Single spark that fired the Aragalaya

Another factor was necessary for the Aragalaya to grow into gigantic proportions. As Mao Zedong said “a single spark could light a prairie fire”. ‘That spark was the demoralization of the security services on whom increasingly the President and his coterie depended for their safety. An incident on April 19, 2022 in Rambukkana, a small town near Kegalle, became a part of the jigsaw leading to the Aragalaya. The background to this incident was the shortage of fuel and the long queues that formed near petrol sheds for refueling. In Rambukkana the monopoly of transporting and distributing fuel was in the hands of local politicians. Long lines of vehicles were drawn up before the town’s only petrol shed expecting a politician’s bowser to bring in supplies as was the regular practice. But on that day the bowser did not arrive as expected. It was in Kolonnawa, having been tanked up but did not leave immediately for Rambukkana where vehicle owners were waiting with increasing frustration. The reason for the delay was that there was to be a price increase that midnight and if the bowser left for Rambukkana after the revision the owner would make a killing. He was already loaded up at the earlier and lower, rate. The bowser reached Rambukkana after the announcement of the higher fuel price. When the new selling price was announced by the bowser driver, the waiting motorists and three wheeler drivers went berserk. They blocked the railroad nearby with vehicles thereby cutting off a main railway artery and also attempted to set fire to the fully tanked up bowser. If the bowser was torched there would have been an explosion destroying a substantial part of the town which is at a junction connecting the Pinnawala, Rambukkana, Polgahawela and Galagedera roads. the local police chief had summoned reinforcements from his headquarters in Kegalle. Help arrived in the form of an armed riot squad led by an Assistant Superintendent who had been recently promoted. They set about dispersing the crowd. Protesters were driven along the Galagedera/Mawanella road when many of them, from the safety of their “wattas”, began to pelt stones at the police. After his men were hit with stones the ASP ordered the firing of live bullets. A stray bullet killed a demonstrator and GR was confronted with another problem in the midst of growing opposition and a call for his resignation. At the receiving end of contradictory advice and remembering the furore of the ‘Rathupaswela shooting’ (where several potestors were killed by the security forces) which contributed to MR’s defeat in 2015, GR refused to listen to the entreaties of the police to defend the ASP by instructing the Attorney General to represent him at the preliminary inquiry. The police officer was asked to get personal counsel and the security services were demoralized by the failure of the President to come to their rescue. It was common ground that if the bowser exploded it would have been an unimaginable calamity. But the security services saw in this episode a signal that GR would not stand by them in the event of a confrontation with a mob. NGOs At this stage NGOs who are sensitive to the tribulations of the urban middle class began to join the protest. They supported the building of encampments by the sea reminiscent of the alienated groups of Egyptians who were camping out in Tahir Square during the “Arab Spring”. Among these local groups were Catholics who were egged on by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith who was referring to a “hidden hand” that had promoted the Easter massacre. Similarly, protesting Buddhist groups and especially Muslims backed the events that were now coming under the banner of “Aragalaya”. Dayan Jayatilleke in the Island of April 27, 2022 wrote, “A new Sri Lankan society and consciousness is being born in the Aragalaya; it is non-racist, indeed anti – racist; it is mutually tolerant and pluralist; it is solidaristic and inclusionary. It is the consciousness of the younger generation. The ubiquity of the Sri Lankan flag is a supreme and superior act of subversion. The old patriotism, patriarchal, divisive, dominationist is being replaced by a new patriotism of generosity and mutual support. ‘There is a new Sri Lankan family, multiethnic, multireligious, multilingual, multicultural that has come into being in and through the Aragalaya.” Another interesting phenomenon was the support of university academic staff, other intellectuals and radical cultural figures epitomized by the participation of Nanda Malini – the undisputed queen of Sinhala music, and other top personalities like singer Victor Ratnayake. Cricketing idols Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu also encouraged the protesters by visiting Galle Face, mingling with them and giving “voice cuts” to TV channels. Daniel Lerner in his study of social change in Iran which led to the toppling of the Shah, and the assuming of power by the “Mullahs”, draws attention to the youth of the burgeoning middle classes who could not be integrated into the power structure and were thereby thrust into the ranks of the opposition. “Many of these educated young men and women took to the culture industry- making films, writing poetry and lyrics for films and promoting drama groups – because their lack of traditional learning skills made them fail in the labour market” says Lerner. “Learning no skills that can be productively employed, these collegians seek outlets in the symbol manipulating arts to which their humanistic studies have oriented them. Their effort supplies a poignant instance of usable training rendered useless by its social environment – newspapers without readers that last a week or a month, film companies that never produce a film.” Many of the NGOs draw in these “overproduced intellectuals” who are not fitted “for anything but to continue their schooling or to enter teaching”. In the Aragalaya the country’s power brokers were made aware of the large numbers of young people who were alienated from the social hierarchy and were willing to confront them. Though the slogan “Gota go home” may have been coined by a disaffected Rajapaksa sibling, it caught on because it depicted the new found courage of young people who were deprived of even basic services like electricity, fuel, gas, food and water. As the TV clips showed, the largest number of protesters who converged on Colombo and drove out the incumbent President GR were young men and women – a large number of them organized by the leftist student