The latest update on the ongoing country-wide protests is that one person was killed and scores of others injured during a confrontation between police and demonstrators at Rambukkana on Tuesday.
The police initially fired tear gas and rubber bullets and followed it up with live rounds following a festering stand-off between the police and demonstrators who had blocked the main Rambukkana railway track for some 15 hours forcing all train movements to a halt.
The main reason for this was that the protesters were demanding a continuous supply of fuel and expressing their anger against the increase in fuel. Videos of the Rambukkana incident spread on social media. Police were seen opening fire on the protestors, while some scenes showed the police hitting the protestors while dragging them onto a side. Protesters were blocking a fuel bowser and letting the air out of its tyres. They attempted to set fire to a fuel bowser despite police warnings.
Sri Lanka has been facing an economic crisis due to a lack of Dollars. The main reasons for the Dollar shortage are the Easter Sunday attack and the Covid-19 global pandemic. The country’s Dollar shortage has been a major factor in fuel, gas, electricity, food, and other issues. It is not a crisis created by one party.
According to the Constitution, people have the freedom of peaceful assembly. A person resorts to a protest when injustice is done to himself or his group. However, that struggle must not be in pursuit of the personal goals of another party or group. Today’s conflicts have turned violent rather than peaceful. People who had gathered peacefully all over the island and fought for their rights and demands are now beginning to behave violently.
People have started behaving in a way that does not allow people to go to work, does not allow them to go about their daily needs, and interferes with transportation. Buses are blocking roads, and tippers and trucks are blocking train tracks, disrupting normal human life. This also damages public property. The man who used to go out to earn a living and the people who are employed, have lost the opportunity to go to work freely and go home quickly today.
Education
Schoolchildren have not been able to leave school and go home freely. Education, once devastated by the Corona epidemic, has once again been hampered by the actions of undisciplined people. Is this what people wanted? Did people struggle to get this? Today, due to this, lives are being sacrificed and the human capital of the country is being hampered. Isn’t it the sabotage of certain political parties that are operating under the guise of peaceful struggles? Should Sri Lanka, which has been shining as one country after years of attempts to divide the country, be a state within another due to the economic crisis?
In recent days, the media has reported that protesters attacked several vehicles passing through the protests. They behaved under the influence of liquor violently, using obscene language, and put some pressure on those who went to do essential duties. They do not understand that those who travel through the protests in their own way are people who suffer the same fate. Protesters must think that going to work is for the people and for the protection of their children.
This is not what the real protesters wanted. Today’s struggles for just demands have been ridiculed by a subversive group and the struggle for just demands has become a pawn of subversive groups. Party politics subjugates people to a packet of rice and a bottle of arrack. Political parties and various political groups are beginning to break down cooperation between people. They are taking advantage of human misery.
It is unfortunate that helpless people do not understand this. The damage to property and lives caused by this is huge. It is difficult to rebuild the unity and solidarity that are broken by this. It is up to everyone to lead the protest for a common goal without allowing anyone’s personal goals to be achieved. It is the responsibility of the people. Avoid subversive activities and work to save the country without holding personal opinions.
Freedom
Let the man who works freely do it. Give freedom to the man who is struggling to survive. Find a way out of this without dragging the country further down. Peaceful protests should not be the pawns of political parties. Political parties should not use peaceful protests to socialise their views and demands.
Children grow up looking at adults. Therefore, we have to know exactly what the protest is. People going to the protest should be limited. That is, young children should not be involved in these struggles. Because of seeing such struggles since childhood, when they grow up they start to struggle, even with a small problem.
Let us save a country so that it can claim the rights of future generations without destroying the minds of children, without harming the very lives of the oppressed, and without creating crises between people. If the man facing the economic crisis stays out of work, the country will face another economic downturn. What needs to be done is to manage the crisis to some extent by properly managing the country’s resources.
Protests and demonstrations are all about the rights of the oppressed. But if the oppressed masses themselves are harmed by such organised protests and demonstrations, those processes will have no effect. It is not wrong to speak up for one’s rights and injustices. But every action has a method. Everything must be done with understanding.
There are those who seek political advantage and those who are ready to be misunderstood. Save Sri Lanka for future generations, not to leave the country, but to find solutions to the Dollar problem in our country by using local resources. Let us build a proud Sri Lanka.