Five-year-old
Yara Shadath
strikes a powerful pose. With her black hijab covering her head, she is perched on her father’s shoulder, holding up
Sri Lanka
’s lion flag. She has been at the protest site on
Galle Face
in Sri Lanka’s capital city of Colombo since noon.
Yara and her father
Mohammed Shadath
intend to remain at the venue, packed with protestors, occupying more than half of the broad road in front of the Presidential Secretariat, until they can go home and join the iftar (the ritual of breaking the fast during Ramzan).
A pregnant woman takes a break under the tent on the pavement, a ‘Go Home Gota’ poster perched over her head on the short wall, edging the pavement. Near Parliament Road in Colombo, a couple of days earlier, a woman struck a pose with co-protestors, carrying her month-old baby on her hip.
The ease with which men, women, children, and even toddlers and babies, join the protests against the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government, has a takeaway — these are peaceful protests, to vent anger and showcase solidarity. They adhere to rules, they don’t block traffic, use violence or damage property.
Discipline
adds to the vigour of their campaign.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is a bleak story, but people are strictly following the protest etiquette, however bad the effect of the economic crisis on their lives. The agitation, managed by a social media campaign, ensures that protesters, road users and police are safe.
Here are the pointers for the public wanting to register their protest: At the designated protest spot talk to those gathered to get to know them; appoint several leaders for the group; never be impulsive or aggressive; if someone is tempted to act aggressively, prevent him/her from doing so; do not damage property, those who commit such acts will be considered traitors of the protest movement; remember that this is a struggle for the right of life, not a bloody struggle as some are trying to make it out to be; cooperate with police and security personnel; remember they are just as oppressed as everyone else.