Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Sri Lanka, an island nation of 22 million people, located off the southern coast of India, is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. A balance of payment crisis, a severe foreign exchange shortage compounded by COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in high inflation, fuel shortages, power cuts lasting up to 13 hours and many other problems. The government ran out of dollars to finance vital imports like food, medicine and fuel. Sri Lanka’s economy was heavily dependent on imports. Earlier, the tourism was seriously hit by the 2019 church bombings and COVID pandemic.
The poor Sri Lankans were being forced to skip meals due to soaring food prices. Made desperate by the rising cost of living and difficulties to obtain basic items, including food and medicine, the Sri Lankans have been protesting against the government. The protesters gathered and camped out on the Galle Face Green in Central Colombo from March 31. Thousands of people, irrespective of ethnic differences, have been participating in the peaceful protests with the support of various sections of people, including teachers, students, employees and trade unions.
The coordinating body of the trade unions called for a general strike on April 28 and millions of workers participated. In the second one-day general strike on May 5, there was a greater participation, including doctors, nurses and other professionals. President Gotabaya declared a state of emergency, and curfew was imposed. But the protesters defied it and continued the protests.
The economic mismanagement of the ruling elites also contributed to the present crisis. Many disastrous decisions of the Rajapaksa regime, undertaken in an authoritarian manner, have contributed to the economic downfall of Sri Lanka. Tax-cuts, curbing of fertilizer imports for use in agriculture and lavish investments in mega projects have reduced revenues, lowered agricultural production and multiplied the debt burden. The looming crisis was further intensified by the COVID pandemic with the drastic fall in foreign exchange earnings, disruption of tourism and reduced remittances from Sri Lankan workers abroad.
Instead of saving the people from the economic devastation, the ruling establishment had all along been trying to impose austerity measures and continued to pursue neoliberal policies. It further aggravated the situation and led the working people to intensify the protests.
The Rajapaksa family regime is the main culprit for the present turbulence and violent turmoil developing in Sri Lanka .President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, holding tremendous executive powers, tried to salvage his regime by pressuring his elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to resign as prime minister. Mahinda Rajapaksa, instead of accepting the demands of the people, mobilized his party (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna — SLPP) supporters and induced them to attack the peaceful protesters, destroying their tents and hundreds were injured. In the fighting between government supporters and protesters nine people were killed and 300 wounded.
Consequent to this naked violence, thousands of people gathered outside Temple Trees, the prime minister’s residence, and tried to storm it. These developments led to the resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family had to be rescued and taken to a naval base.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Member of Parliament from opposition political parties, was appointed as the Prime minister in an attempt to defuse the protests. It was his sixth stint as prime minister. In his BBC interview, he predicted that the current economic crisis which caused misery and unrest is “going to get worse before it gets better “and he sought the help of the international community to defuse the crisis in Sri Lanka which is “the longest and oldest democracy in Asia”.However, Sri Lankans are continuing their protests demanding president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation, denouncing the appointment of Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe.
The main opposition parties have correctly announced that they would not join any all-party or interim government under president Gotabaya and reiterated the demand that Gotabaya should also resign. The Left party, Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) demanded an interim president and interim government till fresh elections are held. The people’s demand for the president Gotabaya’s resignation is genuine since he is mainly responsible for the economic mess and he, along with his family, transformed the Sri Lankan state as an authoritarian national security state.
In a desperate move to solve the economic crisis, the Sri Lankan government is seeking the IMF loan. This will again trap the country into the IMF dictates and anti-people governmental measures, such as cuts in welfare and other austerity measures, along with further privatization that would follow. This is definitely not the way out from the deep structural crisis engulfing Sri Lanka.
The plunder of international finance capital and the neoliberal framework of policies have to be replaced by an alternative path that would protect the people’s interests. So, what is needed is a restructuring of the political and economic systems of Sri Lanka.The working people have to play a leading role to bring such a change.
In the past, Sinhala Buddhist nationalism played a very destructive role in Sri Lankan polity. Now, the unity of working people from both Sinhalese and Tamils built in the course of struggle against the Rajapaksa regime, will help to solve the age-old ethnic problems with a democratic approach to linguistic and religious minorities.
N. Gunasekaran is a political activist and writer based in Chennai, India.
