{"id":229279,"date":"2022-09-29T20:20:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T14:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=229279"},"modified":"2022-10-07T15:18:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T09:48:29","slug":"how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sachithanandam Sathananthan<\/a> –<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Sachithanandam Sathananthan<\/p><\/div>\n

Rise of the Sinhala Nation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) won the presidency a Sinhalese journalist and author of Gota\u2019s War<\/i> captured the spirit of the celebrations in November 2019. \u201cWhat we saw\u201d, he rejoiced<\/a><\/span>, \u201cwas the reaction of a down trodden, persecuted, humiliated majority community to all the suffering and indignities they had undergone for the past five [Yahapalanaya<\/i>] years\u201d, 2015 to 2019; and, he explained, this is what happens \u201cwhen the majority community of a nation is used as a doormat by the minority communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n

His claims appear farfetched. Members of the Sinhalese elite controlled political power through their parties (UNP and SLFP) from February 1948 and they have had and still hold an unassailable absolute majority in parliament; they virtually monopolised State power \u2013 the armed forces and civil bureaucracy \u2013 since the mid -1970s; and they reserved for themselves the lion\u2019s share of national resources (land, employment and, after 1972, education and so on). It\u2019s a great mystery how \u201cthe minority communities\u201d could have used \u201cthe majority community\u2026 as a doormat\u201d up to 2019. On the contrary, the Sinhalese elite collectively wiped their feet on the vast majority of their own<\/i> masses who are now revolting, led by Aragalaya<\/i> (the Struggle), against the elite and demanding a systemic change.<\/p>\n

Arguably, the journalist inferred from Anagarika Dharmapala\u2019s opinions about Sinhalese victimhood expressed more than a century ago that, in all likelihood, resonates with him and the 6.9 million Sinhalese who voted GR into power. It is said the Anagarika, the Buddhist revivalist, developed<\/a><\/span> an intellectual interest in Sinhala-Buddhism after \u201ca mob of Sri Lankan Catholics attacked a Buddhist procession in 1883\u201d.<\/p>\n

The journalist and nationalist Sinhalese compatriots do not explain how \u201cminorities\u201d could have walked all over the \u201cmajority community\u201d under the rule of Sinhala-Buddhist president and prime minister during the Yahapalanaya <\/i>(Good Governance) years. The \u201cmajority community\u201d underwent more pain and ignominies between 2019 and 2021 under the next Sinhala-Buddhist President GR and his nationalist (SLPP) administration. The cost of living sky rocketed; prices of necessities (wage goods) rose beyond the reach of the average consumer; fuel was first unavailable and, later, tightly rationed; foreign exchange reserves all but dried up; and normal life ground to a virtual standstill. Perhaps the nationalist Sinhalese believe that the multiple crises, well documented in the public domain, are conspiracies by the \u201cminorities\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the crises galvanised critical sections overwhelmingly within the Sinhalese middle and upper-middle classes, mostly from urban areas; and Aragalaya<\/i> burst forth like a butterfly from its decaying chrysalis in early March 2022. They activists demanded the Sinhalese-dominated government takes urgent action to resolve the crises but soon they moved beyond seeking symptomatic relief to the realisation, dimly at first, that the emasculation of legal and political institutions, procedures and traditions over several decades is at the root of the country\u2019s problems. Their demand escalated to a system change on the run, so to speak.<\/p>\n

