COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s main opposition the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) plans to launch a “massive” farmers’ protest next Tuesday 16), daring the government to carry out its threat p to “grab farmers by the neck”.

SJB MP Harin Fernando announcing the plans at a media briefing on Monday (8), called for the participation of all workers, while fellow MP Dr. Harsha de Silva said on Tuesday (9), the protest will be held in Colombo joined by “not just farmers, but many others”.

Farmers in Sri Lanka have been protesting a controversial decision to ban agrochemicals in what experts say is an ill-conceived overnight shift to organic fertilizer.

Fernando told reporters on Monday,  he objective of the protest will be to see if the government will make good a perceived threat to “grab farmers by the neck”, referring to a remark made by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Saturday (6) that he did not wish to force organic fertilizer on farmers who aren’t receptive to it.

Speaking at a public event, a visibly annoyed Rajapaksa said that the transition to organic fertilizer was always going to be a great challenge.

In a speech delivered in Sinhala, the president said, “Some say they expected a military-style Gotabaya. I could do that, but that would mean, when the farmer is asked to use organic fertilizer, I can go with the army, grab them by the neck and say ‘use this’, but I have no need to do that. Is that what was expected? No.

“Some said that if I won, democracy would disappear. Now they themselves say ‘oh no, this not who we had expected, [we had expected] someone like in the army.’ I can do that if I want. But this is a democratic country.”

However, the official English translation of the speech, as released by the President’s Media Division, had the line:  “I can. To tell the farmers to use organic manure by resorting to physical force similar to how they do it in the army. But I have no need to do that.”

Some critics saw, or chose to see, a veiled threat in the president’s words.

“The wave of protests in the country cannot be stopped. On November 16, we plan to start this with a massive farmers protest. The objective of the protest is to see if the protestors can be grabbed by the neck, the way he said they could be. We will take to the streets with the farmers on that day to see if this can be done,” said MP Fernando.

Farmers are not the only group protesting the government.  School teachers and principals who were on a strike for a record 100+ days over salary anomalies took to the streets on Tuesday (9), while health workers staged a 24-hour token strike over salary anomalies of their own.

“We believe the people of this country, not just farmers but all workers in the country can come out,” said Fernando.

-economynext.com/ENCL