Gone with the wind but ill winds still blow    

WHERE THE DEER HUNTS – the green, green grass of GotaGoHomeGama is blowing in the wind... once the stamping grounds of a peaceful citizen movement, it stands iconic testimony to the potency that popular sovereignty bears in place of the sword -  Pic by Shehan Gunasekara  

I drove by the once – and ever – iconic Galle Face Green one bright, sunny morning earlier in the week. Just to see, as they say. There was nothing much happening except the usual activity from decades ago along the city’s most frequented promenade. Hawkers, kite flyers, lovers on assignations, the odd member of the local constabulary loitering without intent as only law enforcement in the land is allowed to do.  

The colourful pavilions and artistic installations of a citizens’ movement that had been tolerated for over a hundred days by a hardier regime had been removed – and it was as if the Aragalaya had never been. Only across the stretch of shallow water separating the esplanade from a burgeoning Port City were still visible the graffiti that remain as the languishing sentiments of yon now-absent protestors.

Those ideas – writ large in six-foot letters on the low escarpment fronting the Port City’s marina-to-be – were the only remnant of an organic uprising that was charged with popular sovereignty as never before. 

These still proclaim, to anyone alone and palely loitering who may be remotely interested in their capstone demand: #GotaGoHome – and in the vernacular: ‘No to Gota-Ranil deals.’

Well, Gota has gone... although speculation lingers as to what ‘deals’ are ongoing – from the true motivation for arrests under the PTA of critics of both regimes, to ongoing use of water-cannon and tear-gas to maintain law and order with a view to projecting an image of political control – if not social stability.  

I found it passing strange that the powers that be, who cracked down – also still are doing so – so efficiently on the peaceful citizen protests, had neglected to efface the offending sentiments that are still wasting their sweetness on the ocean air. 

Perhaps you would find it stranger still that such a strident dismissal of the old political culture is permitted to raise a clenched fist to the occupants of the once beleaguered Presidential offices from across a short stretch of seawater and strand.

Stranger things are happening yet, in our still embattled democratic socialist republic. 

A President who rode into power on the backs of the protest – swearing that the citizen movement must not be touched – has all but reneged on his pledge... in the manner customary to too many Chief Executives before him, once they don the mantle of raw power that the 20th Amendment cloaks them in.

An array of interlocutors passes in and out of the criminally (no pun intended) overworked offices of the CID. These range from alleged miscreants under past regimes; through trade union leaders, who have made a nuisance of themselves to the best-laid schemes of sundry administrations; to the rag-tag and bobtail of the Aragalaya, who dared to oust a sitting President by standing up, and being heard above the sound of a nation voting with its feet...  

The recent admission to these hallowed ranks of Olympic champion swimmer Julian Bolling, together with a noble compatriot also hailing from that redoubtable clan of patriots who lost life and limb for the country, has served to stir up a hornet’s nest among Colombo liberals at the very least. 

No doubt it has struck a chord with militant civil society and fellow ‘Aragalayites’ as well as the ‘Antharay’ (although the former has seemingly distanced itself from the latter of late) at sundry centres that keep mushrooming all over the land. 

This is a reminder to ask not for whom the bells toll... it could be they toll for you – and me – in the dark days ahead. If we do not continue to stand together and step out in unison as we did in the bright days not yet quite past...

That armchair critics and social media commentators had previously pointed out (rather distastefully?) that a spate of arrests of protestors was underpinned by a sort of unsavoury class warfare against those who would dare to speak to truth to power was neither here nor there after this not-so-arresting development. 

First, they came for the trade unionists. Then the student leaders. Now even Olympians who brought our beloved island home fame and fortune are not exempt from the vindictive eye of power scorned and not-so-secret agendas exposed.

There are perhaps three lenses through which this week’s events may be scrutinised in brief.

 A charitable lens 

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. 

The CID is – finally, perhaps, says the A-grade optimist – acting independently and in the unadulterated national interest. 

They are leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice. 

There are natural leads to be followed in the matters of 9 May and 9 July that naturally lead to the rounding up of some unusual suspects among other animals created equal. 

