The missing connection: Street protests and presidential politics

by Rajan Philips-June 7, 2014

Apart from the necessary distraction of the watershed elections and government change in India, Colombo’s parlour politics has maintained its obsession with the future of the presidency in Sri Lanka. However, the parlour discourse of presidential politics is rarefied from street level protest politics, and the Rajapaksa second term has spawned both the obsession with presidential politics as well as the disaffection of the working people towards the government. The last few weeks have shown trade unions getting more and more restive, although they are not storming on the war path yet. But strange as it may seem, there is no articulation of the presidential politics that dominates the Colombo parlours and internet chat platforms, on the one hand, and the almost continuous trade union protests on the streets. This is the dismaying disconnect - between the reality of disaffection among the working people and fantasies of presidential politics that fascinate the pundits.

The Missing Connection Street Protests and Presidential Politics by nelvely