are organised by hidden hands affiliated to two well organised cadre-based political parties. Can the elite remember how they lived without electricity switching off lights when all the power houses were generating electricity to their full capacity fearing the bitter repercussions after receiving the “chit” sent by the DJV, the military arm of the JVP in the late nineteen eighties? Are we to believe that class identities, class barriers, class consciousness and class distinctions were outstripped and antagonistic class contradictions between these classes were resolved overnight with the cry of “Go Gota Home” campaign? But now we see this class except a few of the former top bureaucrats who helped the politicians of different colours and hues to feast over the cadaver of Mother Lanka and theoreticians who formulate absurd theoretical formulations to the present agitations have slowly and steadily retreated from the hotbeds of agitations. This class is craft enough to identify the wind direction and to have some rough gauge of wind intensity in advance. Very soon publications will appear as Linda Herrera’s “Revolution in the Age of Social Media, The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet” (2014) for the consumption of the western pundits

We should be mindful that this so-called Aragalaya is not led by a Marxist party having workers and peasants as its nucleus providing leadership to a broad national united front. It is an unorganised loose outfit representing many interests, classes, ideologies and cultures

It is like a beach carnival with free entry and exit at will. I do not know whether they are knowledgeable of the Paris Commune, Bolshevik Revolution, Chinese Revolution or any other national liberation struggle. Maybe some are aware of the escapades of Che Guevara.

Yuppies who were ignorant of political, economic, social and cultural change  brought forth by SWRD were so ungrateful that they blindfolded the bronze statue of SWRD sculptured by that great Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbal, professor, academician and Vice-president of the then USSR Academy of Arts, a pioneer of Socialist Realism Sculpture, considered as a masterpiece of urban art by their own NGO godfathers. This was a gift by the people of the former USSR to the people of Sri Lanka. An economic refugee domiciled in a Western country lamented that it should have been brought down. Even if this happens, we will not be surprised as we have seen statues of Lenin and Stalin brought down by regime changers and the names of great cities such as Leningrad and Stalingrad changing.

Protesters at the Polduwa Junction were asked to bring underwear and hang them on police barricades which male and female protesters enthusiastically did so, calling it “Nandeta Jangiyak” (lingerie for GR).  A well-respected medical specialist texted me that according to his psychiatric knowledge a used/old panty is a highly valuable object to perverts and within a few days all other garbage will remain by the roadside, sans panties.

It’s better not to go into details of the contents of the songs sung, poems recited, posters and other visuals exhibited at these protest villages. A wreath carried “Gota ta Nivan Dukha” as its condolence message. For Buddhists, nibbana is the supreme bliss, not suffering as the protesters allude. It is unfortunate that the political monk who acts as the godfather of these protesters is blind to such sub-culture aspects emanating from the protest sites. Wearing Guy Fawkes masks is child’s play when one studies these sub-culture aspects emanating as not seen before.

What next? The call has now turned into ousting of all 225 lawmakers (except 3!) and the camping sites have encircled the perimeter of Diyawannawa. Very soon these protesters will have their own clandestine broadcasting and television stations as they are well funded by sources not unknown to the analysts who follow the present scenario. (Do not ask who will provide them with frequencies. See the enormity of funds pumped to “Gota Go Gama”.) As they have come to the perimeter of the Parliament how can one rule out them storming the Parliament electing their own government as now many claimants have appeared to “rescue” the nation. I do not want to discuss this scenario any further and its consequences.  As there are many claimants for leadership internecine, military crackdown, a reign of terror and anarchy cannot be ruled out. Will the middle and upper middle-class agitators at Mirihana enter the history as gravediggers of democracy in Sri Lanka?

Sena Thoradeniya