Protesters at the Galle Face Aragala site are preparing to leave after the government and judicial authorities ordered them to vacate the site after occupying the area for more than 120 days

If one wants to tarnish the image of the Aragalaya, many things can be highlighted. It has come down to the level of whether the youth who were there for months actually used intoxicants or whether they engaged in other nefarious activities. Yet, the people of this country are now beyond the stage where they fell for those bogus claims

“At times there will be fire; this we can’t avoid. But it’s up to us to decide whether it will consume or it will purify.”

- Cristen Rodgers -

Many are busy conducting post mortem reports for the Aragalaya. Some call it a success and others regard it with

scorn stating that it only resulted in some of the leading individuals getting rich through donations received from well-wishers. Whatever it is, the fact that the Aragalaya, which was symbolized by the mass gathering at Galle Face Green which started months ago in protest, to force the Gotabaya regime to go home, marked an important juncture in the Sri Lankan political landscape, is undeniable.

For one thing, it made clear that the political elite, in power since independence, irrespective of party, colour, race and religion, are one group and that they do not want the people to gain the power of ruling of their own affairs. The elite, who, under the guise of universal franchise, have hood winked the masses, the non-elite and the common, and created the illusion that politicking was the prerogative of the highly bred individuals, were alarmed at the sight of the common men and women taking the sovereignty out of the frame of electoral representation and in to their own hands. They saw the danger signs; that it was not merely an attempt to compel Gotabaya Rajapaksa or the Pohottuwa to relinquish the reins of power, but in fact, a rebellious statement that the masses were ready to take the matters to their own hands. 

On the other hand, the activists who initiated this mass unarmed civil action, were bound to realize, eventually, that the ruling classes, were not ready to let go of the hitherto covertly guarded keys to political power, just because a million people thronged to Colombo. They would ensure that Basil, Mahinda and Gota step down, in ignominious fashion alright, but it is a far cry from the political nobility, of the country finally transferring power to the common people. They devised a fake transfer of power, ushering in Ranil Wickremesinghe, to deviate the anger and frustration the suffering people vented out and conjure up an illusion that the objectives of civil protest have materialized. It certainly has not. 

A ruthless and vicious propaganda machine well-oiled by pro-Rajapaksa filthy lucre has started tarnishing the images of the leading figures of the Aragalaya and attempting to cast doubt on the minds of the ordinary people as to the legitimacy of the Aragalaya movement. They are coming up with so called exposes, which claim to prove that the leaders of the movement were foreign funded by the Tamil Diaspora and pro-LTTE groups. They scorn the millions of people who made it to Gotagogama and the Galle Face Green as being cattle driven for slaughter for the objective of foreign interests which are anti- Buddhist and non-Sinhalese. The same old ghost of western interference and Tamil separatism is being resurrected, yet again.

As with everything else, if one wants to tarnish the image of the Aragalaya, many things can be highlighted. It has come down to the level of whether the youth who were there for months actually used intoxicants or whether they engaged in other nefarious activities. Yet, the people of this country are now beyond the stage where they fell for those bogus claims. They realize that the importance of the civilian movement lies not in the behaviour, lifestyle or the outward appearance of those hundreds of thousands of individuals who took part in this unprecedented event of defiance, aimed at the political establishment run by the so-called nobility (Not that there is even an iota of nobleness in the rulers). They do realize the unarmed people who gathered in tens of thousands and raised their voice in unison, has triggered a process of emancipation. The people saw their own power, for the first time.

Emancipation is a term used for the process of relieving slaves who are held in bondage to their masters, sometimes, for life. Although there are no physically bound slaves, Sri Lanka does have politically subservient slaves who elect the individuals to rule them, only from their masters, the Jayewardene, Rajapaksa, Bandaranaike or Wickremesinghe families. They are programmed to do so and struggle to foresee a future for their motherland without those families. When the Sinhala youth of this country, specially those belonging to the rural sector, raised up in arms against the ruling classes, once in 1971 and again in 1988, the people were not able to free themselves from that age-old bondage, to give the much-needed support to their sons and daughters to go the extra mile to claim sovereignty, which has been placed on the elite. The rebellious youth failed and were massacred by the rulers. The people were not only scared, but they did not know that sovereignty was theirs and their elected representatives were at their command. They were unable to exercise their right to reclaim the delegated power of sovereignty from those rulers who were not performing their elected duty. 

Yet this time, the people had finally mustered up courage to come out of the shell they have been in and confront their elected representatives who had reneged and abrogated the right to be called holders of people’s power guaranteed by the constitution. The Constitution had become just a misnomer to frustrate any move from below to regain sovereignty. That barrier, was smashed by the youth who gathered at Gotagogama and Galle Face Green. The political ruling class for the first time, realized that there was nothing standing between them and the enraged masses who were hungry, hopeless and infuriated by the hardships they were facing due to shortages in essentials. 

With Ranil Wickremasinghe resuming the role of rescuing the Rajapaksas from the hole they had fallen into due to immense and continuous pressure put on them by a raging public opinion coupled with civilian mass protest, it might have seemed that the Aragalaya had come to its logical conclusion. It would seem that the legitimate reason for the existence of the Aragala Bhoomiya at Galle Face has outlived its lifespan.

We have been sympathetically critical, in these columns, of some of the turns the Aragalaya took in those momentous days. In fact, we have questioned the viability of calling a highly political move by the masses, apolitical. Yet, despite all that, we have never questioned the genuine intentions of the masses led by their sons and daughters to seek much-needed change in the manner their country was governed. Neither is there any question about their bravery and boldness in the face of the government security apparatus.
The protesters who occupied Galle Face Green have left and Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been removed from power. Yet the struggle is far from over. And its progress might not be in the same shape and form, either.