It has been more than 40 days since the people of Sri Lanka took to the streets in their thousands on 3 April and occupied Galle Face in Colombo, the open space in front of the president’s office, as a permanent protest ground. It was named ‘GOTA GO GAMA’ which means ‘Gotabhaya go village’. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, ‘GOTA’ for short, has been president of Sri Lanka since November 2019; his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was the president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015.
Mahinda Rajapaksa became the prime minister in President Gotabhaya’s government; it was a well-known fact that the Rajapaksa family ruled the country. Basil Rajapaksa, another of Gotabhaya’s brothers, was finance minister, while Chamal Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa, his elder brother and his nephew, Mahinda’s son, were two other powerful government ministers. At one point, the Rajapaksa family controlled 70% of the national budget.
Neo-liberal economic policies that were introduced to Sri Lanka in 1978 on the one hand, and the corrupt politicians and the political system on the other, have brought Sri Lanka to a situation where it is highly dependent on imports for almost everything and as a result, there are no dollar reserves in the country and it is unable to buy many necessities, including fuel, gas, medicines and so on. Sri Lanka is in a debt trap with $58bn in foreign loans and it suspended its repayments this year unilaterally with the maturation of several loans amounting to more than $7 billion. Many of its unnecessary and unaffordable projects that depended on huge foreign loans with higher interest rates – such as the Hambanthota fort and the Maththala international airport to which no ships or aeroplanes come – played a significant role in this.
People are queuing for miles and miles for days for fuel, there is no cooking gas, hours-long power cuts continue, and it is said that these will soon last up to 15 hours. It was in this situation that people took to the streets: many ‘GOTA GO GAMAs’ were built in other cities around the country, with people demanding that president Gotabhaya and his government step down. All these protests provided an experience of how to protest peacefully together while educating each other about people’s power, especially in a country where racism, religious sectarianism and nationalism were used by the ruling class to divide communities. GOTA GO GAMA Colombo was equipped with a massive library, an open stage for people’s drama and political discussions, a solar power plant for 24-hour electricity supply, a media centre and much more. Many sectors of workers organised protests and marched to the protest site almost every day. This happened throughout the country at different levels. This was the first time in Sri Lankan history that people from each and every community, each and every stratum of society took to the streets against its rulers.
The ruling class tried to liquidate these protests by every legal means. At last, on 9 April, having realised this was impossible, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa gathered all the local councillors, mayors, members of parliament, their thugs and goons from all around the country in their thousands to his office in Colombo, armed them with iron and wooden poles, and sent them to attack the peaceful protesters. First, they attacked the protest ground in front of the prime minister’s office before walking more than a mile to reach GOTA GO GAMA. Not only didn’t police try to stop them, but the police, including Deputy Inspector General for the Colombo area Deshabandhu Thennakoon, were actually walking with the goons and letting them attack. Police used tear gas against protesters. Attackers crushed the protest ground and burnt down everything, including the library, within a very short period.
With the news of this brutal attack, the general public gathered in thousands not only at the main protest ground but also in every town. People who gathered at the main protest ground in support of the peaceful protesters captured many of the attackers, beat them up and threw them into the nearby Bolgoda lake. Some of the councillors and goons were seen walking along the road naked. People who gathered throughout the country were waiting in their towns for the goons to come back. Furious people attacked many of the properties and vehicles of politicians and goons that attacked protesters in GOTA GO GAMA Colombo. By the evening it was becoming calm.
The prime minister resigned and fled to one of the camps in Trincomalee in the eastern province and many of the politicians went in to hiding for days. The most powerful executive president in the world was also hiding. With the resignation of the prime minister, the government dissolved. This was the government that took a mandate of two thirds of the parliament two years ago. Throwing them out of power is one of the victories that the people achieved by fighting back.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who is still in power, has now appointed as prime minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, who lost his own seat at the general election and came to parliament from the one and only national list seat that his party (United National Party) won. Ranil, who has been prime minister five times, is one of the failed capitalist leaders and was always a saviour of the Rajapaksa family. He is not a solution but part of the current problem. So people do not accept this Gotabhaya-Ranil unholy alliance. It is said that India and the US are behind this appointment. The new prime minister has proved his allegiance from the start by arresting hundreds of protesters from all around the country – rather than the goons and corrupt politicians who attacked them on 9 April. At the same time, he is proposing to privatise Sri Lankan airlines, the state bus service, state banks and so on, to raise funds to buy essentials.
Even though the right-wing corrupt politicians are trying to play their usual games, people have realised that they have no representation in the current parliament. So they are demanding a new system in which public participation in the decision-making process is strengthened. They are demanding power be given back to the people. A new political culture is being built among the protesters to work together regardless of their party politics to achieve their common goals.
The left has a very significant role to play in this struggle. The bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties are opportunistically trying to call for an election to increase their seats in the parliament: this can only damage the unity of the people and weaken the struggle. All that will happen is that a similar set of corrupt politicians will be elected again, especially under the current constitution in which the executive presidency with almost all the power of the government still remains, MPs are unaccountable, and there are many barriers to a commoner getting elected as an MP. That is why it is very important to strengthen the idea of building people’s councils/assemblies in villages, workplaces, educational institutions and so on. The left is trying to concretise this idea and there is a good response from the public. Through this a national assembly can be built: to put pressure on the decision-making process of the current parliament in the short term (especially to bring a new constitution drafted by the people with some radical changes) regardless of who comes to power; become a dual power in the medium term; and take the full power of decision making in the long term, to build socialism in the country.
Chathura Gunathilaka
