Standing On The Right Side Of History, Amid Divisive ‘Rajapakse Tactics’!

By Mohamed Harees –APRIL 13, 2022

Lukman Harees

It was the best of times (to borrow a Dickens phrase), amidst the worst of times for Sri Lanka. The suffering populace of a divided nation, chose for once, to forget all past divisions- race, religion, class and gender to come together for another ‘Independence Struggle’ at the height of a grave economic crisis, to free themselves and their country from ‘Rajapaksa – colonialism’. True, this spirit of comradeship in picketing lines conveyed better times for this beleaguered Island nation. It was both unprecedented and unusual as well as an irony for the ruling party, which traditionally used racism and religion of the majority to create schisms and divisions to keep people apart for petty political gains. But, it did happen. The scenes of people of all faiths and nationalities waving the national flags together and asking for the Rajapaksas to stand down, to face justice and for comprehensive political changes, to put Sri Lanka back on its feet, brought tears of joy, amidst the tears of grief about the sad plight of their motherland.

However, it also sent shock waves to and rang alarm bells at the heights of power in the Rajapaksa-dom, Rajapaksa and their ruling scoundrels saw inherent danger in this emerging unity of their ‘hunting-land’ and they began to work overtime to put the wheels back. The social media apologists for this shameless family rule also began to echo their Master’s voice. Fortunately, the people appears to show nerves of steel to defeat these divisive tactics of a crumbling regime hell-bent on clinging to power at any cost – using all tricks up their sleeve – particularly using racism and religion of the majority as baits. There was much firmness in their resolve to stand on the right side of history at least this time, bringing much needed optimism and promise to a beleaguered and wounded nation.

This shameful attempt and well-orchestrated campaign to bring in racism and religious divides to starve off and nip in the bud, this public agitation, started off from the historic Mirihana protest itself. The ‘Presidential Media’ statement on the agitation reported a fake news- that people apparently carried placards asking for a Arab Style Spring operation to bring down a ‘so- called’ democratic regime. Some higher-up politicians of the ruling regime and their discredited set of rogue monks condemned the protest and also ‘setting fire’ of a bus, seeing ‘Extremists’ involvement in this act of arson. It was later suspected to be the work of a widely known rogue armed thuggery brigade working for the Rajapaksas .One such rogue monk even mentioned a non-existing ‘Islamic’ name of an extremist group to be responsible for this vandalism. Some unconnected Muslim and Tamil persons were also initially arrested to prove an extremist link by implication. This strategy backfired as people refused to fall for their usual racism bait.

The whole nation, at least visibly a greater section of the society came out of their comfort zones, and began to protest as members of the general public without any political colours- a clear change from protests which are usually engineered and organised by political parties. The young generation in particular came out in their thousands, leaving out their jobs and vocations to organise and take part in these continuing protests and demonstrations. The Anomas, Pereras, Mohamed’s, Fathimas, Sivas and Lakshmis who spent most of their waking time on various types of queues , began to join these spontaneous protests, agitations, rallies and demonstrations. They voluntarily gave up their artificial divisions set by their societies and politicians and saw common-ness and unity in their cause and call- cause and call for social justice and responsible, transparent, accountable political leadership and governance. Hitherto, they were blinded by their political loyalties, to see the massive ,chronic corruption and maladministration happening at the top. The fish they say begins to rot from the top. The rotting leadership has led the nation to the brink of bankruptcy and international ridicule. The young Z generation gave a signal to the political leadership that they were messing with the wrong generation.

It was thus a social struggle and a possible revolution which emerged and hit the streets from the kitchen and starving families and households with no political machinations behind these protests. People began to come to the centre of action in the Island capital Colombo- the iconic Galle Face adjoining the Office of the President. The past weeks have seen the best of people of Sri Lanka, with them protesting together as One, raising slogans and placards calling for the ouster of the corrupt Rajapaksa regime and also the most inefficient and inept Legislature. Most of the protesters came from the majority community and visibly those who voted this racist regime to power showed regret of their stupid decision, which added to the credibility of their struggle.

There were Buddhist monks, Christian fathers and Muslims Imams who came together in their picketing lines raising the same slogans. Muslims did not heed the fatigue of their Ramadan fasts these days, and joined in. Sinhalese and Hindus gave up their Sinhala Avrudu shopping stints to be there for the on-gong protests in Galle Face, Independence square and many other sites both in Colombo and outstations too. Muslims broke their fasts too at the sites and rather Iftars were joined in and even arranged by their Sinhala colleagues in the cause. This was a truly emotional sight not just for the Muslims, who felt welcoming among their people, after years of attempts to marginalise them in the society by the political opportunists specially after the Easter terror in 2019, but also for the majority Sinhalese too. The latter shed tears as if they were seeing long lost relatives. The lovely sight of Muslims breaking fast with Buddhist monks, Christian fathers and public were lauded by most in the social media. Cardinal Malcolm also called the people to stick together while Ramagna Nikaya Mahanayake called the rulers to stand down.

Read More