Ranil and Aragalaya effect

RW is feeling the Aragalaya effect and let the judiciary handle the matter without any outside interference. No one is above the law

- By Dr. Ameer Ali

operated it. Out of that exercise emerged Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW) as the new chief.

RW never grasped the seriousness of the youth’s aspirations expressed through the Aragalaya and he took that revolt as a passing phenomenon of youthful age. His first reaction therefore was to send the police force to chase out the agitators, arrest a few of their leaders and destroy their temporary shelters at the Galle Face Green. He also believed that the main reason for popular discontent over the prevailing system was economic and he therefore invited the IMF to take charge of economic reparation, which was in that environment the only alternative left for the open economy. To call him as the rescuer of the economy because of this invitation as his aficionados are doing is to fool the public. Apart from that it was business as usual for RW.

With support from the Rajapaksa clan, he spent the rest of his presidential days in preparing himself to become the common candidate to contest the next presidential election. Public funds were dished out in the name of development and without any accountability to local chiefs in various electorates to win their support at the next election. But the youth did not go home to rest but took their message direct to the people. The results of the 2024 Presidential and General Elections were the material translation of the Aragalaya effect.