Hubbub SL: babel at the junc and torn between two+ voices

IN the wake of last week's Opposition rally at Nugegoda, one thing is clear: Sri Lanka the SL of this article's title is (as usual, perhaps as always) deeply divided over the babel sounds of political debate.

- By Wijith DeChickera

It is crying shame on us that more than a quarter of the citizenry are still finding it difficult and even impossible to make ends meet. Not even the deflationary milieu that we are slowly but surely coming out of has made a difference to the poor.

Our socially bifurcated populace is diametrically opposed to each other about whether the rally was a success or a failure. It's divided about whether SL is in a good way or a good place, or not. Also what the reality about the country's prospects are, going forward.

On the one hand, the rally's organisers, relying on the sight and sound of 10,000 protestors in the market square, claimed a monumental triumph for the spirit of Opposition to an allegedly corrupt and incompetent Government, and promised to usurp their mandate.

But on the other hand, the rally's opponents, resorting to logic and simple arithmetic, estimate that 10,000 protestors divided amongst the 10 parties represented, amounts to small fry by way of comparison to Opposition marches of the past. A calculated dismissal of the blank cheque that these political movements of yesteryear, discredited by the vote at three successive elections, still command currency in today's sociopolitical coinage.

I won't mention the critics of #Nugegoda2025. Who, relying on the smell of something unsavoury in the atmosphere, dismissed the Opposition's outraged outcry on the grounds that it needs to sober up. In more senses than one. High time to grow up, young follow-me-lad, and move out of mobilising the masses with appeals to appetize their spirits rather than any sense of reason.

And as to whether SL is in a good way or place or not, well, it depends on whom you're talking or listening to, or following on social media.