Aragalaya anniversary: all hail it! or another nostrum?
Daily FT
|July 12, 2025
I was arrested by a social media post recently, which had the author of it claiming to have supported the Aragalaya 'up to a point' but 'not more'.
The author in question is a former journalist, social media hacktivist and would-be (or is it wannabe?) influencer. But the nous of her claim does not rest at that finite 'thus far, no farther' point. She warbles on to aver that the juncture at which she withdrew her valuable support was when the objective of the unprecedented people's protest was achieved.
Shall we press her on this? Or take the laissez-faire ('let it be'), laissez-passer ('let it pass') approach? Or is it not incumbent on us who take these and other such pseudo-political posts semi-seriously to interrogate her, and other like-minded essayists?
Who
For one: What constitutes 'support'?
Banging a makeshift utensil (and giving 'kettledrum' a new meaning) at the top of one's suburban lane in the so-called 'kitchen shadow cabinet' protest?
Funding or feeding and watering the stalwart fellows at the fearless Gotagoyaya in a neighbouring borough?
Turning up without fail at every hue, cry (literally) and shade (often none in the noonday sun) of a march or parade, sit-in or improvised pedagogical exercise (remember the teaching sessions for teens and other naifs at Independence Square); flag in hand and ire alike raised?
Appearing in court for those arrested by the local constabulary pressed into service for the then Lord High Pooh-bah?
For another: How visible is the 'withdrawal' of the same?
Absenting oneself from the barricades after having haunted the environs of the Aragalaya's 'protest village' at Galle Face for weeks?
Not tuning in religiously to the nine o'clock news every night on the understanding that 'now, it is over'?
Sharing a status update to the effect that the 'original' protest was not what it once used to be? Or that a glory had passed away from the earth after the people's struggle was 'hijacked' by other people quite unlike oneself and not to one's liking at all?
This story is from the July 12, 2025 edition of Daily FT.
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