Tag: demonstration

The Dark of Our Days

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As the Galle Face Green protests mark two weeks of consecutive civil disobedience, the charges of corruption and ineptitude against the Sri Lankan government remain strong, and protestors at ‘Gotagogama’, the protest village of tents and shacks that have sprung up in downtown Colombo, continue to demand President Gotabhaya Rajapakse resign. The country of 22 million is suffering its worst economic crisis in modern history; a bitter cocktail of long daily power cuts, increasing shortages of fuel, cooking gas, and medicine has been topped off with a plummeting rupee and skyrocketing inflation. Millions of working class Sri Lankans are now struggling to feed themselves, and as the government prepares to default on its sovereign loans and declare bankruptcy, many fear the worst is yet to come. Sri Lanka, April 2022.
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Many Emotions, One Demand

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Young protestors, in Colombo, call for the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government, which is blamed for the country’s worst economic crisis in modern history. Accused of corruption, nepotism, and ineptitude, Rajapakse has refused to step down in spite of a month of public demonstrations against him. In contrast to the largely peaceful middle class protests in the capital, civil disobedience in other areas by rural working and farming communities have been marked by increasingly desperate clashes with the police who, yesterday, shot several protestors in Rambukkana, 97km northeast of Colombo, killing at least one. Sri Lanka, April 2022.

Many Languages, One Voice

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Ethnic minorities have been visibly present in the widespread protests calling for Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government to resign; none more so than the country’s Muslim community, typically distinguished by their conspicuous garb. Long an undeserved target of the chauvinistic politics that has plagued the country since independence in 1948, the Muslims have been especially marked for persecution in the decade following the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. Announcing his run for the presidency days after the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019, Gotabhaya Rajapakse blamed the Muslims for the act of terrorism, accusing them of killing hundreds, and vowing to stamp out Islamic extremism and restore national security. Borne aloft on a wave of fear and racism, he won a landslide victory seven months later, but today stands charged with having engineered the bombings himself as a ploy to gain power. The country’s majority Sinhalese Buddhists, similarly making up the bulk of the protestors accusing the government of corruption and ineptitude, have welcomed minority participation; presenting, for now at least, a united voice for change. Colombo, April 2022.

Many Causes, One Revolution

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While most of the demands by protestors calling for the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government have focused on charges of corruption, nepotism, and ineptitude, all of which have been flagged as causes for Sri Lanka’s current economic crisis, there remains a less visible but still strident undertone of accusations that predate these. When the Sri Lankan military defeated the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, it was amidst heavy civilian casualties; many of which were seen by critics of the state as resulting from callous and heavy-handed strategies ordered by Gotabhaya Rajapakse; at the time Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, and de facto head of the Armed Forces. While no evidence of war crimes has ever turned up, this hasn’t prevented a minority of protestors from gleefully taking up that cry again. Colombo, April 2022.

We Are Risen

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As the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year holiday week faded into Good Friday and the dawn of Easter Sunday (the latter itself a poignant and bloody reminder of how the current Sri Lankan regime stormed its way into power), the protesters stayed on at Galle Face Green, in Colombo, unrelenting in their demand that President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government resign. 17th April 2022. But ‘Gota’ has been equally stubborn in his refusal to quit, keeping his powerful older brother (former President Mahinda Rajapakse) in the PM slot, and merely reshuffling and reappointing his cabinet in what is a clear middle finger to the dissidents. The crippling economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the worst in its modern history, in which the country is suffering widespread shortages in electricity, fuel, cooking gas, medicine, and even food, has been felt most clearly by the middle and working classes, who have turned out at Galle Face in unprecedented numbers, with all ethnicities represented in a show of unity that has loudly voiced its accusations of government ineptitude and corruption. However, with the holidays ending today, and the president deadlocked with the protestors, the battle will return to parliament where, til now, the opposition parties have displayed little more than impotence and a distinct lack of leadership in reflecting the voice of the people in the legislature.
Continue reading “We Are Risen” →

