A group of citizens congregated at the Independence Square last evening (8) to mark their protest against political corruption in the present government.

“We are simply a group of citizens. We have no great affiliation or organisation. We decided meet here to mark our protest,” Kavinga Wijeysekera who identified himself simply as a ‘citizen of Sri Lanka’, said, on behalf of the protestors.

“We are not for or against any particular politician or political party. But we’ve been really disappointed by the current environment – and by the past environment as well,” he said.

“There is a lot of corruption in politics today. There’s a lot of talk going on, and we decided, why don’t we get together and show a physical presence, that the public is now fed-up of corruption in politics, and we are now at the cusp of taking action.”

“We want to give our voice, to show that we are frustrated with corruption in politics and we’re hoping that some progressive change will happen.”

“This is a spontaneous event, we just met here and it’s against corrupt politicians and we are saying, ‘enough is enough,” Wijeysekera said.

Retired government servant Lacille de Silva speaking on behalf of the protestors said that they were taking action for the future generations, “We are a loosely-affiliated group of people who have decided to come together to protest the corruption in politics.”

“What the people don’t understand is,” he said, “ how this corruption and abuses are affecting the country. In the end, it is the ordinary citizen that is faced with injustice. This is your money, the country’s money that is being used,” he said.

“What we have to understand, as a country, is that this money is not just for our use, but also for the use of future generations,” he said. “It is for the country’s children, for the country’s healthcare system, for the country’s transport systems – it is these monies that are being taken,” he said.

“Corruption and terror were prevalent in the previous government,” Asanga Nanayakkara said. “In an unthinkable manner, the same corruption and terror is now present in the current government.”

People elected a new government with so much hope, but in the end, the people are suffering. Today, if there is a flood, if there is a drought, if there is some calamity, we are faced with a government that is unable to provide a living for the people.”

“This is opportunity for the ordinary people to speak, and this is our first step,” he said

 “They may say we are ‘NGO-karayo’, he said of detractors, "but we are no such thing, we are just a group of people who want to stand against corruption in the government.”