The Opposition is making a fresh bid to launch a protest campaign against the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe administration as the Gota-go Gama agitation at the Galle Face Green (GFG) is running out of steam. A group of SJB women’s wing members tried to march on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private residence in Colombo 03, on Wednesday (22). The police thwarted their attempt, but there are bound to be copycat protests. The signs are that the SJB is trying to take its protests to the next level while boycotting the parliament, which, it says, has failed to solve the people’s problems. This is an interesting turn of events, which will not escape the attention of political observers.
All it takes to trigger deadly avalanches, when a snow build-up reaches a critical level, is a minor tremor. The same goes for agitations on the political front, where even seemingly insignificant pickets could snowball into massive waves of protests. That is how the 09 May government change came about.
Opinion is divided on when Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa actually decided to step down. Some political commentator argue that he had already made up his mind by 09 May, when a large number of SLPP supporters gathered at Temple Trees, from where they proceeded to the Galle Face Green and descended on the Gota-go Gama protesters, triggering a spate of counter-violence in many parts of the country. Other commentators, however, maintain that PM Rajapaksa had sought to cling on to his post by having his supporters chase away the anti-government protesters who were demanding his resignation, but had to quit because the SLPP goon attacks backfired. However, what really led to protests and counter-protests, which brought about the collapse of the government with the PM’s resignation, was an agitation staged by a few members of the SJB’s female members led by former MP Hirunika Premachandra near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private residence at Mirihana on 05 March. The protesters dispersed after shouting themselves hoarse, and there was no untoward incident. But they set a precedent that others would follow.
The SJB women’s wing emboldened other anti-government activists to overcome fear and take their protests right up to the President’s Mirihana residence. On 31 March evening, a group of people held a protest at the Mirihana intersection against the fuel shortage and economic hardships, and a few hours later it gathered momentum with many others joining in, and the protesters tried to march on the President’s house, triggering clashes, which left dozens of protesters and police personnel injured. Flare-ups of protests spread to other areas with people blocking roads and setting old tyres on fire, and they continued despite a curfew, and led to the emergence of Galle Face protest movement a few days later to press for the ouster of both the President and the Prime Minister.
At present, Hirunika and other female SJB activists are apparently trying to put in motion another cycle of protests, seeking the ouster of the present administration, which is under heavy fire from the Opposition in the parliament. The last few days have seen an upsurge in attacks by the SJB, the SLFP, the JVP-led National People’s Power (NPP) on the government. The SLPP dissident group is carrying out a separate propaganda onslaught against the beleaguered administration. There have been instances where Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe lost his cool and crossed swords with the Opposition MPs in the parliament. This is indicative of severe pressure he is coming under amidst the government’s desperate attempts to contain the economic crisis with people protesting at filling stations and LP gas sales outlets. There has been a let-up of sorts in politically-motivated protests against the government since the formation of the current government, but public anger is palpable and could burst forth anytime.
The Opposition is obviously trying to tap people’s resentment to power its anti-government campaign, and the signs are that a grand oppositional coalition is in the making. SLFP leader and former President Maithripala Sirisena does not mince his words when he calls the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government a failure and demands the formation of a truly all-party caretaker government to resolve the economic crisis. He insists that the current government has gone the same way as the yahapalana administration which became dysfunctional due to differences between him and the then PM Wickremesinghe.
The SJB has expressed its willingness to be party to such a collective effort to help the country lift itself out of the present crisis, and being the main Opposition party, it is obviously eyeing the premiership. Going by what other Opposition parties say, they seem to be willing to join a caretaker government under a different Prime Minister with a timeframe set for the next general election. The objective of the ongoing boycott of the parliament could be considered an attempt to turn public opinion further against the government and pressure it to step down. Atop it, has come the SJB women’s wing protest campaign to rally the support of the womenfolk undergoing untold hardships due to shortages of essentials, especially food and cooking gas, and the soaring cost of living. Given the build-up of public anger, the SJB protest may gather momentum.
When the current government was appointed, people expected it to get cracking although they have no faith in most of its members, who are responsible—albeit to varying degrees—for what has befallen the country. But it has not been able to handle the crisis in such a way as to infuse any confidence into the public much less instill them with hope. Long queues near filling stations have become the order of the day, and most people have to spend at least 24 hours to obtain fuel, that too if they are lucky. Some people have to stay in fuel queues for as long as 48 hours, and husbands and wives and fathers and sons take turns to wait in long lines at the expense of their work. The only short-term solution to this problem is to put in place a system to ration fuel so as to reduce waiting time, but nobody seems to care. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has undertaken to introduce a ration system, but what it has presented does not look workable and has come too late in the day, and it is only natural that the government is at the receiving end of public anger, and protests are on the increase. The Opposition is bound to make the most of the situation, and Wednesday’s protest at Kollupitiya could be considered a foretaste of what to come.