Thank You, Sri Lanka, and Subha Aluth Avurudhak Wewa

David BlackerLeave a comment
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On the eve of the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year, protestors on Galle Face Green, Colombo, continue to call for the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his entire cabinet. 13th April 2022. Traditionally, a time of hope and new beginnings, this Avurudhu has been blighted by an economic crisis that sees many families struggling to put food on the table. Rampant inflation, and shortages in electricity, cooking gas, fuel, and medicine, has been blamed on an inept and corrupt government led by Rajapakse and his brothers. Even as Sri Lanka declared it was defaulting on its debts, Tuesday, officially announcing bankruptcy, the thousands of protestors gathered in Colombo for the fifth consecutive day will, no doubt, be hoping for some brightness on what is a decidedly dark future.

Divided by the State, United by Need

David BlackerLeave a comment
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Protestors offer bottles of water to the policemen barricading them out of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance, at Galle Face, Colombo. 9th April 2022. The country’s economic crisis has hit the middle and working classes hard, and demonstrations across the country are calling for the resignation of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his entire cabinet, accused of corruption, ineptitude, and nepotism. On top of rampant inflation and widespread shortages of electricity, cooking gas, and fuel, the debt-ridden government has struggled in recent months to pay the salaries of its police and armed forces.

Patriotic Flavour

David BlackerLeave a comment
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In the rain and dark of what is now being called ‘Gotagogama‘, the settlement of tents, field kitchens, and mobile toilets thrown up by the protestors on Galle Face Green, Colombo, a betel seller moves through the crowd, his cry of “Saaaaara-vita!” punctuating the ‘Gota go home!’ chants of the dissidents. 11th April 2022. National flags and colours have been prominent in the demonstrations calling for Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his entire cabinet to resign, accused of corruption and ineptitude, and blamed for a crippling foreign exchange and energy crisis that has seen Sri Lankans suffer rampant inflation and long powercuts, as well as critical shortages of cooking gas, fuel, food, and medicine. Protests that began spontaneously and sporadically in March have grown steadily, culminating in a massive 9th April demonstration in downtown Colombo that claimed as many as a million protestors. After futile cabinet reshuffles and opposition posturing in parliament, the legislature went into recession for the traditional mid-April Sinhalese and Tamil new year holidays. The protestors, however, have vowed to stay, turning what was planned as a 24-hour protest into something set to go on through this holiday week.

Understand the Bus Stand

David BlackerLeave a comment
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Young protestors on Galle Face Green, in Colombo, call for the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his cabinet, accusing the government of ineptitude, corruption, and nepotism. 9th April 2022. The government, led by President Rajapakse and his powerfully placed brothers, have failed to gauge the man on the street (and at the bus stand); overestimating the country’s middle and working classes’ willingness to weather a crippling foreign exchange and energy crisis that has seen people suffer rampant inflation and long powercuts, as well as critical shortages of cooking gas, fuel, food, and medicine. Protests that began spontaneously and sporadically in March have grown steadily, culminating in a massive protest in downtown Colombo, that has claimed as many as a million protestors. After futile cabinet reshuffles and opposition posturing in parliament, the legislature went into recession for the traditional Sinhalese and Tamil new year holidays. The protestors, however, have vowed to stay, turning what was planned as a 24-hour protest into something set to go on through this holiday week.

Caught on the Wrong Side

David BlackerLeave a comment
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A Sri Lankan riot policeman’s mind seems to wander as he holds a barricade against protestors attempting to enter the Ministry of Finance at Galle Face Colombo. 9th April 2022. Perhaps he is thinking of his own family back home, suffering without electricity, cooking gas, and fuel, and struggling amidst widespread food shortages. A crippling energy crisis has the country on its knees, created by a foreign currency shortage that has been blamed on government corruption and ineptitude. Nationwide protests calling for the resignation of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his cabinet peaked in a massive demonstration on Saturday that is thought to have numbered as many as a million protestors.