Sri Lanka protests 2022

“Gota” is finally gone, but ending Sri Lanka’s chronic instability will be an even harder task than ousting the Rajapaksas.

Protesters had successfully demanded the prime minister’s resignation, but they want his brother gone from the presidency as well.

Financial hardship persists but there is growing hope among Sri Lankans that Ranil Wickremsinghe will see them through the tough times.

“The political and economic crisis have exposed the multiple failures of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency.”

The united voices of the people must be heard: “Gota Must Go.”

It was the first shooting by security forces amid weeks of protests against the Rajapaksa government and a worsening economic crisis.

But protestors are unimpressed. They want the ruling Rajapaksa clan to go.

Sri Lankans for the past months have been enduring shortages of fuel, food, and other essentials and daily power outages.

Facing Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis, the Rajapaksa family's appeals to national security and Sinhala Buddhist nationalism may no longer be enough to keep them in power.

The leaderless nature of the protests was part of the attraction for many Sri Lankans. But leaders need to emerge if the movement is going to succeed in bringing about political change.