by Rajan Philips
There was no plan for a sequel to what I wrote last week reflecting on the inspirational protests of 1968 and the humdrum climate of 2026. But protests turning into riots in Paris, and the politics of monk protests and counter protests in Colombo, have made a Sunday sequel worthwhile. As if not to be outdone by 1968, and manifesting violent fusions of public service frustrations and economic anxieties, 2026 protests have turned into riots over the last weekend in Paris and other French cities, as well as in cities in Spain, Albania, Belgium and Portugal. Localized curfews have been imposed in the rioting cities after extensive damages to public and private property.
In a poignantly strange coincidence, France is also remembering Charles de Gaulle 56 years after his death, even as it is engulfed in protests and riots. A five hour long two-part biopic of General Charles de Gaulle has reportedly attracted millions of French movie goers throughout the country. The Fifth Republic that de Gaulle created after liberating France from Nazi occupation is still standing, but without any of the grandeur that de Gaulle envisioned for France on the world stage. Internally, the Republic is as turmoiled as it was when de Gaulle was forced out of office in 1968. Yet, as I wrote last week, there was greater optimism for its future in 1968 than there is now.
Protest and Counter Protest
There is no violence this time in Sri Lanka and the politics of the monk protest is quite simple. After beating the 22nd Amendment Trojan horse to death, the opposition in Sri Lanka has turned to the time honoured tradition of invoking the clergy and the sacred cloth to fire salvos at the government. Political satire is always more penetrating than political polemics. So, here is from my favourite Sunday source for insights – from the Sunday Times (18th October) 5th Column, addressing Awasarai, Mahanayake hamuduruwaney:
“Isn’t it also laughable that the ‘usual suspects’ who protested just a few weeks ago against the 22nd Amendment saying the independence of the judiciary is being interfered with, are the same people who are now staging marches and demanding that a pardon annulled by the judiciary be reinstated?”
For its part, the government does not seem to be backing down. While giving all due respect to the Sangha, the government is standing its ground and has made it known to all concerned that everyone is and shall be equal before the law, with or without the sacred saffron cloth. The government has also been given a boost by a counter protest march that reportedly outsized the monk and opposition marches. The counter protest had its own message to the government: ‘Don’t backdown. Those who flout the law, swindle public money, or commit fraud should be dealt with as required by law, regardless of their position and status – secular or sacred.’
The NPP government has shown a knack for getting some of the things right all the time, all the things some of the time, but never getting all the things right all the time. When it gets substance right, it symbolism fails. It always hits the mark with symbolic presidential oratory, but often times there is no substance to back up. In the matter of the reimprisonment of Bodu Sala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Galagoda Aththa Gnanasara Thera, the government got its substance right but is being faulted for getting the spiritual symbolism of the clerical cloth wrong.
The government appropriately kept its distance from the legal drama involving the reimprisonment of Gnanasara Thera. This was after the Supreme Court revoked his earlier presidential pardon and the Court of Appeal ordered his reimprisonment to serve out the remainder of his original six year sentence. There was no hue and cry then. Protests started after prison officials brought him to court in layman’s clothes and not his religious robes. The action of the officials is not without precedent but it gave an effective cudgel to the NPP’s opponents to go after the government.
Yet the cry over “Siwurata Yukthiya” (Justice for the Robe) turned out to be a ruse for the bigger goal of getting Gnanasara Thera re-pardoned and released immediately. The motivation of the Thera’s close associates in the Sangha to get him out of prison is understandable. Their peer pressure on other monks to join a march to seek justice for the cloth and release for its wearer is also understandable, even though it is inappropriate.
What is inexcusable is the auto-mobilization of the political forces and other civilian worthies behind this march and its politics. The SJB, the UNP and SLPP were all quick on the draw, with Sajith Premadasa issuing a warning: “Sivurata Atha Nothabanu” (Do Not Lay a Hand on the Robe). Unsurprisingly, former Chief Justice Sarath Silva entered the fray, misrepresenting not only the facts but also the law. His prevarications have been exposed but there are still people who take a former CJ at his word. All of this is same old, same old.
Monks on the march
What is new is the determination of a government not to cave in to pressure for special treatment, for special individuals in matters of law and order. Although the case of Gnanasara Thera has its own speciality inasmuch as it involves a Buddhist Monk in a court of law, it is part of the social ethos to find ways and means of getting a friend or a family member out of legal trouble. This attitude went out of control when it infected practically every government this century except the present one.
