Galleface Green – An Oasis Of Freedom, Protesters’ Paradise & The Rajapaksas’ Hell

By Vishwamithra –APRIL 16, 2022

“Right or wrong, it’s very pleasant to break something from time to time.” ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

Some things in life, as the cliché goes, are blessings in disguise. The brutal collapse of Sri Lanka’s economy is such a thing, a blessing in disguise. This cruel singularity, the quick and striking folding of our economy with its usual symbolic phenomena such as lengthening queues for petrol diesel, kerosene, milk food and cooking gas, which have already claimed close to a half a dozen lives, is appearing as a mindless irritation to the daily lives of all citizenry in the country. Hundreds of thousands who occupy the otherwise picturesque Galleface green might have been a thorn in the eyes of the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie classes who are resident in Colombo, the commercial hub of Ceylon. But the ever-increasing voice that’s echoing all over the world via that marvelous tool of technology called television and Facebook and other social media elements have captured the hearts and minds of millions.

A nation that has been exploited, a people have been deceived a generation after generation in the wake of each election cycle. The country was polarized by the demagoguery of deceitful politicians who have now been exposed to their bones and marrow. The oozing wounds, the stinking aroma and deafening sounds are more of a midsection of a chapter by Stephan King’s story of fiction. Fortunately or unfortunately such scenery is, in fact, a welcome messenger rather than an ominous signal of destruction.

As one left-wing politician of yesteryear so dramatically enunciated, one cannot make an omelet without breaking an egg. Alas, we are all witnessing the breaking of the egg. Even more regrettably for the Rajapaksas, the ruling clan, the ‘egg’ that they fondly held to their filthy and immoral chests is being shattered to pieces and one simply cannot separate the white from the yolk. And that indeed is a delightful sight to see.

It is being presumed that close to twenty separate groups, who are completely devoid of any attachments to any existing political parties in the country, are actively engaged in the protests that are currently under way on the Galleface green. Their virtual occupation of the Presidential Secretariat premises has, more or less, blocked the entrance, even to its chief occupant, the President. Their enthusiasm has not diminished, at least up to the time this column is being penned. Their refusal to recognize any mainstream political parties, at least as their partners in the operation and execution of the protest, is nothing but remarkable and that indeed sends a very powerful message to the country first, and secondly to those political entities.

In all realistic terms, we are living in an unparalleled reality today. The country’s rulers have chosen to remain in their homes; those homes do not have power-cuts; they do not have scarcities of household essentials. On the contrary they still enjoy full meals during daytime and luxurious cocktail parties when the sun goes down. That decadent lifestyle has had no respite. Their motor vehicles do not experience empty petrol or diesel tanks. The ruled, however, are occupying the exterior of their own usual dwellings. On empty stomachs and lavish hearts and minds they have chosen to show their rulers firstly and the global community secondly that their will knows no borders. Parliamentarians are afraid to go on the roads. Only a handful of politicians would not be booed or ridiculed in public. No known politician is out of danger of being subjected to scorn and derision.

These are not signs of a failing nation. On the contrary, they are sure signals of the first rays of a new dawn. We are indeed fortunate to witness such a matchless spectacle, a spectacle of an awakening of a collective body of men, women and children. One day, in thirty or forty years’ time, they shall be able to tell a story of this wide awakening of the soul of a country; of a country so disparaged, pilloried, plundered and desecrated by one family that thought that their power was infinite and everlasting.

In this great multi-episode story, there shall be some small and big interruptions, here and there; there shall be betrayals such as the sudden ‘enlightenment’ of that political ignoramus Shantha Bandara who bartered his honesty and integrity for a post of State Minister. There might even be major roadblocks such as difficulty in forming an interim government and in reaching longstanding constitutional amendments which would demand total transparency and accountability in governance. All that will be minor in the context of the total ouster of the Rajapaksas from the throne.

Nonetheless, one must accept the ruthless certainty that a long struggle to unseat a democratically elected President and a democratically elected government requires many and unforeseen sacrifices. Those sacrifices may come in the manner of time, energy, jobs, money, sweat, tears and even blood. But the other unmistakable fact is that those who have chosen to stay home while their brothers and sisters have opted to go out to that oasis of freedom, the Galleface green, have indeed betrayed their own right to claim anything that comes as benefits after the triumph of that struggle. Armchair critics have no place or space in this struggle, period.

Adoniram Judson, Jr. (August 9, 1788 – April 12, 1850) was an American Congregationalist and later Particular Baptist missionary, who served in Burma for almost forty years. At the age of 25, Adoniram Judson was sent from North America to preach in Burma. He once penned thus: “There is no success without sacrifice. If you succeed without sacrifice it is because someone has suffered before you. If you sacrifice without success it is because someone will succeed after”. Immortal words of wisdom and stark truth of life!

We in Sri Lanka have got used to the comforts of the twenty first century and their alluring addictions; such comforts have begun their soothing yet all-consuming charm and compelled the general attitudes and clear-thinking minds into their own comfort-zones and instilled into our collective life a dull and hazy disposition. The Galleface protester has awakened us as a nation; he has instilled in us a sense of togetherness and a sense of one identity, an identity that derides racial discrimination and religious intolerances. In fact it’s an insult to call the Galleface Green as ‘Gota-go-gama’. It should be renamed ‘Aragala-gama’ (Village of the struggle). “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ by any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet’s immortal words penned by Shakespeare are ringing in our ears. Nanda Malini’s melodious voice, heard on that beautiful evening on the protesters’ turf, blew a comforting and gentle ‘pawana’ (breeze) on all our countenances.

Yet all these optimistic writing might come to naught. The slogans and refrains may lose their echo; marches might come to a crawl; voices may not reverberate in the air. Yet the effort to bring into focus a national disaster and galvanize a sleeping nation into action by our own youth will stand as one single episode that certainly will have at least a single page in our history books that our children’s children will read with pride one day.

It brought to focus the corruption of one family and its henchmen and women; it taught an apathetic people who were brainwashed into four or five ethnic groups that they are the children of one Mother Lanka. It brought into focus as to how a country can be destroyed by unlimited power vested in one single family whether they belonged to this caste or that caste. In other words, the gentle lesson these protesters instilled in all of us is we are one country, one nation and one family. If we stand together as one nation, the possibilities are infinite, not only can we drive those cruel and insensitive rulers out of rule, we can also hold them accountable and responsible for they and they alone created this mess of immeasurable corruption, unparalleled nepotism and unbridled incompetence.

Read More