Introduction
On April 9, 2023, the ‘real-people’s struggle, uprising by the youth, which is also known as the Aragalaya staged at the Galle Face Green in Colombo completed one year. The fact ‘real’ has to be noted here with an adjective is not to belittle the earlier struggles in the north and south of Sri Lanka or to say that the ‘people’s aspirations’ were not represented in them. That is because a political party, group or an organization had some hegemonic power in every struggle. Even in the people’s struggle at Galle Face, political parties, groups, civil organizations, social activists, influence groups, as well as the very marginalized people who have no voice at all, or even the people who have been pushed to the periphery of society, are represented, but no one has a central power in the struggle. Because it could not be built.
The shortcomings seen by many people are as follows: Such criticisms include the majority becoming middle-class and their class aspirations coming to the fore, the Tamil people’s representation was marginal, the emergence of nationalist tendencies, the common people’s lack of voice even though they are represented, lack of a broad political vision, lack of a solution to the crisis beyond the expulsion of former President Gotabaya, and the struggle being a means of entertainment. But its critics do not see that the existence of these constraints is the most prominent feature of it being a ‘real’ people’s struggle. If it had been properly led by a political party or organization with a forward-looking broad political vision, the result would have been different, if it had been approved by the people involved in the struggle. But then the probability of it being a ‘real people’s’ struggle again is minimal. They are the people. The result is this. Therefore, one year later, we should look at that people’s struggle to mark what happened in history and to properly understand this moment in politics born from the struggle.
Setting the stage for the people’s struggle
Hirunika Premachandra played another influential and motivating role in the struggle. In an environment where no one came forward to challenge Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who lived with the world’s most powerful and dangerous executive power and a military ring, Hirunika and a group of women went to Gotabaya’s private residence in Mirihana near the Jubilee Post and staged their protest. The second intervention is Hirunika’s challenge to the powerful fortuneteller of Anuradhapura at a time when a significant number of educated, ignorant, elite and non-elite people of the country were prisoners of illusion, invisible forces and witchcraft. (Weerasinghe 2022)
It was Hirunika who first exploded the fear-filled tolerance towards Gotabaya Rajapaksa who had a mandate of 6.9 million voters and being a former military leader who sowed fear psychosis in the society by ways of staging highly fearful ‘white van’ episodes. In that context, a group of women protested in front of Gotabaya’s house in Mirihana. Second, the protest took place in front of the house of the famous divine healer and soothsayer named “Gnanakka” in Anuradhapura, who had a close relationship with Gotabaya. This was in a way, a challenge to physical power and a challenge to spiritual power (symbolically).
Then, on the night of March 31, a massive protest was held in front of the former President’s house in Mirihana, and in the wee hours of April 1, unknown elements set fire to a bus that was transporting policemen triggered controversy. Curfew was imposed across the country on April 2. Although its motive was to undermine the protest that had been called for in Colombo on 3 through social media platforms and mobile phone applications. Widespread protests were held in various places in the city, despite the clamping down of police curfew. The curfew was challenged in the court and a massive protest centered at Colombo’s Lipton Roundabout led by the Young Lawyers’ Association and the Young Journalists’ Association and simultaneously a protest was organized at the Independent Square. The protestors who came to Galle Face on April 9 named the place allotted to the protestors as the ‘protest site’ as ‘Gota Go Gama’ and from then on, the area of struggle at the Galle Face Green was called by that name. As well as economic and social factors and many others with similar aim converged at the ground of struggle.
Dr. Weerasinghe said:
‘’Queuing up for fuel, indiscriminate power-cuts, alarming increase in prices of daily essentials and the long lockdowns the people have languished, had disturbed their middle-class easy lifestyle. The youth who saw the world in a different perspective in conversation halls, art galleries and exhibition centres in and around Colombo, became frequent visitors. Colombo’s elite upper middle classes, businessmen, the rich visited the scene of protests and encouraged them by providing them with necessities. But in the early days, the whole process had taken an “informal”, “unorganized”, “self-governing”, “voluntary” form. Social media, music, street plays, posters, banners, slogans, masks, performances and amplification apparatus became their main communication tools. ”
The inter-dependence between communication and public participation can be considered as a distinctive feature. It is a fact that almost everyone accepts without question.
