KAMALIKA PIERIS

The public must realize that that their beloved Pohottu took over from Yahapalana   only to complete the USA scenario for Sri Lanka. Pohottu is Yahapalana 2, more deadly than Yahapalana 1, because the USA is now in a mighty hurry. The US   feels it must move fast and secure Sri Lanka. China is zooming ahead, Russia is coming centre stage and Diego Garcia has gone out of US control.

USA observed in 2014 that if Sri Lanka continues to increase its stability in the next five years, Sri Lanka will become difficult to control. A weaker Sri Lanka is easier to dominate’.  It was necessary therefore to weaken Sri Lanka quickly. Pohottu was to carry out the task. There was an easy way to do it.

 Any country which is heavily dependent on imported gas and petrol is highly    vulnerable and can be easily strangled.  The whole population of a country can be killed off by simply depriving it of its imports of gas and petrol. In Sri Lanka this was to be done by declaring that the country had no money to buy the stuff.

‘A small country like Sri Lanka can be kept afloat indefinitely   on loans,’ an economist told me. He did not think this was a good thing, but he saw it as a well tested possibility. Sri Lanka has managed up to now   to stay afloat, despite loans. That is because the external debt was somehow managed and   the country was kept going, with the public blissfully unaware that they were living on borrowings. 

When there was a global financial crisis,   in 2005, 2006, or thereabouts, the government handled it so well that the country did not even know that there   had been a crisis, analysts said.

Our expenditure was always more than our income, agreed the public, but we had all the gas and petrol we needed. So why did we suddenly face a shortage of these vital imports and why did we , in a matter of months, run short of US dollars?

This happened, we are told, because the authorities had deliberately refused to re-negotiate the current external debts, as they should have done. Instead they kept the debts going, knowing that it would lead to a financial crisis. It was a contrived financial crisis.

The present economic crisis in Sri Lanka was not created due to lack of exports, dip in tourist arrivals nor due to the COVID-19 pandemic but due to political mismanagement observed Murtaza Jafferjee in April 2022.

The shortages of oil, diesel, petrol, gas, kerosene, and the resulting lack of electricity that we are experiencing today are also contrived shortages. The crippling of the agricultural sector by the crackdown on chemical fertilizer, and the starvation level rise of food prices, the shortage of essential drugs are also part of the same plan.  They were mapped out long ago. They were intended to impoverish and weaken the population of the country, sector by sector. The gas explosions, which took place in all provinces except the North and east, was a shock tactic.

The plan had some success. Many small businesses    closed down permanently, families that hoped to rise and do well, became fatally impoverished. The 13 hour power cuts totally disrupted all activity in the country. 

Two persons  who were interviewed by Derana television news, on two different days, when they were standing in a queue ,  stated, independent of each other,    that we should hand the country over to the sudda.  ‘Rata suddata dena eka wada hondai,’ they both said.  This    is not a natural response. The natural response when standing in a queue is to scold and complain. This particular response has clearly been given to them, to be used when necessary. It is preparation for the entry of USA into Sri Lanka.

However, things did not go according to plan. the public were highly critical of the situation. Surakimu Sri Lanka” demonstrated before the Central Bank on the 30^th March, asking for removal of Ajit Cabraal and Basil Rajapaksa. Sinhala Sanvidana Ekamtuwa said that, foreign intelligence services were working overtime to achieve their objective in Sri Lanka.

Contrary to what was expected, the population did not become a weak, whimpering, half starved entity, grateful to be rescued by the sudda, as USA hoped.  Instead the exasperated public, angry and belligerent, responded in a   politically mature manner.

They declared that the country had never experienced such a peculiar situation ever before. They were not going to tolerate it any further. Pohottu must either run the country efficiently or get out. They would prefer if Pohottu got out. They   wished to see a smooth transfer of power from Pohottu to its successor, a stable Parliament and a return to the comfortable life they were used to, with plenty of gas, petrol and electricity.

It was only a question of time before the country exploded with anger against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Pohottu government. The Mirigama episode which took place on the night of March 31, 2022 was the precipitating event.

The Mirihana protest was primarily a protest of the educated middle class. in a middle-class society, if you by make their lives impossible, they come at you with all the education and skills at their command, observed Dayan Jayatilleka. No regime can lose the middle classes and remain in power, certainly not when it has lost the peasantry and the working classes already. The struggle to remove the ruler, the ruling clan and the regime, has begun, said Dayan Jayatilleka.

Pohottu’s statement that a group of organized extremists armed with iron bars, sharp objects and clubs had influenced the protesters to march towards President Rajapaksa’s residence, cannot be accepted. The     YouTube videos showed no evidence of   clubs, poles or helmets.  the demonstrators were unarmed middle class crowd, dressed casually and holding smart phones. It was a very angry, contemptuous crowd, but not violent. they urged the police and the armed forces to join them. You should be with us,” they said.

The Mirihana demonstration had an instant response .Cars were pressing their horns in support as they passed. Protests spontaneously broke-out on at Kelaniya, and as far afield as Anuradhapura according to the media.

Pohottu declared a curfew and shut down social media on 31st night. The public defied the curfew and continued to demonstrate along the main roads in several parts of the country, that same night. Media news reported that there were demonstrations that night in Homagama Yakkala, Moratuwa, Deraniyagala, and Pamunuwa.

The demonstrations gathered momentum the next morning, April 1^st, followed by a lull on the 2^nd and a burst of protests on the 3^rd and 4^th of April   which are continuing on the 5^th too.  The public are determined to get the Pohottu government out.

The protests were island wide. They consisted of large crowds who assembled and shouted slogans. There was clear evidence of pent up frustration and anger but the crowds were disciplined and well focused.  The chant was ‘Gota go home,” with variations such as ‘ape rata apata deepan, thoge ratata tho palayan’ .The word ‘hora’ was used   liberally.

There was island wide unanimity, on what the crowds wanted. They wanted Gotabaya Rajapaksa out, they wanted the whole Rajapaksa clan chased  out of politics,  they wanted   the present system of  parliamentary  rule completely over hauled,  the  circulation of  the same politicians  in ‘thattu maru  palanaya’ stopped and  some  form  of utopian good governance established instantly.( continued)