Sri Lanka On The Cusp Of Implosion! White Vans Have Become ‘Black Marias’

By Vishwamithra –JUNE 21, 2022

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” ~ Plato

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s birthday is being celebrated by the ordinary men and women in the country as a ‘Black Monday’

Ever-lengthening queues for petrol and diesel tell a frighteningly realistic story; cooking gas is fast becoming a yesteryear’s luxury; hospitals are closing for want of drugs and surgical equipment gone inoperable due to lack of electricity and other amenities; schools have become ghost-buildings for no children can travel to them for studying; examinations are being postponed and ones that are over are lagging behind on correction of answer papers because the teachers are without facilities to bring themselves to the marking centers.

Petrol and diesel sheds are about to turn into the first battlegrounds where sparks could potentially end up in violent clashes between the police and the consumers. Patience has obviously reached its most delicate threshold. It’s not only in Colombo or other big city centers that these ominous acts are being played out; the drama is continuing to expose the malignancy of a sociopolitical system whose symptoms seem to be more gruesome than the latent disease. From Dondra Point to Point Pedro and from Colombo to Batticaloa, a seemingly vigorous chaos of crises is building its momentum to reach a fierce end or perhaps a sure beginning of the end!

Soon, morbid scenes of falling skeletons and piling up of dead bodies over one another would not be a rare sight. The numbers that went away from the Aragalapitiya (Galleface Green) are gathering themselves in all parts of the Island. The new battlefields are emerging in almost every petrol and diesel station. If and when the situation in each of these battlefields becomes more intense than could be controlled by the police personnel, deployment of the military would be inevitable. Only one shot going astray and hitting a man or woman waiting in line for petrol or diesel would be enough to develop a once manageable situation running beyond all control. Stupidity and incompetence of all governing men and women, including the political heads who call themselves Ministers and Prime Ministers and Presidents, is being exposed.

This sad and melancholic drama is being played out in full display; its boundaries are no more theatrical or artificial, they are certainly heading towards a point beyond human endurance. Violent clashes and falling men would soon be the order of the day. Anarchy is being defined and redefined with all its nuanced details; governing a population whose limits of patience and stoicism is visibly reaching a point of gruesome thunder. The political crisis that is occurring as a direct result of the economic disaster is ripening and an ostensibly leaderless people might come to the inescapable conclusion that they could really topple a democratically elected government by merely protesting against economic hardships and political corruption.

In a dramatic turn of governing principles, men, women and Buddhist Monks are being shoved into waiting police vans; mercy is not in the armor of these police forces. A Buddhist Monk was seen placing himself in between the turning wheels of the police van. Yet no mercy was shown by the police. The Monk is dragged out pushed into the van like cattle being thrown into a shed meant for slaughter.

They said that in order to make the omelet, one has to break the egg. This time the egg is being broken by the government forces. Should this mayhem continue, what would be the response of a peaceful protester? The answer might be more outrageous than the one seen on television screen all over the country: A Buddhist Monk being pushed into the Black Maria (what the British call a police van for transporting prisoners). White van has been substituted by the Black Maria.

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