SRI LANKA ON THE BRINK

AMIDST UNPRECEDENTED PUBLIC ANGER AT THE DIRE STATE OF ITS ECONOMY AND DAILY HARDSHIP, SRI LANKA LURCHES TOWARDS ANARCHY. WITH GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA GONE, THE COUNTRY NOW NEEDS POLITICAL STABILITY AND PRUDENT ECONOMIC STEWARDSHIP

- CHANDANI KIRINDE

It was an astonishing display of public condemnation. Sri Lanka has seen many mass uprisings since it gained independence from the British in 1948. But never has a popular leader been ousted the way its President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was recently. As streets heaved with angry protesters, lakhs stormed the presidential residence, called the Queen's House, in the historic Colombo Fort. Rajapaksa was forced to flee Colombo and take refuge in the Maldives. On July 13, a state of emergency was declared in the country and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was made acting president till a new one was elected by Parliament on July 20. Yet the troubles are far from over and Sri Lanka, crippled by a series of crisis, lies on the brink of economic collapse and political anarchy.

Ironically, both Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, Mahinda, who was till recently prime minister, were hailed as heroes for defeating the feared Tamil Tigers, till both had to resign as protests grew across the country. So what led to their denouement? As former US President Bill Clintons' advisers put it, "It's the economy stupid". It was the mismanagement of the economy that sealed the fate of the powerful Rajapaksa clan. It began almost as soon as Gotabaya won the presidential election in November 2019. To fulfil a poll promise, he offered extremely generous tax cuts, which the public were told would stimulate growth, but subsequently led to loss of revenue running into billions of rupees.