Devjyot and Uditha Jayasinghe

COLOMBO (Reuters – Dilani Jayaratne started a woodfire to boil a little pot of milk at an auspicious moment on Thursday to celebrate the beginning of Sri Lanka’s new year.

    The island nation’s Sinhala and Tamil communities usually conduct the ceremony at home. Jayaratne was with her family this year at Colombo’s tent camp, which is home to thousands protesting the government’s handling a severe economic crisis.

    Demonstrations have raged across Sri Lanka for weeks as people angered by prolonged power cuts and shortages of fuel and medicine demand President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation.

    Jayaratne, 38, said she left home with her husband and two young sons around dawn and travelled for more than an hour to reach the protest site in Colombo located near Rajapaksa’s office, which has been named “Gota-Go Village” by some.

    “We cannot just sit at home,” said Jayaratne, adding that she hoped the protests would pressure Rajapaksa to leave the presidency.

    Behind her, dozens of protesters lined up outside a tent where volunteers were distributing squares of kiribath or coconut milk rice, bananas, spicy pickles, and butter cake on paper plates – traditional New Year delicacies that were donated by supporters.

    “We used to say best wishes for the New Year,” said Jayaratna Teekanoon, 56, as he handed out bananas. “Now, we wish the greatest success in our struggle.”

    In a New Year’s message, Rajapaksa said the current crisis was the biggest challenge the country had faced in recent years. He said that the country should face this problem with greater unity and understanding.

    Earlier this week, Sri Lanka said it would suspend repayment of external debts ahead of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a loan programme, instead using its meagre foreign reserves to provide essentials to its 22 million people.

    Besides shortages, Sri Lankans are also struggling with rocketing inflation that has hit middle-class families like that of K.D.H. Kumara (44-year-old mechanical engineer) said that he could not pay household expenses or repay loans.

    “I was someone who supported this president from the heart. Kumara was holding his son aged two, as he munched on a piece de kiribath.

    “But now I’m extremely sad and disheartened. Kumara shared that things are so terrible, her family can barely provide for me.”

    Hundreds of protesters had gathered closer to the colonial-era presidential secretariat, some waving the Sri Lankan flag. Others carried posters with handwritten messages calling for Rajapaksa’s resignation and the removal of other powerful members of his family, who have long dominated Sri Lankan political life.

    Behind tall barricades, a contingent of helmeted police watched the protesters as they shouted slogans.

    The president’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, currently serves as prime minister. Basil Rajapaksa (the younger brother) was the finance minister up until this month. Others in the family hold positions within government.

    Carefully watching the pot of milk boil over, Jayaratne said she brought her sons to the site to show them the scale of the protests that have brought together Sri Lankans, cutting across ethnic, economic and religious divisions.

My sons should know the truth. “They must be able to see what really is happening in this country,” she stated.

They will always remember the New Year.