I visited the Aragalaya commemoration that took place over the weekend. Sad that I couldn’t go with the rest of my @GoodGovYaya group, but I am glad I managed to make it. Seeing the GGY board there, our little lion, photographs, memories... alongside the wider story of the Aragalaya was poignant and emotional. People have spent years trying to minimize it, malign it, rewrite it, or reduce it to chaos and inconvenience and try to make it seen like some ridiculous foreign backed conspiracy. But this was not nothing. This was a unique moment in history where ordinary people rose up against arguably the most powerful Executive Presidency this country has ever seen and forced political change. It was not without tragedy either. Ten people lost their lives that day. Three families were compensated — the MP and two police officers. Seven others from the Aragalaya side received nothing. Those who lost homes and property compensated themselves, some fraudulently. Nearly 3,000 people still face cases and charges linked to that period, many for things that seem mundane, disproportionate. Resolving that would require political courage and a conscious national decision. But despite all of that, the Aragalaya was also one of the most unifying and beautiful moments Sri Lanka has seen in my lifetime. I am proud that GGY carried on as long as we did... in many ways as a tribute act to what emerged at Galle Face. Proud that we kept speaking, questioning, pushing, and hopefully reaching a few minds along the way. What disappoints me is that this government, more than any other political force, benefited from the political consciousness and mindset shift that the Aragalaya created. They went from being a 3% party to holding a two-thirds majority because the country fundamentally changed during that period but there is no viable effort from them to meaningfully join this effort to commemorate this event. Which is why I genuinely hope that one day this will be officially recognized as a national moment of democratic awakening and commemoration... not erased, not politically sanitized, but acknowledged for what it truly was. #SriLanka #ApiAragale #SystemChangeLK #AccountabilityProjectLK