The Aragalaya<\/i> activists launched, with unprecedented bravery, the \u201cGota-Go-Home\u201d campaign on the Galle Face Green to eject GR from the presidency and shed the Sinhalese old guard as the first step to systemic change. They exhorted the \u201cminority communities\u201d \u2013 Tamils and Muslims, and Christians \u2013 to\u00a0 <\/span>join them in their drive to \u201csave our motherland\u201d from GR and his siblings. The activists\u2019 patriotism, commitment and spirit of martyrdom stand in stark contrast to their kleptocratic political class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the irony of \u201cinviting\u201d the assistance of Tamil and Muslim \u201cminorities\u201d, demoted by nationalist Sinhalese to \u201crecent arrivals\u201d from South India and Arabia respectively but seemingly upgraded by Aragalaya<\/i> to temporary \u201cboomiputhra\u201d status, was largely lost on the activists. A few die-hard nationalists desperately goaded \u201cminorities\u201d to lend support with a breath-taking sense of entitlement<\/a><\/span>, while dismissing as a \u201cTigers\u2019 plot\u201d the Tamils\u2019 Poraattam<\/i> (the Struggle) that has been going on for several years in the north and east protesting<\/a><\/span> human rights violations and demanding accountability for the Disappeared. The Sinhalese by and large had offered little support for or solidarity with the Poraattam.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair, some Aragalaya<\/i> members expressed regret but insisted Tamils and Muslims participate with hardly a semblance of an apology for the violence \u2013 physical, emotional and cultural \u2013 let loose against them over the past seven decades. The \u201cminorities\u201d also know the headlong military campaign to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-led resistance over four decades (1979 \u2013 2009) has wrought far-reaching structural changes to State and society, buttressed by a virulent hegemonic ideology, that are very likely irremediable in the foreseeable future. So, they are understandably wary of the sudden benevolent shift, no doubt quite sincere, from Sinhala-Buddhist motherland to our<\/i> motherland and logically wonder how soon attitudes would revert to normal. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Aragalaya<\/i> activists may be aware of Tamil parliamentarians\u2019 Satyagraha<\/i> on the same Galle Face Green more than six decades ago, in 1956, when nationalist Sinhalese welcomed the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna<\/i>\u2019s (MEP) policy of declaring Sinhala the sole official language (\u201cSinhala Only\u201d) and acclaimed the Rise of their Nation \u2013 a Sinhalese renaissance \u2013 and violently dispersed the non-violent Satyagrahis<\/i> who symbolised the opposition to the policy. The Rise had already begun with stripping citizenship rights of Malayaha Tamils in 1948 and continued for about seven decades: \u201cSinhala Only\u201d; the Buddhist calendar delineating Poya and Pre-Poya days; the Sinhala alphabet \u201cSri\u201d adorning vehicle registration plates; anointing Buddhism as the virtual State religion; and ethnic cleansing of southern Tamils through a series of Pogroms from 1958 to 1983, reducing them to an ethnic rump in and around Colombo are but a few of the bench marks of the Rise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most nationalist Sinhalese who believe the \u201cmajority community\u201d was \u201cused as a doormat by the minority communities\u201d suffer from a staggering amnesia of the recent events. Unsurprisingly they view the twin events of the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 and political victory of President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) seven months later in the 2010 presidential election as the zenith of the Sihala-Buddhist hegemonic project, claimed to have originated by the legendary King Duttugemunu more than two millennia ago. The resulting ethnic animosities between communities obviously cannot be reversed by a few weeks or months of well-meaning Aragalaya<\/i> declarations about \u201cunited we stand, divided we fall\u201d.<\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t get us wrong. We are not disputing the right of nationalist Sinhalese to do any or all of the above and more in what they consider their motherland; of course, they do and they did, lubricated by majoritarianism. At the same time, they should not recoil at the devastating consequences of their actions, taken consciously with unimpaired mental faculties; nor should they scapegoat Tamils and Muslims for their self-inflicted miseries.<\/p>\n

The collapse<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The heady reverberations of exploding fireworks and hypnotic clicking of cocktail glasses in May 2009 perhaps made the nationalists forget that King Duttugemunu did not have to contend with Geneva Conventions, International Humanitarian Law and the UNHRC. In contrast the allegations of war crimes documented, for example by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP<\/a><\/span>) and the BBC film No Fire Zone<\/a><\/span>, are swirling around MR, his then Defence Secretary GR and their senior military commanders. The government, armed forces and sections of the Sinhalese intelligentsia have strongly rejected the allegations. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The nationalists also slurred over the country\u2019s steady descent into the \u201cnon-rule of law system<\/a><\/span>\u201d and entrenched impunity<\/a><\/span>. For instance, an anonymous account of the proceedings of the 2013 Marga Institute Seminar<\/a><\/span> recorded the participants endorsing the findings of the report, \u201cThe Numbers Game<\/a><\/span>: politics of retributive justice\u201d by unspecified author(s) from an \u201cIndependent Diaspora Analysis Group\u201d, which in effect demonised the LTTE. The participants, however, formally concluded violations of the rule of law by both sides in the war should be impartially investigated by an independent body and resolved one way or another. That was ten years ago; and pervasive impunity has made mincemeat of the pious hopes for accountability \u2013 the foundation of justice.<\/p>\n

