Agitation Site draws bouquets, brickbats and brisk business

The Government’s decision to set up an “Agitation Site” for protesters to voice their demands has drawn both praise and criticism.

Some lauded the move on the grounds that it would lessen disruption to public life, while those who oppose it stressed that the idea of agitation itself is disruption and attempts to confine it to a single location is undemocratic.

The so- called “Agitation Site” is located on a plot of land belonging to the Ministry of Defence. The location does now attract different groups of protesters and it’s not unusual to see multiple protests taking place there at the same time.

This was the case on Friday afternoon, when three groups of protesters were at the site. They were from the Archaeological Employees’ Union, employees from the Debt Recovery Section of Sri Lanka Telecom and depositors of

The Finance Company.

The site itself is almost bare, save for a lone tree that stands close to Galle Road. The afternoon heat is incredibly oppressive and both protesters and police who are supposed to guard them can be seen frequently seen clustered together under the tree. Trash cans at the site are full of plastic water bottles.

The site has also attracted enterprising vendors. Ice cream sellers, vendors selling bottles filled with cool water and those selling

“saaravita” were doing brisk business among the protesters.

Uniformed police, both male and female, were watching over the protesters. Black clad members of the police riot squad were also there, with some clutching tear gas guns and shields. There were minor scuffles when The Finance depositors tried to make their way unto Galle Road and proceed to the Central

Bank. There were, however, no major clashes.

Tharindu Kosala, an employee from SLT’s Debt Recovery Section, said this was the first time their group was protesting at the site. He said they represented a group of 65 employees who had been denied their EPF/ETF benefits by SLT administration. “The Labour Department ordered SLT to pay us the benefits, but they went to the Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour of the Labour Department. SLT, however, had sacked us in the meantime and has appealed the Appeals Court decision in the Supreme Court. We have been out of work for five years now.”

Mr Kosala said they chose to come to the agitation site as they felt that only the President could provide a solution for them.

An Archaeological Employees’ Union member said they too had chosen the location to protest as they felt the authorities would not be able to ignore them there. “However, I don’t think this is very good for democracy or people’s rights,” he added.

The Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF), meanwhile, has continued its practice of engaging in protest marches. Its Convenor Ven Rathkarawwe Jinarathana Thera pointed out that they were mostly interested in marching to the Higher Education Ministry premises since this was where decisions related to higher education were generally made.

Ven. Jinarathana Thera though, dismissed the Government’s move to designate an agitation site for protests. “Who are they to tell us where to protest? We take maximum effort to keep inconvenience caused to the public to a minimum but some inconvenience is inevitable in a protest. We will not be bullied into designated spaces,” he added.