Can the politicians save the country this time?

A scene of Monday, May 9 violent attacks on the peaceful protestors at the  Galle Face by the goons of ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa

Prior to the attack on the protestors in Galle Face by the supporters of the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday, nobody was able to get an idea on the length and width of the countrywide support base of those protestors. Now the country knows it thanks to Mr. Rajapaksa.   

Tens of thousands of people sprang on to the streets across the country with the word spreading that the Galle Face protest site had been attacked by the Prime Minister’s supporters on Monday. They immediately started to demonstrate in their respective areas against the attack. Some of them resorted to retaliate, locating the attackers in various places, mainly in Colombo using social media. They checked vehicles in many places for this purpose.   

Some others later in the day had started to set fire to the government politicians’ houses and vehicles. The entire country seems to be under the control of these groups throughout the day, with the police being seen making a desperate attempt to show that they were doing their best to maintain law and order. The anti-government demonstrators literally took the law into their hands. Politicians from all parties vanished from the public eye. Looting also reported from here and there. Mahinda Rajapaksa who was once after the end of the separatist war was likened to King Dutugemunu had to step down as the Prime Minister before hiding in a navy camp in Trincomalee.   

The island wide curfew first imposed by the police and then by the Defence Ministry under the Public Security Ordinance was ignored by the mobs setting fire to properties of politicians. Finally, after a campaign by the social media users to calm down and the reports of shoot at sight orders by the Defence Ministry, the situation subsided by Wednesday.   
This reaction to the attack on the protestors who have been peacefully demonstrating for a month at Galle Face demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was spontaneous and it is difficult to believe that this was an organised act, as suggested by Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratna during his press briefing and directly charged by the President during his address to the nation on Wednesday.   

"The Defence Secretary stated during the press briefing that there were  no prior intelligence reports to suggest that the government supporters  who had gathered in the Temple Trees premises would go to the Galle Face"

If the attacks on the houses of government politicians had been an organised act, it should have been the arsonists who would have created a situation that would prompt them to action. However, here they were provoked into action by none other than the Prime Minister by sending or allowing a group of goons from his official residence, the Temple Trees to barge into a crowd that has been conducting a peaceful agitation in front of the Temple Trees and the Presidential Secretariat in Galle Face. Even the President acknowledged, during his speech on Wednesday that it was the government supporters who triggered the violent environment.   

The Defence Secretary stated during the press briefing that there were no prior intelligence reports to suggest that the government supporters who had gathered in the Temple Trees premises would go to the Galle Face where the anti-government protest was going on. Even if one accepts it, he would be puzzled to understand why the police who were already armed with tear gas and water cannons failed to stop them within the one kilometre stretch from the Temple Trees to the Presidential Secretariat.   

Many anti-government individuals would have naturally felt at least a flash of thrill with the sight of mansions of government politicians on fire; especially those belonged to the politicians who arrogantly justified the people’s sufferings during the past few months. However, had the incidents of arson turned into a looting spree or a communal riot, as some elements had reportedly attempted to create, one cannot imagine the situation in the country today.   

The government or at least the Prime Minister pitifully miscalculated the public anger against the government that has been accumulating and festering in the minds of the people over the economic hardships they had to undergo, very clearly owing to government’s mismanagement. He seems to have thought that the protestors would surrender and leave the Galle Face Green with the attack on them, resulting in the anti-government agitators across the country also being beaten into submission.   

"The island wide curfew first imposed by the police and then by the  Defence Ministry under the Public Security Ordinance was ignored by the  mobs setting fire to properties of politicians"

That was what happened to the protestors during his tenure as President between 2005 and end of 2014. The incidents at Katunayake, Chilaw and Rathupaswala where people were killed by the police and the army were cases in point. But this time it was a terrible miscalculation. Even the protestors in Galle Face or “GotaGoGama” as they had named it wouldn’t have known the degree of public rage against the government prior to Monday’s mayhem.   

Incidents that would take peaceful fifty years to happen would happen within turbulent few days, as Lenin said. After the protests broke out against the government on March 31 in front of President’s private residence in Mirihana, the President had to force his Cabinet to resign and call on the Opposition to join the Cabinet. Later he had to appoint a smaller Cabinet with relatively young members as the Opposition rejected his request. Ajith Nivard Cabraal had to resign as the Central Bank Governor and the President had to invite Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe from his retirement to take over the job.   

The President had to agree to remove his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa from the post of Prime Minister and to appoint an all-party interim government. He also had to agree to cast away the powers awarded to him through the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, a piece of legislation much loved by him. He who was once treated by many as a ruthless and tough administrator of defence affairs was seen as a passive spectator when the people took the law into their hands in many areas on Monday.   

On the other hand, the Opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa who has been insisting that he would not subscribe to the idea of interim government until the President steps down and he gets the majority support in Parliament has now, after the Monday’s incidents come down to give up the second condition. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna which also has been refusing to join an interim government citing the same reasons has also dropped the second condition. However, they now want an assurance of support from the other political parties.   

These mind changes in these two parties might have occurred after the reported statement made by the Central Bank Governor Dr. Weerasinghe to Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa on Tuesday that the country possessed only an amount of foreign exchange sufficient to one weeks imports of essential items and that he also would resign if the people’s representatives including the President failed to ensure political stability in the country through some form of government with a Prime Minister and a Cabinet which is sine qua non to obtain assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Dr. Weerasinghe reiterated these points during a media briefing on Wednesday as well.   

The call for the resignation of the President is increasingly being justified by the circumstances. He has been fast losing the moral right to hold on to power which is proven by Monday’s incidents as well. Firstly and primarily his government failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people. Then he himself admitted some grave mistakes on the part of his government that led to the current economic and political chaotic situation. He made the Cabinet comprising his party members to resign and requested the other parties to take over the affairs of the country. Most importantly, the main slogan in agitations across the country has been “Gota, go home.”   

Yet, the scenario, if the President too steps down might be further chaotic; despite the Constitution having provisions for the Speaker of the Parliament to succeed him in the absence of a Prime Minister. Whatever his decision may be, somebody has to take over the premier post for the moment, as the Governor of the Central Bank pointed out, at least to continue the bail out process of the IMF. Yet, again the main handicap of anybody who takes over the Prime Minister post would be the insufficient parliamentary support to him, as no party in House now seems to have the majority power.