Inauspicious beginnings

One of the first actions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe since assuming high office was to declare a state of emergency and suppress peaceful protests that have been ongoing at the Galle Face Green for over three months.

In a pre-dawn raid, the Sri Lanka Army, the Special Task Force (STF) and other police units launched an operation to take control of the premises outside the Presidential Secretariat occupied by the protesters.

It is reported that a large contingent of the Army, Air Force and STF personnel stormed the protest site outside the presidential secretariat at Galle Face Green and violently dislodged protestors who had been largely peaceful during the 100-day campaign. Several individuals including journalists and lawyers were assaulted and arrested. The security forces have also violently attacked and removed tents erected by the protesters near the road leading to the Presidential Secretariat.

The Friday pre-dawn raid is President Wickremesinghe’s first act, the day he was officially sworn in as President. Hours later, blithely ignoring the outrage over his heavy-handed treatment of peaceful protesters, the interim President swore in his Prime Minister and a cabinet of ministers. The violent crackdown on the Galle Face aragalaya is a sign of things to come under a Wickremesinghe administration, which lacks a popular mandate and an ominously inauspicious presidency.

With questions swirling about President Wickremesinghe’s legitimacy to hold office as the leader of a party roundly rejected by the people at the last election, there was an onus on him to overcompensate for this deficiency with humility and goodwill towards the people he must now govern. But with the midnight raid on the protest site, any hope of President Wickremesinghe adhering to higher democratic norms and attempting to be a different leader to those he replaced are now in shatters. His true nature has been exposed, and with it any illusions about the type of government he plans to run has dissipated.

President Wickremesinghe is known for his disdain for public opinion. Often, he disregards local sentiment and prefers to deal with international interlocutors. These international partners must therefore clearly articulate their position regarding the rights of the people of Sri Lanka in the face of State brutality. The right to peaceful assembly, right to free speech and expression, rights against torture and inhuman treatment and right to conscience are not privileges bestowed at the pleasure of the head of state but fundamental and inalienable rights of the people of the country. Assuming that these rights could be taken away by brute force, especially by an administration that has no popular mandate, is a grave mistake that will lead to further turmoil and violence.

In this context it is significant that the diplomatic community and the BASL have swiftly condemned the brutality. Democratic governments and the human rights community must distance themselves from these early actions of the Wickremesinghe administration. Any lapses will be perceived by the people of Sri Lanka as a greenlight for the Wickremesinghe administration to continue its violent clampdown.

There is now no further doubt that the will and sovereignty of the people is bound to find expression, one way or the other. Sri Lanka has enjoyed 90 years of continuous democracy, and its people will not cede their inalienable rights easily, especially to an administration that lacks moral and popular legitimacy. The Aragalaya’s efforts brought down the most powerful executive president in Sri Lanka’s history. The movement – which is more than a protest site, or a handful of campers outside the presidential secretariat – has captured the public imagination, and will perceive a usurper as an easier target to depose.

It is imperative that Sri Lanka’s international partners, particularly those representing the democratic world, stand in solidarity with the people at this critical juncture. 

President Wickremesinghe has got off to a horrible start. On day one, he chose violence, and ended up on the wrong side of history in an epic battle for Sri Lanka’s soul.