Notebook
Covering Sri Lanka’s ongoing protests at Galle Face, Colombo’s charming seafront, exposes me to a lot about this crucial moment in crisis-hit Sri Lanka — the changing dynamics of the struggle, the varied demands coming out of it, the diverse participants and their shared resolve, and the leadership’s stubbornness that is imperilling the country’s economic and political future.
It has also revealed how vulnerable power can become in the face of resistance. Months after he was elected to office with a thumping majority, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa designated an empty plot adjacent to the colonial-era Presidential Secretariat as a “demonstration site’, to tell the world that he was not intolerant to dissent arriving next door. In just two years, protesters set up tents large and small at the same spot that they call ‘Gota go gama’ or ‘Gota go village’ and are refusing to leave unless he quits. The daily sea-side demonstrations that have persisted despite thunderstorms and attacks by ruling party supporters have forced at least some, including Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, to resign. But Mr. Gotabaya continues to stay in office, seemingly unfazed by the citizens’ fury.
