Youth, the law and a revolt - EDITORIAL

Sri Lanka is a country which doesn’t support agitations and protests by the public. Thus the lawmakers of the country don’t lay out a level playing field when ruling the country; in terms of the relationship they have with the 
ordinary public. 

Just days ago a lawyer who tooted his horn in protest against the present regime fighting a case filed against him for doing so saw charges made against him being dismissed by the additional magistrate. The additional magistrate advised the police not to be bias when framing such charges and added that the law enforcement officers should understand the laws better when instituting legal action. 

What does this also mean? It suggests that the public in general must also be conversant with the law in a country like Sri Lanka. Court cases like this provide an eye-opener to everyone; suggesting that not knowing the law might cripple the efforts of protesters who wish to agitate in their efforts to make this country a better place. 

These are days where many who agitated against the state were initially arrested and then given bail. True, agitations and protests have lost their sting here in Sri Lanka. Why? First it was because protests inconvenienced the public so much. There was a time when ‘aggressive youth’ didn’t hesitate to quickly grab power and control the lives of people out on the road. But didn’t these protesters have an atom of thinking power that visuals of them inside the president’s house and published in social media would be used against them? 

Protests must be encouraged as long as they are peaceful and aimed at making a change which would improve people’s lives. As much as the law is used as an essential tool for control and maintaining peace people must use commonsense as a device which helps them steer clear of trouble and avoid unwanted hardships. 

Just take as an example the much damage caused to the properties of lawmakers during the period where the Aragalaya (Protest) was at its height. Now we hear that these lawmakers would soon see new houses being built for them for the residences they lost; all at the cost of people’s tax monies. If the agitations went peacefully no such damage to property would have taken place and thus the money to be spent for these construction activities would have come in handy to bring down important medicines, gas, fuel and other essentials which are in short supply. 
Now the President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Rathnayake states that part of the Floating Market in Pettah would be turned into a place where youth can agitate. Rathnayake has said that the place for agitating to be set up would stimulate youth to have innovative ideas. He has added that this place would also serve to help youth get economic value for their talents. 

The problem with rulers of this country, or most Asian countries for that matter, is that they think that if they provide the support services for youth to kick-start their ambitions the young people would turn a blind eye to the wrong doings of governments. For many years this went on till the present generation of youth thought enough is enough and demanded a system change. Also the present youth are disgusted about the monies that are misappropriated at state institutes and ministries. The more a generation is educated the more they’ll wish to see transparency regarding the use of tax players’ money. So providing solid infrastructure and then thinking that youth would be happy in a professional atmosphere and they’ll turn a blind eye to the malpractices of the state is foolhardy. This is what past regimes were doing till the youth exploded into action during the 
Aragalaya period. 

The Youth in this country believe that this nation needs a stable government. This government was more dealing with a revolt stage of a protest during the past couple of months. It must get ready to deal with the ‘real’ agitations of a frustrated society-largely the youth- in 
the future.