If it takes eight hours to record the statement of two redoubtable gentlemen who happened to be there on the day that the former Prime Minister’s residence was torched, it is only a token of the irresolute doggedness of our detectives in sparing no pain to get to the bottom of the matter.

• Form: In case of a charge/complaint/suspicion, the criminal law of the country must be applied
• Function: To ensure the smooth functioning of society by assuring that the law of the land is upheld without fear or favour
• Fundamental: The law is at work... even if it seems selective – and we must trust the process

 An unfailingly critical double-take

 All that glitters is not gold; sometimes, it’s simply tinsel – or the sun shining on minerals in faecal matter. 

The CID is – unfailingly, notes the B-movie aficionado – acting at the behest of its political masters. Its independence is unadulterated moonshine. 

They are leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of those seeking justice through peaceful protest. 

There are axes to be ground as regards the ground realities of 9 May and 9 July that naturally lead to grinding into the dust of the usual suspects. Some animals are created more equal than others. 

If it takes eight hours to ink the statement of two redoubtable gentlemen who happened to be there on one of those days, it is only a symbol of the irresponsibly doggone cussedness of our politically slanted sleuths in sparing no one else the pain in getting to the bottom of the drawer.

• Form: In cases where there is a less acute angle than the entirely national, law enforcement becomes a tool in the hands of politicians
• Function: To ensure the well-being of the political class and serve the interests of blatantly transparent agendas
• Fundamental: The law works selectively – but even in such cases of ‘law by order’, there is a facsimile of a functioning State 

The cynical view driven by realpolitik’s grey-shade perspectives

 All that slithers is slimy. 

The CID is – like the country’s one-time CCC rating – acting out of a sense of urgency by dint of being on the verge of bankruptcy. 

They are stoning the crows who crowed at those who stood like stones, unmoved, as the nation went up in flames on 9 May and 9 July. 

The usual suspects in a plethora of criminal cases injurious to the national interest and the welfare of the Sri Lankan people are still at large. Even if the token visits by the alleged miscreants in a litany of crimes against the state and its people is emblematic of the farce of law and order. In the order room the suspects come and go, talking of the return of Michelangelo. 

It takes eight hours to register the statement of two redoubtable gentlemen who ‘let it rip’ (hoary WWII songs adapted to these not-so-different times and all) against our more disreputable governors out of a sense of frustration that “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. 

Our so-called ‘political masters’ will always remain bottom-feeders.  

• Form: In cases that stick out like a sore thumb, the law of the land must be applied vigorously
• Function: To ensure that those who dare to speak truth to power – in word and deed – are brought to book, and seen to be brought to book
• Fundamental: Selective application of the law sends out a message that dissent against the ruling establishment will not be tolerated in certain instances, although it may be in others

Is this a sign that while Old Major may no longer rule our ‘Animal Farm’, a nastier and altogether more insidious dispensation under a new Napoleon has taken charge?

Or is the new administration merely mutton dressed as lamb, being nothing much more than the old regime continuing to drive its ancient agendas?

Time will tell... if the objectives of the peaceful Aragalaya are to be accomplished by a bloodless coup... or whether the State would have to take the Antharaya more seriously first, ahead of any societal or regime change?

For now, in the face of stern law and sterling legalism, the sound of dissent has been stifled. And frighteningly so, by the draconian use of the dreaded PTA.

Yet, it is by no means silenced. The heads on a stick that comprise those arrested and interrogated by the authorities on a writ countersigned by the Defence Minister are a knell that toll for all of civil society, not only activists and agitators in a still restive state. 

And it would be a wiser head than now dictates terms that comes, sooner than later, to realise that neither dictators nor demagogues – let alone despots masquerading as democrats on a mission to save the State – can prevent the flag of freedom being planted at that deserted green again, if the rule of law and order descends once more to the doldrums of rule by law. 

For if Galle Face won’t persuade the powers that be that there is merit in tolerating, safeguarding and encouraging dissent, then maybe Geneva and GSP-Plus would have to do so.          

(The writer is Editor-at-large of LMD)