{"id":87008,"date":"2019-04-05T15:28:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T22:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87008"},"modified":"2019-04-05T15:28:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T22:28:46","slug":"the-reign-of-mahinda-rajapakse-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/05\/the-reign-of-mahinda-rajapakse-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"THE REIGN OF MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE (Part 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

C.A .Chandraprema writing on the Joint Opposition May Day rally\nof   2017 observed that \u2018crowds at\nmeetings have always been a way of judging which way the political winds are\nblowing. Those above their mid-fifties and above remember the 1977 May Day held\nin Maradana which at that time had been considered the mother of all political\nmeetings. But at that time, the roads in Maradana were not even as wide as they\nare today.    (Island 4.5.17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chandraprema  said that \u2018back in 2016 when I arrived at the\nMay Day rally of the Joint Opposition in Kirulapone at around 5.00 p.m. and\ntold friends over the phone that the crowd there was much bigger than the UNP\nand JVP rallies both put together, none of them believed me.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I had\narrived at the Joint Opposition rally after having observed the other two\nrallies from about 4.00 in the afternoon when the rallies are usually at their\npeak. To say that an opposition grouping had drawn a bigger crowd than the UNP\nand JVP put together was at that time considered to be an extravagant\nstatement. This was especially so because the drone footage of that meeting did\nnot show what I had seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I arrived at that\nrally from the side of the Kirulapone police station but was never able to push\nthrough the crowd to observe how far it extended towards the Nugegoda end. Nor\nwas I able to see how far the crowd extended towards Narahenpita along Baseline\nRoad.\nAt Kirulapone,\nthe majority of the participants went away without having got even a glimpse of\nthe stage. The crowd, that\ngot stuck on Baseline Road, never got to look even in the direction in which\nthe stage was situated and the crowd was so dense that it was an exhausting\neffort to push one\u2019s way through it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd at the Joint Opposition rally held\nin Nugegoda in January 2017 was much larger than the crowd that attended the\nfirst \u2018Mahinda sulanga\u2019 rally in Nugegoda in February 2015. The fact that there\nwas such a turnout despite overcast skies the whole day and torrential rains in\nmany parts of the country was telling. The large crowd at Nugegoda proved the\nunpopularity of the present government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike at previous such meetings that this\nwriter has observed, this was an uncommunicative and almost unfriendly crowd.\nAttempts to engage people in conversation elicited only grunts and\nmonosyllables. Everybody wanted to listen to the speeches that were being made\neven though nothing new was being said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At previous\nmeetings, people did not look as though they had come to listen to speeches but\nto express solidarity with a cause. But this time, in January 2017, people were\nvery serious, with hardly a smile on their faces. They were listening to the\nspeeches as if their lives depended on it. A request to raise their hands and\ncheer elicited a single minded response even from the fringes of the crowd on\nthe Nawala and Pagoda Roads with people lustily bellowing their allegiance to\nthe cause. Each person seemed to be bound to the stage, not to his fellows\naround him.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Galle Face rally\nof May 2017 however is in a class of its own. Though I usually observe all the\nmajor rallies being held in Colombo, this year, there was no need to do that.\nWhatever happened at Galle Face would be the defining event,  observed\nChandraprema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yahapalana government underestimated the Joint\nOpposition and gave them Galle Face green thinking they would never be able to\nfill it. The government even\nwent to the extent of dictating where the stage should be constructed so as to\nincrease the embarrassment of the Joint Opposition when they were not able to\nmuster sufficient crowds. But with the UNP, SLFP\nand JVP all actively openly opposing the Galle Face rally, the Joint Opposition managed to outdo\neveryone else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day before May Day, I took a drive along\nGalle Face to see whether the Joint Opposition would be able to fill it with\ncrowds and my own assessment was that they may not be able to do it. This was\non the assumption that Galle Face green meant only the \u2018green\u2019 part of it\nwithout the broad tarred walkway towards the sea side or the Galle Road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what we saw on May Day 2017 was a\nphenomenon that no one has ever seen in this country. The Galle Face green, the\nbroad walkway on the seaside and the main road were just one sea of heads from\nthe Galle Face Hotel to the Bandaranaike statue on the other side of the\nesplanade and beyond. There were people lining the road up to the roundabout\nnear the Kingsbury and Galadari hotels. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was not a crowd that had been transported\nthere to put on a show. Every one of those people there were die hard\nsupporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa. They were motivated and enthusiastic. They had come in private coaches and smaller\nvehicles since state run buses were not hired to SLPP. Buses may have\nbeen deployed, but no bus service can transport a crowd of that size. There\nwas a continuous arrival of people from both ends of Galle Face. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that two elderly participants died in\nthe crush at Galle Face green was significant. If anybody was to get crushed or\nsuffocated, that should have been at the Kirulapone rally in 2016, where the crowd\nwas so dense that one could not even push through it. Galle Face on the other\nhand is a wide open space. The fact that anyone can get crushed in such a place\nis a clear indication of how dense the crowd was at its peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking that\nthere would be no crowd in Fort because the entrance to the Galle Face\nmeeting was supposed to be from the Kollupitiya side, I went to Fort and got\nstuck in the middle of a river of people near the Fort YMBA, all marching\npurposefully to enter Galle Face through Lotus Road. The number of people that\npassed my vehicle near the YMBA would by itself have sufficed for a separate\nMay Day rally. It is quite clear that tens of thousands of people at that\nmeeting had come there entirely on their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was walking down Lotus Road on my way\nto observe the rally at around 5.00 pm, thousands of people were leaving the\nmeeting. Usually people start leaving such meetings at around 6.00 pm. This\ntime they would have started leaving earlier because everything began earlier. Usually\nthe peak of a rally would be around 5.00 pm to 6.00 pm. This time the peak of\nthe Galle Face rally would have been around 4.00 pm to 4.30 pm. By\nthe time Wimal Weerawansa and Mahinda Rajapaksa made their speeches, large\nnumbers of exhausted people had left. The intolerable heat would have been an\nadditional reason for people to start leaving early. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Surveyor General, the Galle Face\nGreen (together with the adjacent roads) is 18 acres in extent. The Campbell\nPark, (where the United National Party (UNP) held its rally) was only 3.5 acres\nand the Municipal playground in Getambe (where the pro-Maithripala Sirisena\nSLFP rally was held) was only 2.5 acres, The extents itself give one an idea of\nthe numbers each venue could hold, said an analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government intelligence agencies estimated the crowd at Galle Face\nGreen to be well over 100,000 perhaps equaling the crowds that had gathered\nduring the visit to Sri Lanka by Pope Francis in January 2015. During that\nvisit, the 40 foot wide Galle Face Centre Road (from the Galle Face Hotel\nroundabout end to near the Kingsbury Hotel) was blocked for use by the\npontiff\u2019s motorcade. However, during the \u2018JO\u2019 rally, crowds jam-packed the\nroads too. (Sunday Times 7.5.17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNP rally in Campbell Park, according to\nintelligence assessments, came a second with an estimated turnout of 45,000\nwhilst at Getambe the turnout was around 40,000.  The\nestimated figures show that the crowds at Galle Face Green had surpassed both\nthe UNP and the pro-Maithripala SLFP crowds put together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That the\nlarge turnout at the Galle Face Green on May Day has come as a wakeup call to\nthe Government is not in doubt, said analysts. \n There is also little doubt,\njudging by their reactions, that both the SLFP and the UNP are shaken by the\ndevelopments. The reactions of Ministers and MPs of both sides underscore this.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news of substantial crowds at Galle Face Green had jolted\nGovernment leaders. This is how a senior Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)\nMinister, who did not wish to be identified for obvious reasons, described it:\nThe turnout at the \u2018JO\u2019 rally was unexpectedly good and shows there is\nanti-Government feeling in the country. We have to accept that. This is food\nfor thought. We should not underestimate what took place. The fact that they\nwere able to muster a vast crowd and have a good media strategy makes them a\nforce to reckon with. It is time we get our act together and stop criticizing\neach other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe had\nordered the police to provide security to Mahinda\nRajapaksa during the rally. \nHowever, President Sirisena ordered the withdrawal of 42 Police\nofficers, including an Assistant Superintendent, from Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2018s\npersonal protection group as news trickled in of the massive gathering. The\nDirector of the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) sent a letter withdrawing\nthese Police officers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter came past 5 p.m. on Tuesday asking\nthem to withdraw before 9 pm,\u201d Mahinda Rajapaksa said. He did not wish to make\npublic comments on matters relating to his personal security. However, he said,\nI cannot understand how threat perceptions against me have reduced immediately\nafter the May Day. Orders also went out to \n state investigation units to\nproceed with Court action against members of the Rajapaksa family in cases\nwhere probes have been concluded.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the near two and half years of the\nGovernment\u2019s existence, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had not made a\nsignificant impact against the Government on any major issue, except for some\nutterances  at public events, said the Sunday Times<\/em> analyst. Therefore it is\nclear that Rajapaksa and his group have been benefiting and earning bonus\npoints from the Government\u2019s misdeeds, inactions, the spiraling cost of living\nand even allegations of widespread corruption.  The May Day rally showed that this has\nsnowballed in Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2018s favor and bolstered his political position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not just the large crowds at the Galle\nFace Green that was cause for worry for Government leaders. Some took comfort\nin the perception that they would not all translate into votes at an election.\nHowever, as the SLFP minister conceded, it demonstrated the anti-Government\nfeeling in the country\u201d or in other words the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe alliance\nhad become unpopular. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The turnout showed that the Sri Lanka Podujana\nParty (SLPP) had come to stay and now has a substantial following. The Sri\nLanka Podujana Party which they formed to contest future elections is just a\nyear old, yet they have already broken all records as a crowd puller not once\nbut on multiple occasions in different locations, Galle Face being the most\nimpressive show of strength yet. The entire political future of this country is\nbeing determined by a political force that has taken shape outside the main\npolitical parties in the country, concluded Chandraprema. Clearly\nthe SLFP organizations are cracking countrywide into two groups, the larger one\nnow supporting Rajapaksa and the relatively smaller group backing Sirisena. The\nSirisena-led SLFP is being pushed to a lower ranking.  (Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS C.A .Chandraprema writing on the Joint Opposition May Day rally of   2017 observed that \u2018crowds at meetings have always been a way of judging which way the political winds are blowing. Those above their mid-fifties and above remember the 1977 May Day held in Maradana which at that time had been considered the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}