The growing accusation against the present government seems to be that it is going overboard and is arresting everyone whom it does not like, or whose police chiefs have some grouse against. There have been many surprise arrests but beyond the surprise there is no real evidence of political interference. From what appears to be the government’s read of the public mood, or ‘mass mood’ as Philip Gunawardena used to call and was known to be good at smelling it months in advance, the people by and large support the arrests and scoff at the elites who whine about them.
For those who could not credibly, let alone morally, protest their arrests or those of their political colleagues, the reimprisonment of Gnanasara Thera has opened a door to take pot shots at the government. The fact that they are aligning themselves to a cause that is manifestly indefensible exposes their own hypocrisy as in in the case of run-of-the-mill parliamentarians, or depravity as in the case of a retired Chief Justice. The people, who everyone turns for final judgement, can see through and beyond this sociopolitical tomfoolery. It is also remarkable that many commentators have joined the debate to expose the hypocrisy behind the pretence of defending the robe, and absurdity behind the real intent to get Gnanasara Thera re-pardoned.
Something Sinister in Pakistan
There have been no counter protests in Europe, except for a rather silly Hindutva counterprotest staged by Modi wallahs in London. The Modi Londoners were protesting against the Cockroach protests in India targeting their BJP Prime Minister in Delhi. They were, as they said, standing up to defend the good name of Modi and Mother India. Something more sinister is happening in Pakistan.
Field Marshal Asim Munir is apparently planning to expand the number Pakistan’s provinces that have been four since its founding to 12 or 15 smaller provinces, or even as many as 160 minuscular units . That will divvy up Punjab, the largest of the four provinces with 128 million people, over half of Pakistan’s population, into little pockets that can be kept in place by a platoon each. Efficient militarization at the expense of civilian freedoms.
It will be concerning to see how far the Field Marshal will go with his designs for Pakistan. No one knows what designs Munir has for Imran Khan. Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did not deserve death by hanging on the orders of General Zia-ul-Haq on April 4, 1979. Nor does Imran Khan, Pakistan’s 1987 Cricket World Cup hero and one of the more magnificent all rounders ever to play the game, deserve Munir’s noose. Hopefully, there is enough good will in Pakistan and in the Commonwealth to force Munir to release Imran Khan from jail.
Internationally, Munir has been hitching his wagon to the Trump star in Washington. It will be intriguing to see how the Pakistani strongman will fare globally as Trump begins to fade in America and already more so everywhere else in the world. Breaking news from the Middle East is that Munir was shown the cold shoulder in Tehran when he reportedly carried a last warning from Trump for Iran to be more flexible on its nuclear programs, or else. “Get back on your plane,” he was reportedly told by one Iranian leader as others insisted that there would be no new talks with the US until Trump accepts Iran’s seven conditions.
It is not Pakistan’s fault that its diplomatic efforts in concert with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey have crash landed in Trump’s wasteland. Trump wholly owns the debacle of the war against Iran and all the failed efforts to bring it to an end. Where the Pakistani government and Munir in particular garner their shame is in their cynically opportunistic canvassing for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to Trump. They got their rebuke, as did Trump and Netanyahu, when the Nobel Committee, in one of its better decisions over the years in selecting the winner for the Peace Prize, chose South Africa’s Jurist Navi Pillai to award the 2026 Peace Prize.
Navi Pillai’s Nobel Prize is also a moment to recall her role in the anti-apartheid movement and to salute one of its daring heroes, Steve Biko. Ms. Pillay is a South African born and bred, who has passionately spoken of her growing in common poverty alongside black African children in segregated Africa, and later using forensic skills to fight apartheid Africa. In November 2014, Navi Pillay delivered the 15th Steve Biko Memorial Lecture in a packed auditorium at the University of Cape Town. She spoke with authority on South Africa’s special role in the world, because of its fight against apartheid, in bringing a “principled voice” to the cause of human rights and to influence the United Nations human rights agenda.
Stev Biko was universally memorialized in 1987 by the epic biopic – “Cry Freedom.” Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Biko’s death on September 12, 1977. He was held naked and shackled and beaten to death by apartheid police in a jail cell. He was 30 years old. Tall, handsome, with the build of a heavyweight boxer, Steve Biko was an intellectual and anti-apartheid activist. He was the moving spirit and the material frame of the Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa. His murder sparked outrage within and outside South Africa. His legacy continues.