‘’In a developed society, communication is effective when the participation is strong. Societies where the struggle is upheld through the role of participatory communication. Awareness and the work of public consciousness built through it in communication. Important points are discussed. In the 2022 struggle, the citizenry was tricky. Efforts were made to involve people in this, through participatory communication” (Gunasinghe and Lakshita 2022).
According to the experience of this writer, who is truly a participatory observer, contrary to the point penned by Dr. Weerasinghe, there was an unorganized and informal structure prevailed; not in the early days but until the Galle Face struggle ground was dismantled. On the day in question, perhaps the most active group of the movement, took the task ahead and in many cases the stage was prepared for addressing by the personnel was extremely busy. In some cases, there were conflicts of opinion in deciding who would speak and some of the conflicts of opinion went as far as scuffs. Although the progressive leftwing forces played a prominent role in the beginning, the nationalistic trend grew at times, lion flags replacing the black flags. Forgetting whom to fight against and for what, the ordinary society which was outside the struggle ground, came to represent with many of its components (albeit in a small way). That was why, at the last stage, the boundaries between inside and outside became blurred.
‘’Within that, there were libraries, restaurants, free food giveaways, space for artwork and other capabilities, conferences, and canopies have grown into a carnival status….Is there any core or long-term political goals behind the populism of Galle Face? Will these uprisings continue in the future? What we currently see is political pluralism, or a pickle. Meanwhile, the leftwing parties is also talking about a revolution through this. How do we understand the lack of convergence from one bubble to another until now? Everything else is happening except the politics of ‘Gota Go Gama’? (Wickramage 2022).
As Wickramage argues, everything else is happening except politics, but what happened to that the people who are left behind? That is to show the true nature of the people again and again.
‘Non-representation’ of representation
The famous slogan of the April uprisings should be revised. It shouldn’t be “you played with the wrong generation”, it should be changed to “you played with the wrong class“. For the first time, Sri Lanka’s middle class has faced an acute consumption crisis. “Unfortunately, the hands are not without money, it was the failure of the ruling class to provide the goods needed for consumption, even if there is money.” (Wickramage 2022). Needless to say, the middle class is the driving force here, it was a people’s struggle, not only because the middle class that represented the common people. Because public aspirations are represented in. On May 9, 2022, one month into the struggle, after the vicious attack unleashed by state-sponsored thugs on the peaceful protesters who were aided by the blessings of the ruling class, the enraged people too began to behave violently and retaliated. It was because of real pain; the protest was represented by waves of others who wished to offer their solidarity. On that day in Colombo, in Navam Mawatha, after this writer was also attacked by a mob, the common people representing the Dobiwatta area rushed there and said, ‘No one who attacked the Galle Face protesters would be allowed to go to his/her village safely.
“Gentleman, look, we can’t tolerate our boys are being beaten and let those who beat them go scot-free”, they emphasized. We should not forget that term “our boys.” Here there is no singularism, but a synonym that indicates their own representation. But when we asked why they did not actively contribute to the Galle Face arena, we got the following response.
”We went. But we didn’t really understand what they said. When I yelled at the Rajapaksas for being barbaric, those men at the protest said it was not appropriate to use such dirty terms.”
There are two main points in the conclusion, that can be approached. The first is the failure to actively contribute to the struggle of the marginalized people who have been pushed to the periphery due to they belong to middle class, according to Wickramage. On the other hand, they failed to speak in a language which they could understand. But this cannot be concluded to a mere fashion that did not represent public aspirations.
On the other hand, the fact that the South’s criticism of the form of the struggle is compounded, why the actual Dravidian national representation was minimal, cannot be ignored. When South Wickramages brought a huge criticism, the North was not silent either. Written by Rev. Fr. Anburasa in memory of the brutal attack by a state-sponsored mob by the then government on the Satyagraha held by the Dravidian leaders on June 5, 1956 at Galle Face Green against the decision that cruelly divided the Sinhalese from the Tamil community, by declaring the ‘Sinhala Only’ policy. The book ‘Hitawath Ariyasinghe’ has also helped to epitomise the discourse on the struggle. He noted about a young man who was coming from Vishwamadu to Galle Face by foot cycle.
