Government Violence Against Peaceful Protesters in Sri Lanka

I shared with you two months ago that I finally published my first memoir - Feelings of Unreality.

I hope to inspire interest and sales by sharing with you some quotes from the book… so far sales have been slow (as expected) and not exactly enough to feed me yet. I need that to change!

I open the book by sharing the story of what led to me being trapped on this island for what is soon to be 2 years.

The 2022 mass protests in Colombo drew me and my camera to them. I began to share on my social media what I was witnessing, with little understanding of what would subsequently play out.

Over the months I was there, I spoke to hundreds of individuals. I listened to poetry readings. I watched musicians and artists come together. I watched as people of different religions and social classes united together with a common enemy. A government who they told me were corrupt on an inconceivable scale.

Oh how I wish this was an exaggeration. It is not. The level of depravation in Sri Lanka prior to the mass protests which broke out across the entire country was extremely high.

This was an absolutely horrendous time for the Sri Lankan people to endure for every reason. Even as a foreigner here I endured the same constant daily power outages (some up to 12 hours) for many, many months. I couldn’t buy gas from anywhere because there was none to buy. Which meant no cooking.

The entire city of Colombo turned into a ghost town as there was no petrol to fuel vehicles or Tuks. Millions of Sri Lankans were terribly affected by this. Many rely on a daily wage to survive and couldn’t work. Queues out of fuel stations were literal miles long.

People were waiting for days in the heat and reports began coming in of people dying in those queues. Videos also circulated widely within the country of police brutality at gas station queues. Those who had been waiting and suffering in the baking heat were pushed aside for wealthy SUVs to appear without queuing and fill up their massive tanks with fuel. The people voiced outrage and questioned why this was being allowed. This was met with batons, arrests and I even saw a video of a gun being drawn on an unarmed and non violent man.

Questioning insecure authority in the ‘democratic’ country Sri Lanka is a dangerous move.

This quote is in reference to the older generation in attendance at the Colombo protests. I will never forget the fear I saw in the eyes of old men as they shared their stories about brothers, fathers, uncles and friends who were accused of speaking out against this government and never seen or heard of again.

Every single person over the age of around 60 (of whom there were not so many - the largest age group was roughly 17-45) warned me to leave immediately and that I should hide my camera. They were convinced I would be ‘disappeared’.

The level of fear inside these people was of a level I have NEVER encountered (in others) before. The horrors they have endured and survived through break my heart even now as I remember them and as I type this.

These people have suffered beyond what any person should ever suffer. No one should be forced to live in a country where they are not safe. Where they cannot speak freely. Where they are harmed by those who are empowered to CARE for them.

It could be said that the line between bravery and stupidity is a very thin one… and I would likely agree…. but upon hearing these constant and repeating words of warning - I knew that these people needed protection. I felt a responsibility to learn their stories, to take their photos and to share them as widely as possible.

The belief that the government would soon retaliate was powerful and growing. It was as if the people were waiting for it. They described to me the many ways they saw the corruption in their country play out - from tax scams with ministers importing luxury cars (on a massive scale) to construction scams… everyone told similar stories.

If you were in a town and asked every person on the street what went on in a building and they all told you quite matter of fact and nonchalantly that it’s a cinema, movies played and people went to see them - you would start to believe them.

Listening to countless people talk about the corruption and white collar scams as if they were describing something so common and obvious (and with surprise that I seemed so unaware) began to become normal. Everyone knew. The corruption stories were becoming less ‘story’ and more true to me as I met people directly involved in those scams.

People who admitted their own shame in over billing the government for a job they were employed to do - one had to multiply his bill by tenfold at the instruction of a minister because so many people at the top were skimming backhanders from those tenders.

Corruption in western countries is something covert, yet I was learning that here in Sri Lankan the ministers and mafia government don’t even attempt to be discreet about their high level corruption. They don’t even have that level of decency to hide their crimes.

For the longest time I remained an impartial (although emotionally moved) listener and observer. That was until I began to see what played out in present day, real time before my own eyes.

Seeing such blatant, twisted propaganda play out in real time shocked me to my core. It wasn’t even trying to be clever… it was just such an outrageous lie designed to trigger the people into anger and lower their energy and frequency.

People who had stood day and night, in thundering rain and scorching hot sun, for MONTHS protesting and going ignored. People who risked their safety and their families safety to be there. People who were met with water cannons and expired chemical weapons. They even used noise torture to deter protesters from the then Prime Minister’s residence at Temple Trees - belting out horrendously loud and low vibration chanting (apparently an age old tactic of the government).

What made it even worse to bear witness to, is how easily and quickly this propaganda media worked. The day this story ran - it pierced the protective aura of high vibration surrounding the people as many became infected with outrage and defensiveness. They then began arguing and dividing very quickly. Just as the government intended.

This always stuck in my mind as the beginning of the end of the protests. Although they continued on for many more months, this was the day that there was a notable turning point in atmosphere and divisions began.

Many were so triggered by this media that they felt they had to act in a different way to protest. To make it more ‘professional’ and remove the art, poetry and music that was keeping everyone’s spirits up as the days, nights and weeks dragged on. Again, feeding into the government’s plan.

From this moment onward reactive arguments and anger divided the camp. And I could make a string case that this was the day that the government actually shut down the protest.

Divide and conquer.

Oldest tactic in the book.

Prior to this - I saw the most powerful display of love and unity and community that I have ever seen. I witnessed an energy that WAS powerful enough to bring this entire system down. But they couldn’t sustain it. They allowed the poisons of anger into their hearts and they set against each other again.

If they could realise this - and change themselves - they could indeed change their country in very big and very real ways. Hence the gaslighting.

This country has a shocking and shameful history - it is a smaller scale Nazi Germany in every way - with ‘Buddhist’ supremacists having incited mass murder and violence against both Muslim and Tamil communities. What was done to both has created a legacy of deep, deep shame for the Sinhalese people that will carry through countless generations.

Both groups have suffered immeasurably, but the systematic genocide of the Tamil community is incomparable to anything else that has happened here in living memory. It’s hard to believe that the very same political party and politicians who invited that level of hatred and evil in the 1980s is the very same one that is now ‘democratically’ in power. And absolutely Unelected.

And let’s not forget the ‘lesser’ evils of the water cannons fired on the people constantly and the barricades of massive metal spikes put on every street around the protest to intimidate the people. It was all so insane and shocking that it didn’t even feel real at the time.

I’ve now spent so much time focussed on surviving this horrendous ordeal that it feels strange going back to discuss where it all began. It all feels like some vague distant memory or dream. It’s hard to believe I am still trapped here after what will soon be 2 years. Two entire rotations around the sun. How much I have lost in that time.

Yet I don’t regret anything.

Speaking up for those who are being oppressed is NEVER the wrong thing to do.

No matter what the personal cost I have endured and continue to endure I would do it all again.

Because the truth is owed that.

Vulnerable people are owed that.

Bravery and courage is owed that.

And be under no illusion about this - those people were incredibly brave to protest a government who had silenced their ancestors for decades under threat of abduction, murder and violence.

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By buying my book you are supporting me in very real time to survive. You are helping me by sharing my story, by sharing links, by talking to others about it… people at work, friends over coffee etc etc.

I am real… and this situation is as real as it gets. Know that if you are reading this - you have the power to be a superhero right now and for it to be incredibly meaningful and lifesaving.

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Below is the link to Amazon 🙏🏻

You will note that I already had a Sri Lankan government supporter pay to leave a negative ‘review’. Which is unsurprising.

Your help in reporting it and leaving genuine reviews is sincerely appreciated.