POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ANARCHY IN SRI LANKA

The island nation’s worst political crisis and economic turmoil need a renewed commitment to strengthen democratic institutions through critical consensus

- VAISHALI BASU SHARMA

Dramatic scenes of protestors storming official buildings and residences, police officers assaulted, vehicles set ablaze and the President fleeing, could well have been images of anarchy in a ‘failed state’. But they are from Colombo. Months of persistent anti-government protests and military-enforced curfews over fuel shortages, surging prices and financial mismanagement, culminated in protestors breaching the residences of Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on July 9. While Gotabaya finally yielded to the rallying call of the protestors, 'Gota Go Home!' Wickremesinghe clung on to power as acting president. Meanwhile, a weak opposition is scrambling to respond.

Deeper political malaise

Do these protests signal a possible turning point for the bankrupt country? The current economic crisis is a manifestation of a deeper political malaise entailing the apathy and arrogance of Sri Lanka’s leaders. It is unlikely that Sri Lanka’s political culture of authoritarian and military style of governance will change anytime soon. Economic mismanagement, undemocratic governance, arbitrary actions by law-and-order authorities, were all perpetuated by the Rajapaksas.