“A young man who had cycled to the Galle Face protest site to show his solidarity, was brutally attacked by some men of the Government Forces after his return. Some other youngsters, too, have been manhandled after being threatened with ‘’Are you the one who went to Gota Go Gama on a bicycle? (Rev. Anburasa 2022; 128) was a perfect example of how the state-run thuggery went about. There is no disputing how unjust these attacks are. But when it comes to giving interpretations of such events, it is sad to see that Priests like Anburasa do not give up their grit for saving or glorifying their own land.
It is not known that attacks were carried out anywhere else in the south of Sri Lanka, like the above-mentioned attack by government forces in Vishwamadu area. In contrast to that, it was often seen that when the public attacked the security forces, the army waited patiently without retaliating.” (Anburasa 2022:102-103). Unfortunately, Fr. Anburasa did not even know that the Galle Face protesters stormed the presidential palace, several people were severely beaten by the security forces, and that after May 9, the government troopers as well as the thugs nurtured by politicians led the brutal attacks. Moreover, it is humiliating to see that the likes of Wasantha Mudalige were officially subject to detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. It is clear that the common factor in the struggles of the North and the South had been missed, that there is no difference in the repression of the rulers, and that communication itself remains an obstacle. The following point raised by Fr. Anburasa is a fact that should not be ignored.
“When the day finally arrived in 2009, due to the collusion of other countries, tens of thousands from our community were wiped out, many of us had to undergo great struggle, and the rest were confined to refugee camps. You celebrated this with ‘kiribath” (boiled milk-rice with coconut milk) with festivities and fired crackers, making it the National Victory Day. We had to, and still have to put our faces down in humiliation. (Hitawat Ariyasinghe, 2022).
Even the above note is enough to explain why the struggle of the South was not well supported or attended by the North. Fr. Anburasa further goes on further and says:
“Today, you mourn over the daily blackouts, fuel scarcity, cooking gas and milk powder. You feel helpless over the rising cost of living with phenomenal price hikes. But we survived for over three decades without any of these commodities, because of the economic embargo was thrusted upon North and East by the government. We lost our childhood and sacrificed our adult life voicing against the violations. The rest of our life and that of our kids is being wasted in the same way.” (Hitawath Ariyasinghe, 2022).
The struggle for the land rights of the people of the north, which have become military camps, and the continual struggle of the parents to find their missing kith and kin are still active in the north. But hardly any conversation was heard in the South. On the other hand, the question whether the North is ready to accept representatives from the South to support the struggle of the North, is also valid today. In the recent history, should we read the response of expulsion from the north to Wasantha Mudalige and other comrades as an undisciplined act of a pro-government group of Tamils. It should be think about again and again.
The dilemma still valid today
The struggle was facing a dilemma because it was a common struggle, because the people are not a group with deep political consciousness and strategic knowledge, and because history has repeatedly confirmed that political literacy in a society like ours is at a very low ebb. That is, instead of a deep analysis of the reasons why they had to take to the streets, they only had and still have the problem of making up for that time. It is not wrong to think that if goods and services are available to satisfy their needs, then why struggle more? Because they are the common people. This situation was not noticed by mediating scholars in the North and the South.
‘If again fuel, electricity, milk powder, and cooking gas become available without interruption, your problems will be solved. But – the solutions for our struggles and aspirations…? (Hitawat Ariyasinghe, 2022).
As Fr. Anburasa said, so far (one year had gone passed since the struggle began) temporary, conditional solutions have been received. Many people don’t remember a single word about the struggle since then.
But it can be seen that the so-called ‘system change’, a prime demand at the protest, is now being suppressed by labels such as presidential election, democracy, preservation of the constitution, fascism and consumerist, selfish middle-class interests. Accordingly, there is a risk that this extraordinary moment will go down in history as a lost opportunity” (Weerasinghe 2022).