It is only natural that nationalist Sinhalese and the mainstream section of their intelligentsia would justify the war they championed and strive to protect their \u201cwar heroes\u201d. We have no quarrel with that; they may do so and both MR and GR during their presidential election campaigns and after vowed to shield the \u201cwar heroes\u201d from prosecution. A few minions were convicted but were soon granted a presidential pardon<\/a><\/span> in 2020 and let loose into society; the following year 16 LTTE convicts, whom Tamils firmly believe are political prisoners, were also pardoned<\/a><\/span> perhaps to maintain apparent even handedness. However, a consequence of not systematically investigating allegations of war crimes to weed out guilty ones, if any, including those with command responsibility, is that the alleged perpetrators are allowed to continue to hold office in the government, armed forces, bureaucracy and the foreign service. They invariably resist the re-establishment of rule of law, under which citizens may hold them accountable.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile economic crimes, known colloquially as \u201ccorruption\u201d, flourished within the larger context of widespread impunity. But nationalist Sinhalese turned a blind eye to blatant crimes of all hues asserting \u201cthey won the war\u201d; some protested only half-heartedly against the 18th<\/sup> Amendment and barely against the 20th, confident that \u201cthe oldest democracy in Asia\u201d will soon spring back to its feet. The Aragalaya\u2019s<\/i> seminal contribution is the assessment that a systemic change is the precondition to the renewal.<\/p>\n

Two important Sinhalese perspectives bubbled to the surface during the Aragalaya<\/i>. A\u00a0<\/span>decidedly marginal one held that the country\u2019s tragic turn is the result of the mistreatment of Tamils and Muslims. The other mainstream opinion believed the government was compelled to militarily repress Tamil \u201ccommunalism\u201d, crush its LTTE and bring to heel the Wahabi-inspired Muslims prone to violence, witnessed on the 2019 Easter Sunday. The former view was louder in March and April when Aragalaya<\/i> grew from strength to strength; the latter became more dominant when the protests faltered and began to fade after the allegedly State-sponsored attacks and counter attacks from the 9th<\/sup> of May<\/a><\/span> onwards. Murmurs in Colombo expressed a variation of the second theme, steeped in the usual anti-Tamil kneejerk reaction: the county\u2019s multiple crises and near bankruptcy are \u201call\u201d largely, if not exclusively, due to the war the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran started to satiate his greed for power. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Either way the Struggle forced the more perceptive among the majority\u2019s intelligentsia to review<\/a><\/span> the country\u2019s \u201cdownfall<\/a><\/span>\u201d since Independence in 1948.\u00a0 <\/span>A few apparently reflected deeply<\/a><\/span> on the political mirages conjured up by Sinhalese politicians: S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike\u2019s Apae [Sinhala] Aanduwa<\/i>, JR Jayewardene\u2019s Dharmishta Aanduwa,<\/i> President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s Mahinda Chinthanaya,<\/i> President Maithripala Sirisena & Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe\u2019s Yahapalanaya<\/i> and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s Sahubaggeye Dhakma<\/i>; President Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s vision is awaited.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Aragalaya <\/i>activists have taken on the unenviable task of rescuing the country. Their sincere efforts are timely and welcome but are unfortunately hobbled by a fundamental misconception.<\/p>\n

Aragalaya: an apolitical struggle?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

At its inception activists declared their agitation is \u201capolitical\u201d, an approach widely welcomed by Sinhalese both within and outside the country as the \u201cBeauty of Protest<\/a><\/span>\u201d. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) weighed in, cautioning government the non-violent \u201clawful<\/a><\/span>\u201d protesters are protected by the Constitution and should not be arrested. Perhaps the BASL overlooked that lawful could be turned unlawful virtually by the stroke of a pen by the elementary expedient, for example, of having a court issue an order<\/a><\/span> against protesters for the conveniently vague infraction of \u201ccausing inconvenience to public\u201d, which empowered police to disperse them, forcibly if necessary; and lawfully tear gas and water cannon<\/a><\/span> and, where necessary, arrest the disobeying protesters.<\/p>\n

