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ASIAN INSIDER
Sri Lanka's revolt of the people
The mismanagement of Sri Lanka's economy by the Rajapaksa brothers drove people to protest to bring them down. The road to recovery will be long and hard. But the protests show that sometimes, the man in the street can wield power and bring change.
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As protesters in Sri Lanka trooped out of the President's and Prime Minister's homes on Thursday, some of them paused on the wide lawns for a last look or selfie. For days, citizens young and old, angry and amused, had overrun the white colonial-style palatial homes of the country's most reviled men.
Almost every one of them was poorer than their leaders. That gulf between a country's leader and its 22 million citizens would have felt ordinary some months ago, said protester Manuri Pabasari. But "now the gap feels so wrong, so undemocratic".