Not really a risk, but clearly it has already happened. But it can be said that the possibility of reaching this state existed from the beginning, because of a common struggle that represented common aspirations. As we mentioned earlier, that is the dilemma of the struggle. That is, the development of massive public pressure through the loss of essential goods and services and when it explodes, on the other hand, the turbulence and violence arising from the same explosion will be counted as an obstacle to providing solutions to the crisis. On the other hand, when the cause of the crisis is large-scale debt, the public’s acceptance that the only solution to the crisis is the debt of the world powers, including the International Monetary Fund. So, this is a maze.
Instead of universal pessimism
Obtaining large-scale loans for large-scale projects which were not properly planned or initiated, and for a country that has become bankrupt due to massive fraud, corruption, waste and irregularities, is not the lone solution to take more loans. Even though the pro-ruling party media has made it a popular opinion that everything cannot be reduced to that level. Even when an unlimited tax burden is imposed on the people as a condition laid down by the IMF, the efficiency and interest in bringing the Anti-Terrorism Act to suppress peaceful democratic protests should be focused on not bringing an ‘Anti-Corruption Bill’ as their own condition. The dialogue about system change brought about by the struggle should be further nurtured.
‘’What is this system? The system targeted by the struggle is an economic, social and political pattern that remains unchanged in the face of elections and changes of government in this country. It is a corrupt power framework that remains structurally unchanged no matter who comes to power through the vote. That power body has been built with the participation of elite politicians, high government and corporate heads, businessmen with political milage, private media institutions, military and police chiefs and leaders of the black money economy.
There has been a huge public frustration with the representative democratic institutions and procedures of our country because electoral politics has not affected this corrupt power structure. (Chaaminda 2022).
At present, outside the parliament, the conversation about a public institution (public council) that can democratically influence it, as well as the conversation about building a public movement for a non-violent, collective ‘civil peace’, should be positively accepted as an extension of the people’s struggle itself. Instead of worrying about the emerging dilemma, this discourse should be nurtured more and the effort to create solutions on a social level against the current corrupt system, should be strengthened, but it should not be completely rejected. Chaaminda writes: Today, we need a vanguard left that can act in many fields such as education, culture, social welfare, etc., in the mass level, and at the same time, it can pose a strong anti-hegemonic challenge in the spaces of the establishment including representative democratic institutions. It should be a social movement that rebuilds the collapsing society from below, and a political movement that confronts catastrophic capitalism at the global and national level as a counter-force. (Charminda 2022).
So, Sri Lankan should have optimistic dreams instead of pessimism. However, flawed at birth, the people’s struggle was a peaceful struggle that ousted an executive president who was more powerful than the American president.
Priyan R. Wijebandara
(The author possesses a BA in political science from the University of Kelaniya, and a MA in Mass Media Studies from the University of Colombo. He was a proficient communication specialist & researcher for several international institutes based in Sri Lanka. He is also a sought-after visiting lecturer at the University Of Colombo & Press Institute in Sri Lanka. He is a communication consultant in an INGO based in Washington and also is a journalist who has extensive and broad experience stemming for more than two decades.)
Photo credit – https://www.flickr.com/photos/nazly/52039551636
Reference:
Anpurasa, 2022 Dear Ariyasinghe, Murunkan Muththamil Kalamandram publications, Kilinochchi.
Gunasinghe Meenu-Lakshita Pramod 2022, Public Communication of Struggle, e-book, Colombo.
Vijayananda Jayaweera 2022, A Deliberative Society, Agahas Publications, Rajagiriya.
Wickramage Bupathi, April Notes on April 2022 Uprisings, Vidarshana Publications, Kalubowila.
Weerasinghe Pradeep, Role of 100 Days of Struggle 2022, https://theleader.lk/featured/12548-100-2?fbclid=IwAR3ilEweiqNPtCOnbKOtloblbdC5QHwvuSzcBEWerSWup1uMNQWN6TRF8-E
Charminda Sumith, 2022 Struggle, Study and Dialogue, https://theleader.lk/review/14825-2022-12-27-19-07-57
