Today I will tell you an interesting story about the Power of People. This is a summary of what happened in Sri Lanka, on July 9th.
What Happened to Us?
Sri Lanka ran into a huge economic crisis during the last six months. The major reason was the corruption of governors and the waste. Especially finally we all realize Rajapaksa Family have taken unnecessary power and they are abusing money as enacting rules of their own will. For an example, President and PM were brothers as well as financial minister was the third brother. The whole main ministries were divided among sons and other family members of Rajapaksas and their friends.
Timely inflation became high due to continuous printing of money, dollars reserves were drained due to a lack of planning and wasting on unnecessary projects which can gain commission for them. Also used for their private well-being. Also president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa banned chemical fertilizer imports which was a foolish decision. Farmer were impacted a lot and food cultivation was reduced highly. It leads to a food shortage after 6 months (now). Due to the lack of dollars, they weren't able to import fuel and gas. Due to the high price of fuel, every other product became expensive. People had to wait in queues for days to buy fuel. No medicine, no food, no LP gas, No electricity. But still, the government didn't have a clear plan to handle this. Each parliament session ended up without a conclusion and with useless time-wasting verbal fights.
None of the governors wanted to address the crisis. All were in the fight for power.
Raise of People
People realized that this foolish governs incapable of solving our problems and started to raise their voices against the President.
April 9 : Starting a Protest Camp
The first red fwas lash made on 9th April 2022 by organizing a massive protest in Colombo by young people. The request was "Gota Go Home". With, this they started a protest camp in Gall Face Colombo to protes until the president resign.
May 9: Attacked Peacefull Protesters
Sametime people protested against PM resigning as well. On the 9th of May, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa's paid supporters attacked the protest camp and destroyed all the tents and banners. Also injured people. As revenge people of every city re-attacked PM's supporters on the way. Sametime some people with political problems burned the houses of many Parliament Ministers. After spreading blood over the country PM declared his resignation.
June 9: Resignation of Another Brother
On June 9th, former Financial minister the President's other brother resigned. He is the one who reduced tax from larger businesses and that led to reducing the national treasury. Then he continuously ordered to print money for government expenses.
July 9: Power to People!
The day was planned via social media. The slogan was "Whole Country to Colombo". When the day becomes close, the president and some other officers tried different ways to avoid people coming to protest.
what they did,
- Tried to take court orders against the protest. They were rejected
- Try to intact curfew on the day of protest. Lawyers proclaimed the curfew is unlawful, hence they had to reverse the order
- Stopped fuel distribution so that people can't travel to Colombo
- Started a government bus strike on the day, so people can't go to Colombo
- Started a train strikethe for same reason
- Called three force army with a huge police squad to Colombo
You must realize how miserable they are
More than 2 Million Came to Colombo with No Buses!
The population of Sri Lanka is 20M and on that particular day, it said 2.5M came to Colombo to protest against President and new PM.
People fought to start trains and they were able to re-start trains from main cities. All trains and stations were packed with young protesters.
People hired buses, lorries, trucks, and even containers to come to Colombo.
source: From Facebook
When it becomes noon, Galleface and surrounding roads were covered with heads! Also, those who couldn't come to Colombo gathered in nearby towns and protest against President.
Gun Shots, Tear Gas and Water Cannons
Some police were gathered to protest against this unfaith but still, some forces started to spread teargas and water cannons to protestors. But people successfully faced them.
Occupied President's House, President's Secretarial Office, and PM's Official House
Un Armed Civilians were able to enter some main government houses under tear gas and gunshots. More than 100 civilians were injured including 2 or 3 who got bullet shots.
President's location was unknown and in the evening parliament speaker had a party leadership meeting and declared that PM and President must resign as soon as possible.
Will the Game Over on July 13?
President had sent a message that he will resign on July 13. There are doubts about why he is picking up a different date and what he is up to. Hope he will not resign on top of civilians' blood.
I must say to readers a few things,
- If you get together you can do a lot
- Aware on political drams on TV and on Social media
- Don't too respect or trust one person much. Always stay in an unbiased manner
- If you are already suffering, silence will make you further suffering
- Fight for what you deserve