The Aragalaya<\/i> activists claimed they are apolitical whilst attempting the quintessentially political task of a systemic change, of expelling the President and the 225 parliamentarians. What could be more political than that?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The confused claim reeks of US Political Science 101\u2019s na\u00efve view of politics as party<\/i> politics, instead of politics as power<\/i> relations that determine the side of the city one lives in, what type of school one attends, which profession one enters and whom one marries. The alleged involvement of the political Left (JVP and FSP) could not correct the apolitical-ness of the overwhelmingly middle and upper-middle class Aragalaya<\/i> activists; the same political handicap also evidently prevented them from making common cause with powerful working class trade unions that had initially showed interest<\/a><\/span> in backing the protests. Perhaps the activists were reluctant to share leadership with the unions.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result, they were caught flatfooted by RW\u2019s power play.<\/p>\n

The apolitical approach also limited the Aragalaya\u2019s<\/i> ability to convincingly explain the sources of funds to build the GotaGoGama on Galle Face Green, except to respond to our enquiries that \u201cwell-wishers\u201d provided the apparently abundant financial and material resources. That may well be true but such altruism does raise eyebrows in the political arena. We observed the flying visit<\/a><\/span> to Colombo by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who is said to have masterminded the February 2014 regime change<\/a><\/span> in Ukraine that drove out the country\u2019s elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and brought in the pro-US President Volodymyr Zelensky. Her visit coincided ominously with the launch of the Aragalaya<\/i> in late March, 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The activists achieved a degree of success. They compelled MR to resign the Prime Ministership but not his parliamentary seat; he\u2019s back in the House<\/a><\/span>. The Aragalaya claimed credit for forcing his brother GR to flee the country<\/a><\/span> and quit the presidency. On the other hand, credible rumours in Colombo insinuate he fled because the military refused to back him, for instance, by not firmly preventing protesters from invading GR\u2019s official residence, and paving the way for RW to take over as President, whom the military has so far supported fully. Predictably there is speculation about a foreign hand\u2019s involvement in a \u201cregime change\u201d that included the resignation of Ministers<\/a><\/span>. However, GR has returned as Former President to the country and a majority of ministers are back in the \u201cnew\u201d Cabinet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their apolitical-ness has so far blocked the Aragalaya<\/i> maturing into a political movement that could win power and carry out the much sought after systemic change; it also prevented the activists from anticipating the 9th<\/sup> of May mayhem<\/a><\/span> and led them, within four days, to appeal<\/a><\/span> to the entrenched Members of Parliament (MPs) to change the system that the same MPs control and benefit from. The Sinhalese political class correctly interpreted the Aragalaya are on the back foot; it smelled blood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In August the BASL flagged<\/a><\/span> extra-judicial killings and corpses that washed up on the beach in the vicinity of GotaGoGama; they carried their own message, a throwback to darker times. The Aragalaya activists vacated<\/a><\/span> Galle Face Green on 9 August and the police have reportedly arrested<\/a><\/span> about 3,000 activists, in part guided<\/a><\/span> by MPs\u2019 lists.<\/p>\n

Many in the South expect the Aragalaya<\/i> to rise from the ashes. We wish the activists well.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Previous posts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How we came to this pass \u2013 I<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How we came to this pass \u2013 II<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How we came to this pass \u2013 III<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How we came to this pass \u2013 IV<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How we came to this pass \u2013 V<\/a>
\nHow we came to this pass \u2013 VI<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How we came to this pass \u2013 VII<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

*Dr Sachithanandam Sathananthan is an independent researcher who received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge. He was Assistant Director, International Studies in the Marga Institute, Visiting Research Scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University School of International Studies and has taught World History at Karachi University\u2019s Institute of Business Administration.\u00a0He is an award-winning filmmaker and may be reached at: commentaries.ss@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":226781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,46,8,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nHow We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-29T14:50:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-07T09:48:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"578\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/\",\"name\":\"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-29T14:50:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-07T09:48:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":578},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65\",\"name\":\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/sachithanandamsatha\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2022-09-29T14:50:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-10-07T09:48:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":578,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/","name":"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg","datePublished":"2022-09-29T14:50:17+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-07T09:48:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg","width":900,"height":578},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-we-came-to-this-pass-the-aragalaya-challenge\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How We Came To This Pass \u2013 The Aragalaya Challenge"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65","name":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/sachithanandamsatha\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Gota-Go-Home-11.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229290,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229279\/revisions\/229290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}