Rising threat to Aragalaya victory

Gota has gone! Hurrah for the people! Aragalayata Jaya! The Speaker of Parliament has at last received Gota’s letter of resignation from Singapore, where he went from the Maldives, with no visa to his former Dual-land the USA, and who knows where to next?

But there is a ‘Gota Ranger’ still in place. That is the Ranil in today’s politics and governance. The entry to the Prime Minister’s office by the Aragala activists in their thousands, on Wednesday, was a display of their sight of how big a threat the Ranil-play is to the process of democracy – achieved in large measure by their mass action for Gota Go Home. There could hardly be anyone who did not know the Gota-Ranil link in the final weeks of the Aragala struggle.

The Acting President Ranil has thrown a new political warning to the people of Aragalaya – it is Fascism. He wants the Military and Police to fight the forces of fascism. This a huge mockery to a vast gathering of people, from all parts of Sri Lanka, all ranges of employment, and every aspect of society, to restore Democracy, with the overthrow of Gotabaya.

Surely Ranil – having been five times elected Prime Minister in this democracy – should know that Fascism is a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing aggressive nationalism and often racism.

Did Aragalaya, in the near 100 days of its functioning and leadership at Galle Face, show any of these aspects of fascism? Did it show any signs of the forcible suppression of opposition and criticism? Instead it responded openly to all opposition and criticism.

Were there any signs of the Aragalaya seeking to regiment industry, commerce or trade in this country – as fascist leaders – especially in Italy, Germany and some East Asian and South American countries have done?

Wasn’t it clear to all that the Aragalaya activists were totally against racism, that has been a menace to Sri Lankan governance, strongly promoted by the Rajapaksas?

How could Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has crookedly crept into Parliament, and now holds the Acting Presidential office from a clear anti-democratic and pro-fascist president, make such a charge against the Aragalaya?

This is certainly a major threat to the people. In his good and largely not-so-good days in politics, Ranil always played the JRJ system in governance, which was a decisive move away from democracy. We were certainly not the best democrats from 1948 to 1974, and became very much pro-dictatorship from 1977. That is the period Ranil certainly enjoyed, and possibly wants it brought back, through whatever is left of the Rajapaksa hang-on in politics, not power.

Gotabaya may think he has escaped the laws of this country in carrying out his escape from the anger of the people, due to his huge contempt for the rights of the people — in the vast tax evasion to the top class, the virtual destruction of paddy and vegetable cultivation, and bringing down the export crops too. But the laws remain in this land, and there are already calls for international legal action against him, as mentioned in the UK Parliament.

The run-away Gotabaya is the great hope for who-done-it Ranil. A Parliament, which has a formal over 113 majority for the Pohottuva, is the big play for the Ranil future. This is the watch for a new twist in Sri Lankan politics – a Ranil presidency – that will be a bigger disaster than the Gota-play. The Pohottuva majority is the runaway hope for Ranil to be the next President of Sri Lanka.

This will be a classic insult to the people of this country, and the Aragalaya activists and supporters whose big search was for a true electoral democracy. Let’s not forget that Ranil has won in so many parliamentary elections in this country. He came to Parliament from Biyagama, in Kelaniya, in 1977 under the UNP’s and uncle JRJ leadership, and then moved to Colombo South – that had a two Party membership in Parliament then. In the last general election in the 2020, where the UNP to which he gave leadership, it did not win a single seat, himself included.

He re-entered Parliament in 2021, as a National List member, many months after the election, through a twisted rule that allowed the appointment of defeated candidates to be MPs.This man who now seeks to succeed Gota who won the presidency with 6.9m votes, is one who led his party, the UNP, to total defeat in the 2020 election, not winning his own seat in Colombo, moving far below his main rival Sajith Premadasa. Is this the message or goal of Democracy in Sri Lanka? Or is this not the real show of the rise of fascism?

We are certainly in the midst of a new challenge to Democracy. The thinking and voice of the people could be replaced by an electoral twist, that could give us a wholly unelected President, to succeed one who won the presidency with a huge electoral majority, but was crooked and warped in governance.

If the Ranil-play moves on, there will be a new struggle that faces the Aragalaya and the people of Sri Lanka. Will this be a Ranil-paksa fight for the control of power, and a total mockery of Democracy?

Are the Rajapaksa strategies to fall in line with Ranil-paksa politics?

Let’s hope that whatever powers that remain in Parliament, will be able to put an end to this new threat to Democracy,,, finally beat this Ranil menace … giving true glory to the Aragalaya.