The brewing crisis in Colombo Sri Lankan came to a head in July when the protesters and bandits took over the seat of government and forcefully ejected the elected government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a jungle coup.
How does it all Begin?
The precursor to the problem is due to harrowing economic conditions that most analysts arrogated to the economic mismanagement by successive governments particularly the family of Rajapaksa which has weakened Sri Lanka's public finances, leaving national expenditure above income and the production of tradable goods and services at inadequate levels. The government in a bid to alleviate economic hardship cut down taxes significantly to the extent that it hurt the country’s revenue base.
The scourge of COVID -19 has also not helped matters because the lockdowns almost paralyze the lucrative tourism income for the country. While the citizens of the country in foreign countries could not also be made sufficient foreign remittances.
The inability of the country to make good its debt obligations triggered a lower credit rating from rating agencies thereby locking the country out of the international financial markets.
Persisting Protesters
The anti-government protesters have been demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa for a very long-time "Our goal is for Gota to go home. And Ranil and other cabinet members to go home," chants the protesters. A state of emergency has been put in place while soldiers were invited to maintain peace. The persisting economic hardship, power blackouts, shortages of basic goods and rising prices exacerbate the crisis, snowballing into violent protests that spilled over into the Presidential palace at Colombo.
The president fled to Singapore through the Maldives and just sent in his resignation letter.
There is now an imbroglio as the protesters are yet to be pacified till they ensure that an acceptable candidate comes into power.
The economic challenges of Sri Lanka will take a while to resolve irrespective of who the new leader is because of the current inflationary trend and global economic turmoil.
SOURCE: MSBM
IMAGE SOURCE: PIXABAY
Contributions from Reuters
