Sri Lanka's Jan 6th: Army standing down, presidential palace breached, president AWOL.
Sri Lanka Megapost
Hey pepes. M25 here.
Today was one day that restored my pride in my country.
I must admit that I'm surprised by how the non-violence worked.
Since the start of the month the JVP (commies, surprising I know), has been asking for a non-partisan, populist (shape eke^1) demonstration/protest against:
- the current president,
- the political families,
- the cronyist businesses.
At the capital, Colombo, around the presidential palace, parliament, and Colombo in general. People were asked to come from all over the country (take not that this is during a fuel crisis). The date was today (9th of July 2022).
And boy did people deliver.
Timeline (please note, I'm in a far away area and am posting information as I received):
- The day before police sent out an announcement of a "police" curfew, supposedly to prevent people from. The Bar Association dog-piled on it and announced that there was no provision for this in the police charter and that it was invalid.
- At morning on the day of the protest, the police "reversed" their fraudulent curfew. People responded as expected: they just waited till the announcement so that no police officer could arrest them on false pretenses. Then carried on their merry way. People climbed on to trucks, on top of trains, and those that couldn't do either walked to Colombo.
- As people started to arrive in Colombo, the police response was to firing tear-gas. This time how ever, it seems like this time the armed forces were not the usual government lackeys; they intentionally fired tear gas away from crowded areas. Several detachments defected to the side of the protesters. Even before the rest of the protesters arrived, the army realized the situation was "seththa pochi".
- The protesters finally breached the presidential palace. This went as you expected, everyone had a field day. People jumped into the pool, helped themselves to the food, took a nap in the bedrooms, etc.
- Officers at the Colombo port posted videos of someone's cargo being hurried onto two Navy cruiser (SLNS Gajabahu and SLNS Sidurala), the cruisers left shortly after that.
- The current prime minister (most probably a cabal plant) shows signs of being nervous, and calls for a party meeting. Gets rebuffed.
- The protesters occupying the presidential palace call for a press conference and outline their demands.
- The government mouthpieces in media, Hiru TV and Derana TV, begin reporting on the breaching and protests. Anchors seem and sound visibly nervous.
- People are now surrounding Hiru TV and Derana TV headquarters.
- Concurrently, sections of the protesters stormed the airports and ports and began warning army officers that "if they get away, we hold you responsible."
- There are rumors of the president now giving in and resigning (but these are rumors for now).
- People breach Hiru TV and Derana TV, they have now got a hold of the management and are forcing them to make a live apology to the public for being mouthpieces/misleading the public.
Videos:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8HDyFnJ8-w - Current live of the protests in front of old parliament.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh6USWU21wI - Presedential Palace 1,
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqxata7_7Fg - Presedential Palace 2,
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbXBUAWxVLM - Presendential Palace 3,
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDjKcV7bgc0 - Protesters at Katunayake Air Force Airfield, warning them that they will be held responsible for escaping politicians.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-zoQ3UxhKM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-zoQ3UxhKM - People of Nuwara and Kurunaegala protesting (areas far away from Colombo).
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3j61DZxJsQ - In front of the president's ancestral home
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TVjhxcl4d0 - In front of the Presidential Secretariat.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdy6xW4EoaI - Tamils fron Jaffna cycling to Colombo.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LboAj5kjskM - Protestors at Galle Face in front of the Presidential Secretrait.
- https://youtu.be/9b0z6bzTEYo - Protestors forcing Derana to make a live apology.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8NiFdx31vA - Artists protesting, of special note is the old lady in white, Nanda Malini. During the JVP insurrections she sang songs against the government and had to flee for her life. She's back here again for the third round of people vs government.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Jx0dFKYng, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ti1WHeTBaw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbBCVpGWzU4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si-ygmTGWI0 - People getting to Colombo any way they can.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU2t9xG8_tc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7E8rpJFpAM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5bjyaloITI, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajWS2raqM5I, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7E8rpJFpAM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVPLkSwmw-o, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcHOrkee7AQ - Various army/protester incidents.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeVkDK12-To, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNnUj_8YRE - Armed forces switching sides
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAGjC83WT10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQl90lfOqKo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi60SemTc6M - Unknown people (presumed to be govt officials) escaping. By navy cruisers, Palk strait Airfield, and A1 Highway.
- https://youtu.be/62_O3ZUYF44 - (Unconfirmed), army forces being marshaled out by protestors.
Footnotes:
- Sinhala (language of the majority ethnicity) word meaning of "kind of".
- Tamil (language of the second major ethnicity) word meaning "completely fucked".
Great update, thanks for the info and timeline.
If indeed the country is bankrupt as is being reported (I strongly suspect the treasury has been looted by the disgraced people trying to flee - this happens in essentially every nation that has a collapse due to corruption), the first thing a new government ought say is that they will not recognize or honor any debt that was incurred due to the action of past crimes. Which is to say, all of it. Issue a new currency, and get things back to normal. If you dont do this, the IMF and all the normal slavery-type groups will sneak up and sign you up as indentured serfs on an essentially permanent and ongoing basis, and then they will asset-strip your nation for whatever can be sold. Definitely something to avoid!
Look to iceland for guidance on how to do this well. They crashed out hard in 2008 when their small and horribly over-levered economy failed, and they told the debtors (all the same thieving bankers that blew up tied to realestate and mortage backed securites) to piss off and recovered themselves. Even with the EU zone nations doing their best to steal all their assets (the UK notoriously so who claimed iceland were terrorists!), they bounced back fine. They then horribly screwed up on the clotshots.. but thats a whole different story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932011_Icelandic_financial_crisis
You sound in high spirits - I hope you are well and safe, and your family and friends are likewise thriving.
You're right about the treasury being looted. The general consensus now is that all the finances of all political individuals and their associates need to be scrutinized and investigated. During the Pandora papers, we were shown that Nirupama Rajapaksha had enough money in offshore accounts to feed the entirety of the country for years.
As for debt, I have no idea how things will go. A current minister, Vasudeva Nanayakkara said the same thing about the IMF: "they'll fleece us.". Despite being a part of the problem, even he knows that SHTF if IMF gets in.
The current fuel crisis is being engineered to put Ceypetco (The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation) out of business. The reason it was incorporated in the first place by Sirimavo Bandarnayake is because:
External oil companies saw the opportunity and started asking for whatever price they wanted since we had no bargaining power.
Sirimavo's solution was to tariff the shit out of the externals and incorporate Ceypetco. Ceypetco then brings in crude oil and processes it at Sapugaskanda/Kerawalapitiya. This doesn't just give us petrol/diesel, but a whole lot of additional products during refining that we sell to the nation at a lower price.
Most of the oil fiasco is deflection from "No USD" to "The shipment is delayed". All to destroy Ceypetco and give Lanka IOC (Indian Oil Corp) a foothold (at the time of writing they are the only ones capable of supplying what petrol we have remaining.
I'm not sure if we're in a position to make this move at the current time. A lot of key industries depend on imports, and doing this will bring us back to the Qingdao Carbon Fertilizer fiasco. Not sure how it'll go, but we'll see.
I'm rather well-off actually, the crisis hasn't affected me as much as it has affected others (who have had their entire lives wiped out). On one hand it makes me angry, but at the same time I understand there needs to be a catalyst.
WWG1WGA!