The Sathyagraha was a success
DR.Vickramabahu Karunaratne-2017-08-24We organized the Sathyagraha while people were suspiciously looking at clouds of corruption that appeared again. People assumed two years back, those dark clouds of corruption and brutal crimes have drifted with the defeat of the Rajapaksa fascistic government. Now they are suspicious. Are they descending again and are any successors of Mahinda Rajapaksa regime fill the vacancy.
They were wondering with not only a sense of disgust but one of bitter dejection. 'Sixty-Two Movement' with a successful Sathyagraha could challenge the resignation and pessimisms. Obviously, resorting to the old fall-back of resignation is hardly a response deserving of acceptance given the plight of the Sri Lankan nation and what it can and will mean to all of us in all communities: Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. One could go further, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and other religious groups, too, should be devoted to make use of the opportunity given by the 8 January democratic uprising.
If one takes a step back and tries to project a perspective on the current plight of Sri Lanka, the sense of quiet euphoria that seemed to sweep across the nation with the defeat of the most corrupt and violent fascistic government is only a beginning; there was a massive table of barbarians that was left behind that should have been cleared. It has been a misfortune to see that the huge but temporary uprising has lulled many of us into a false sense of complacency in the matter of the return of fascism; more correctly a reorganized Mahinda Rajapaksa group is behind the power of Yahapalanaya. But now there is no excuse for any of us who participated in the Laksa sixty two uprising and perhaps experienced that optimism to pretend that it was a simple matter of false pretences. No, it was real and precisely because of that we can and must do all we could to turn back that garbage-bearing rising tide of Mahinda group.
This kind of situation is not without history. The current predicament is not without precedent in even many of the western democracies, the difference being that there were proletarian political alternatives as in the Russian revolution. Liberal capitalist leaders deluded into believing that they could practise this liberal philosophy as they wish, without let or hindrance. But they were soon brought down to earth by the democratic proletarian power groups who organized mass campaigns. It is wrong to assume that a similar option does not exist for us now, because the current "alternative" consists of the very lot that we thought we got rid of a couple of years ago, the Mahinda group! What makes it an absolute necessity that we change the present status quo is the fact that certain set of racist thieves and political bandits hidden behind Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena are beginning to form the illusion that if they combine that sense of absolute right to whatever they wish for, with the impunity of them and their cohorts being above the law; nothing and nobody can touch them or stop them.
The Sathyagraha was a success and showed everybody that the social and political awareness of the people who brought this government to power is high and they are prepared to fight back to put the Yahapalanaya on to the correct track. It also proved that the power of democracy is not over or receding. On the other hand it sent the message to fascistic Mahinda group and the Polpot SAITM camp that with a short and simple notice nearly 3,000 people turned up to face any kind of challenge. These were wise men or militants from town and country, each representing at least one hundred, in the respective town or the village.
Among them many were trade union leaders. It was a very conscious participation, make no mistake.
