Sri Lanka protestors ready to hand over seized govt buildings except president’s office
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s youth-led protest movement known as the argalaya (the struggle) has decided to hand back government buildings excluding the presidential secretariat that they have been occupying for several days.
Representatives for the argalaya told reporters on Thursday July 14 that the decision was made as it was not the intention of the protestors to occupy buildings but to send corrupt politicians home.
“We have decided we will withdraw from most of these properties except the presidential secretariat and the Galle Face protest site because people have gathered in the secretariat building to send a very clear message to not only to the executive but also to the legislator,” Swasthika Arulingam a protester addressing a media briefing said.
“We want you to do your job. We have come here and stood here for 97 days and we have asked [President] Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign and [Prime Minister] Ranil Wickremesinghe to resign but for the last three days these politicians have acted as if this country is their private property.
“They have put our country and our sovereignty at risk by leaving the country without any plan or without a resignation, playing the fool with our people.”
She said there have been several attempts to portray these occupations as violent.
“Standing from this protest site I want to tell the people outside of this struggle that these parts of the struggle have never been violent and the occupation has always been peaceful. These buildings are people’s property. They are not anyone’s private property and people have a right to occupy,” said Arulingam.
She said the protesters will stay in the Galle Face site and at the presidential secretariat until the goals are achieved.
On July 09 Saturday at least 30,000 people flooded to Colombo to join the Occupy Wall Street-style protest in the face of a worsening economic crisis and demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa.
The protesters managed to breach the old parliament (Presidential Secretariat), the Queens house – official residence of the President and Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister.
By Saturday evening, the president announced that he would be stepping down from his post but needed time till July 13.
However, after several confirmations that the President would step down, he did a somersault and fled the country to the Maldives in the early hours of July 13 which angered the protesters further and resulted in them marching down to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s office.
“After it was confirmed that Gota could no longer serve as President, the activists decided to leave the buildings of the President’s House, Temple Trees and the Prime Minister’s Office, which were liberated by the people,” Devinda Kodagoda, a protestor, said.
“Acquiring the buildings was not the aim of the struggle and this withdrawal is a step forward in the struggle itself.”
The president has yet to step down and has appointed the Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as the acting President as he is out of the country.
The parliament speaker has informed the public that if the president fails to send in his resignation letter soon, the possibility of him having vacated his post will be looked into. (Colombo/July14/2022)
