Sri Lanka It's Happening

July 12, 2005

The JVP the former terrorist organization that was the government's coalition partner has a habit of organizing protests and demonstrations at the drop of a hat. Fortunately for them most of their supporters are active supporters and thus it's quite an easy task for them to amass tens of thousands of people for a demo.

The two main parties the PA and the UNP are different. Only a small percentage of people who vote for them are active supporters. These parties find it a difficult task to awake their members from their slumber for a demo.

Some estimates put the number of people present at today's people power (jana bala meheyuma) protest at a cool 1 million. The country's population is only 20 million. So a good five percent of the country is said to be participating in the demo. If the jostlings crowds that we have seen on TV is anything to go by that estimate may well be correct.

Now consider this: The JVP only get's about 5% of all votes polled. Obviously that is a much much smaller figure than 5% of the country's population. So why is the JVP allowed to hold the whole country to ransom?

Posted by raditha at July 12, 2005 11:05 PM