Liberal Fellowship withdraws from Galle Face Protest

The organization called Liberal Fellowship said they have decided to withdraw from Galle Face protests as the common goal of the protests has been blurred by the use of the Galle Face protests by a few groups and individuals to popularize their personal political ideologies. 

They said in a statement that the peaceful protests people undertook against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the entire Rajapaksa regime at the beginning of March soon spread to the rest of the island. 

"Even before that, our organization contributed to the Galleface protests by laying the foundation for the #gohomegota2022 wave that was carried through social media. We believe that the main objective of the historic protest at Galleface was achieved with the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the post of presidency," the said.

"However, our belief is that this citizens-led movement can only end after the implementation of the social, economic and political reforms contained in the 'Beyond Galleface' series of proposals made with the intervention of a large number of organizations and social activists, including us, the Liberal Fellowship.

This can be achieved now by moving from the streets and the protests and engaging all relevant parties in a broad and thorough political, economic, and social dialogue.

For this purpose, we would like to request the political community to come to a common agreement for the general well-being of the country and to pull the country out of the crisis that has arisen. 

We would like to state that our organization is ready to contribute in every possible way to accomplish that. We also note that it appears that the common goal of the protests has been blurred by the use of the Galleface protests by a few groups and individuals to popularize their personal political ideologies.

Thus, we would like to state that our organization has taken the decision to withdraw from Galleface protests after considering the above facts.

Furthermore, we strongly oppose the repression of the social and political activists and we request the current government not to use its power for political revenge and to always act in a democratic and legal framework, the statement added.