VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

TIME ENOUGH WE HOPE

Aragalaya. Struggle.

Phonetically oppressive words. Here we are. Nearly two months into its trajectory.

A prime minister deposed, another imposed. A parliament in disarray.

A president not gone home – Mrinali Thalgodapitiya

What do the brave young people who stood up and raised their voices for us all have to say now? Surely, this is not what they hoped for, strove for; all those days and nights in the heat and rain, in hunger and thirst.

Aren’t they owed more than this?

Yes, we have heard it all and there is no more to say of any consequence of the corruption, the mismanagement, the sheer venality and greed, the cronyism… only that they are quite a lot of unpleasant and ugly words – and they’ve been a reality for too long.

The burning questions are…

Where do we go from here? How do we make that journey when we have to make it with no money, no fuel, no freedom of movement, no medicines, no food?

Who is the Pandora who unleashed these and more?

And is it Hope or Deceptive Expectation who still lurks in the jar?

It was Hope. But has Hope emerged as he truly is – Deceptive Expectation?

No. Enough.

Will those who led our children to the peaceful protest sites come forward with clean hands and pure intentions to succour these generations named for the last two letters of the alphabet like an ill omen from a Greek tragedy?

For they – and the rest of us – need Hope. In every struggle through the ages, it is Hope that sustained the sick, the starving, the weary, the worn. Do not deny them that. Allow them – and the rest of us and all the voiceless of this nation – Hope.

Nation build from these ashes but do it right this time. Do it the right way, for the right reasons – this time – and forgive the use of a tired old cliché: it is the merest of what is owed.

For the first time in 74 years, our intrepid young taught the rest of us a lesson that even independence could not – to be Sri Lankan. Even in the midst of the struggle, they made time and space to celebrate being Sri Lankan in all its communal colours.

They called it a satang bhoomiya but waged their war with love, and camaraderie and care, and kindness and creativity, and many other rather pleasant and inspiring words.

Let’s reward them with tangible realities of what they cried out for – peace, justice, transparency, accountability, meritocracy – and other such words that belong to the lexicon of a burgeoning democracy.

Don’t let’s play politics anymore. It’s a tired old game; and it should be given a rest. Let’s try something different – play a game that the young people at the table want to… for a change.

Surely, we can all be open to that – especially when we have no more cards left to play, and the chips are well and truly down?

Let’s try a new game with a new set of rules, a game in which you do not have to pass ‘go’ to collect 200 or a ‘get out of jail free’ card up your sleeve. Isn’t Sri Lanka more valuable than any hotel you will build on Park Lane?

What is done is done. The past belongs to no one. We can only use its lessons so that we do not walk the path of Sisyphus in perpetuity. Let’s take a lesson – or several lessons – from the youth… of love and peace, and a desire for something greater and better than what has gone before, and called itself Sri Lanka.

Enough.