Battle for next President: Protesters insist next President to implement Action Plan

Protest help by Trade Union Coordinating Centre demanding Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe to resign 

Last Sunday (July 17) marked 100 days of the biggest people’s uprising in the political history of Sri Lanka. People took to the streets to oust the power-hungry Rajapaksa family along with a common purpose of ending nepotism and a corrupt structure of governance. On its 97th day, the protesters achieved their primary goal of ousting former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. However, the six-point ‘Future of the Struggle’ Action Plan presented on July 5 states that both Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe should resign. The Plan further proposes the setting up of a people’s council where representatives of the ‘Janatha Aragalaya’ can engage and mediate with the interim government, reduce the Executive powers of the President and bring about a new Constitution that endorses people’s sovereignty. Commenting on the Action Plan, Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe previously acknowledged the proposal of setting up a People’s Council. However while the country awaits the announcement of the next successive President, the protesters continue to keep their fingers crossed with hopes that their demands will be considered to usher in a new era of governance.

Aragalaya to continue if RW becomes next President 

“As per the action plan we presented on July 5 we have been clear on the fact that both Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe should step down from power,” opined Shabeer Mohamed, speaking on behalf of the Galle Face protesters. “Ranil Wickremesinghe is also a Rajapaksa proxy as he has been appointed to safeguard the Rajapaksa family. The election for the next President will happen today (Wednesday) and for the past few days we have had meetings with various parties and have discussed on what could be done to stop Ranil from being elected President. Except the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna other parties have given us certain explanations. However, any other candidate who is elected as the next President should follow the action plan presented by the protesters. The protesters didn’t shed their sweat and blood for the fun of it. Therefore, the interim/caretaker government should abide by these demands. But if Wickremesinghe becomes the President the aragalaya will continue with a different strategy to oust him. People took to the streets against the Rajapaksa family, those who safeguarded them and against a corrupt structure of governance. Therefore if Wickremesinghe remains in power it’s similar to having a Rajapaksa as the President,” said Mohamed. 

A capitalist economy – The next big challenge post-Aragalaya

The Black Cap Movement has been one of the organizations that has been involved in peaceful protests since the beginning of March. “We planned to organise micro protests at the inception of this resistance movement,” opined Akalanka Hettiarachchi, General Secretary of the Black Cap Movement. “One of the objectives was to attract the middle class segments to these protests because from back in the day, people’s protests were organised to attract the working class segment. The resistance was against Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It was the middle class that contributed to his election as Presidency. Therefore we wanted to shatter this foundation created by the middle class segments and bring them on to the streets through the series of silent candlelight vigils and micro protests that commenced on March 1,” said Hettiarachchi. 

Speaking about the future of the aragalaya, Hettiarachchi said that it goes hand in glove with the needs and wants of the middle class segment. “Due to the prevailing socio-economic crises the upward social mobility of this segment has gone backwards. As a result the middle class segments are under severe stress and the effects are long-term. Therefore Sri Lanka should rapidly transform into an income-generating economy and the necessary political and economic reforms should be implemented with immediate effect.

"The protesters continue to keep their fingers crossed with hopes that their demands will be considered to usher in a new era of governance"

“From April 12 to May 12 several groups at the Galle Face protest site drafted several demands titled ‘Beyond the Galle Face protest’ through a consensus building process. Another action plan too has been drafted. Many other groups too have drafted proposals and they seem to be progressive on various grounds. Therefore it’s best that all these proposals, recommendations and action plans are used as a foundation to develop a common plan to take things forward,” he added.

He further said that Sri Lanka failed to take a fundamental stride towards establishing a capitalist economy since 1948. “But it’s either now or never. We are nearing the fourth industrial revolution and this time we have to deal with artificial intelligence. We need to take this step and the only option is via a capitalist, liberal democratic path. The biggest challenge post-aragalaya is to take this great stride and for that we require a new social convention. On the other hand we also need to birth citizens who are ready to accept this challenge,” explained Hettiarachchi. 
The Movement further reiterated that all candidates should present their plan to restore the country back to normalcy prior to moving into the election today (July 20). 

Curtain call at Galle Face?

However, another perspective is that the Galle Face protest for instance should end, now that the first objective of ousting former President Rajapaksa has been fulfilled. “We will continue to add pressure from a socio-political perspective,” added Samith Bodhipaksha representing Sarwapakshika Aragalakaruwo. “There’s a 20-point proposal as well as a six point action plan that has been made public. The future President and Prime Minister should abide by these proposals. However it’s quite unfortunate that there are three people already contesting for the Presidency. They have a duty to work for the betterment of the country keeping aside party politics. But it seems that they continue to be power hungry politicians. The most ideal option would have been to see Opposition parties producing a common candidate as the Presidential Candidate and Ranil Wickremesinghe should be defeated through Parliament. We hope that he will be defeated probably at the last minute. But if he is elected as President we have no option, but to accept it as we cannot go beyond the Constitution. In that case he too will have to consider and abide by the action plan presented by the protesters. We will continue to protest against him and add pressure in a diplomatic, social and political manner,”said Bodhipaksha.

Protest held by civil society activists calling on Ranil Wickremesinghe to resign