Yahapalanaya-2: All-parties arrangement, economic Batalanda and Opposition options

• Published date: 11 August 2022
• Publication title: Daily Financial Times

The above quote from Col. Hariharan, hardnosed former Head of Intelligence of the IPKF (1987-1990), should establish the exceptionality, even regional uniqueness, of the Aragalaya.

There was a clear win/win scenario, a story which could have gained Sri Lanka the international support we needed and a government the domestic support it needed. The Aragalaya, the historic peaceful people's uprising that gouged out President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who wrecked the economy, should have been crowned with free elections to Parliament and the Presidency, completing a classic anti-autocracy democratic revolution, and securing the international goodwill that would have been the soft power to leverage the most generous program for debt restructuring and recovery.

International opinion would have applauded that narrative closure, and the global players would have known that the island had freely elected, popular leaders with the public consent to make any agreements stick.

Instead, the prospect has darkened, with Aragalaya activists being rounded-up and an utterly unelected leader handpicked by the since-deposed President, selected as President by a Parliament dominated by the Rajapaksas' pets in the ruling party.

By what moral right is the unelected Wickremesinghe administration arresting and prosecuting the leading activists of this regionally exceptional emancipatory struggle?

The Opposition should have refused to...