Courtesy The Daily News

National People’s Power (NPP) National Executive Committee member K. D. Lalkantha, stated that while the Galle Face protests succeeded in removing Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power, the effort to direct the uprising toward a parliamentary change failed, rendering the movement fruitless.

Lalkantha remarked that J. R. Jayewardene, a former leader, did not rely on military control but instead established a strong legal system

with an autocratic executive presidential system, which turned Parliament into a powerless entity.”We shouldn’t call it a parliament; even a dog is more useful. Parliament has become a useless institution,” he said.

He further explained that once a leader is elected for five years, there’s nothing that can be done until the term is over. Unlike how Gotabaya was removed or how leaders in Bangladesh are ousted, people cannot keep protesting indefinitely to remove a leader.

Lalkantha acknowledged that there was an opportunity to channel the people’s uprising at Galle Face into a movement towards Parliament after Gotabaya was ousted.”We tried to redirect the uprising towards Parliament, but the so-called Galle Face leaders who emerged from the dispersed people’s struggle blocked this. The remaining Parliament rebuilt the collapsed tower, rendering Gotabaya’s removal meaningless,” he concluded.