unions of the JVP and the FSP. While the middle classes were responding to their immediate distress caused by shortages, leftist organizations were quick to politicize issues and grab the leadership of the Aragalaya with their well disciplined “shock troops” drawn from youth organizations. Without their muscle the Aragalaya would either have dissipated with the return (of essential goods) or would have been beaten into submission. Social media A distinctive aspect of the Aragalaya was the widespread use of social media. The victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was reputed to be tech savvy, led to a greater interest in social media thereby winning it a large following. The power of the mass media – particularly television, which was deployed on behalf of GRs opponent Sajith Premadasa – was countered by the spread of social media which emphasized the role played by their hero in defeating the LTTE. In addition GR was presented as a “modernizer” who would use the tools – his favourite word – of digitization to “make the country great again”. Many of his inner circle in the “Viyathmaga” were technocrats. But his inability to deliver on his promises led to disillusionment particularly of the youth who had pinned their faith in him. This led to a veritable avalanche of criticism against GR and his government. It must also be stated that the JVP which had reinvented itself as a mass based political organization called the National Peoples Party [NPP] began a well coordinated propaganda campaign both inside and outside Parliament. They and the more extremist Peratugami Socialist Party [FSP] – which was an offshoot of Wijeweera’s political formation – highlighted the role of youth through their youth leagues based on their iron control of state Universities. The “Antare” or the University Students Federation were in the forefront of the Aragalaya. The sight of students demonstrating on the streets, their clashes with the police, the frequent use of water jets and baton charges by the security forces and scenes of students [including young monks] being dragged into police vans dominated daily TV news programmes. The inefficient Sri Lankan telecommunications system was modernized during the time of CBK. Consequently this sector which was dominated by private enterprise expanded very fast. The number of smart phones increased exponentially and social media became a viable alternative messaging system offering popular narratives which were mostly anti-establishment. Criticism in the social media was directed primarily against the Rajapaksa family which had earlier managed the mass media with both blandishments and violence. A number of journalists who wrote about corruption particularly in procurement for the armed services, disappeared or were killed in broad daylight. It was in this context that the social media became a weapon used by the Aragalaya supporters to counter the mass media which was manipulated by the Government. I can refer to two instances where social media became crucial for the anti -GR movement. One was the surrounding of GR’s house in Pangiriwatte Lane by an ever increasing assembly of mostly middle class protesters which soon turned into a violent clash with the security services. A group of people led by Hirunika Premachandra who started a candle light vigil to protest the frequent power cuts, was joined by a large mob who first saw the proceedings on their smart phones and on one TV channel. This rapid mobilization unnerved GR who then retreated to President’s House and never returned to his private residence. It was also a clear instance when the army was less than prompt in coming to the rescue of their Commander in Chief. [Later the Army Commander in his valedictory speech admitted that he was reluctant to engage his forces in a clash with civil protesters which would have led to a blood bath.] The other instance was the mobilization of an estimated million protesters from all over the country to surround President’s House in which GR was confined with his security chiefs. The call for a protest meeting was messaged through the social media. After GR was evacuated thousands of protesters stormed the now abandoned presidential mansion. The rampaging mob was quick to display its presence by sending pictures via social media. Both incidents referred to above could not have escalated but for the ever present social media networks which are now a significant feature of the country’s communication scene. There have been no studies of the spread and content of the social media in Sri Lanka. But several impressionistic conclusions can be arrived at. One, as referred to earlier, is the rapid spread of the medium – namely smart phones – as a consequence of the modernizing of the telecommunications system. Underpinning this phenomenon was a global transformation of communications technology both in terms of its functions as well as its rapidly declining costs of manufacture. Smart phones are now within the reach of a very large section of the population. Second, the users of mobile phones were mostly young people who had been, in Daniel Lerner’s phrase, brought into “the orbit of desire”. The smart phone had speeded up the communications revolution and created a large number of “transitionals”. Decades of social welfare had created a demographic phenomenon in which our youth “cohorts” were rapidly increasing in number and were intervening significantly in the political process. They had initially supported GR as signified by large numbers of youth voluntarily donating their labour to clean up their villages and beautifying the environment by painting murals in public spaces. Anthropologists like Arjun Appadorai have drawn attention to the sociology of the aesthetics of “public spaces”, which helps us to understand the logic of young GR supporters and their early perceptions of their president-hero. That they were bitterly disappointed was seen in the rapid spread of the Aragalaya and later their hopes of recovery through the NPP. This takes us to the next aspect of the content of the messages that were disseminated through the social media. The dire situation with shortages, long queues and poor distribution became a spur to the messaging system which was already in place. It focused attention on the alleged faults of the Rajapaksa family. The push for such targeting was provided by the supporters of the JVP/NPP and the FSP. It was taken up later by NGOs and left wing intellectuals. (Excerpted from Vol. 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)