What began as a small protest by a handful of individuals demanding basic necessities turned into a tsunami that overthrew the once powerful Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka’s ‘Arab Spring’ moment, but left the country with the worst economic crisis. The road to recovery looks decades distant and painful.
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since independence from British rule in 1948, with severe foreign exchange shortages hampering imports of essential goods, including food, fuel and medicines. Its external debt is more than $50 billion and repayments have declined by $7 billion this year.
As the crisis unfolded in March, a handful of people gathered in small groups carrying placards to demand basic necessities like milk powder and regular electricity supply.
In a matter of days, Sri Lankans had to wait in long queues for miles to get fuel and cooking gas and faced several hours of power cuts. In the scorching heat, about 20 people also died while waiting for their turn in the queues of snakes.
It was enough for those who waited for the government’s reply with each passing day, responded positively. But the Rajapaksa government did not provide any solution and there was no end to the suffering of the people.
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The government declared bankruptcy in mid-April, refusing to pay its international debt. The situation created a thriving black market where people paid to secure a place in the queue and fuel was sold at 4 times the legal retail price.
With no end to their suffering, people across Sri Lanka took to the streets demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa, a powerful dynasty that ruled Sri Lanka for nearly two decades, has been blamed for the country’s economic ruin.
It was the dawn of the ‘Arab Spring’ moment, a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that swept much of the Arab world in the early 2010s.
Irrespective of the strength of the Rajapaksa family, people gathered at Galle Face Green in the heart of Colombo, chanting “Gogotagama” in a peaceful protest.
These protesters have been at the forefront of the popular ‘Aragalaya’ movement – named after the Sinhalese word for “struggle” – demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya and his elder brother Mahinda.
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The slogan attracted students, activists, youth and people from all walks of life, who joined the protests, crossing deep ethnic and religious divides in the country.
Under mounting pressure, President Gotabaya first dropped his elder brother Chamal and his eldest nephew Namal from the cabinet in mid-April.
In May, Prime Minister Mahinda also resigned after his supporters attacked anti-government protesters, triggering violence against Rajapaksa family loyalists in many parts of the country.
Gotabaya tried to deal with the crisis for a few weeks with newly-appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, before the president was forced to flee his official residence due to massive public protests in July.
Tuk-tuk operator Anand Arunajit says, “We are tired of the situation in the country. They don’t have any solution.”
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When he fell in the petrol queue, his wife Sumali was waiting in the cooking gas line.
Some mothers had to take their babies to queues as they waited all night to hear the news of the stock arrival.
Shehan Perera, a mid-level executive in the IT industry, says the fuel crisis has put jobs at risk.
Keeping his car in a long queue in the city, he says, “Employees are now looking to run businesses with minimal human resources.
Yohan Pereira, a young apprentice in the hospitality industry, says, “This fuel crisis has made our generation almost useless. I rest at night in the fuel queue to get the limited fuel supply for my scooty.”
He waited in queues for more than hours at times, only to be told that the pumps had run dry when he was within striking distance of the pumping station.
“Who takes responsibility for the deaths of around 20 people who have died in the waiting queues?” asked Walter Peirce, a retired officer.
He said his wife was sending food and water to the fuel queue while he waited.
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The government has said that the situation will get worse before it gets better.
“It’s sheer inefficiency. They don’t know how to manage the economy,” says Shamal Jayaratne, a self-employed person.
He says he closes the business of selling his motorcycle batteries and tires to join the queue at least three days a week.
Steven McKenzie, who returned from the Middle East last year, says the fuel situation would have been more dire without the Indian Oil Company’s local operations.
“The trade unions protested when Lanka IOC, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation, was provided with oil storage tanks in Trincomalee and allowed retail pump operations. Now you see, it is IOC that has come to our rescue,” he said. . it is said.
“Since the government cannot handle it, the full operation should be given to the IOC,” he said.
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On 13 July, President Gotabaya fled to the Maldives before landing in Singapore, from where he sent his resignation letter, following 72 hours of chaotic situation in the beleaguered nation, in which protesters blew up several iconic buildings, including the residences of the president and prime minister. was. Here.
While the organizers of the public protest campaign feel enthused by Gotabaya’s eviction, the light at the end of the tunnel is all the way away for those who are still suffering in fuel queues.
Sri Lanka’s parliament held a special session on Saturday to begin the process of electing a new president, who will head the next government, which has the daunting task of reviving the country’s bankrupt economy.
The economic crisis that has turned into political turmoil has deepened concerns that solutions to economic crises such as the International Monetary Fund’s aid will be delayed.
In June, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told parliament that the country’s debt-ridden economy had “collapsed” after months of lack of food, fuel and electricity.
“We are now facing a situation far more dire than just lack of fuel, gas, electricity and food. Our economy has completely collapsed. This is the most serious issue facing us today,” he said.
Wickremesinghe, who is now interim president, said it would take until 2026 for the economy to return to 2018 levels.
“If we take a scheduled journey along this road map, we can achieve an economic growth rate of negative by the end of 2023,” he said.
On 5 July, Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka’s inflation will be over 50 per cent by the end of the year and will rise to 60 per cent by the end of this year, mainly due to the rise in world commodity prices and the fall in the value of the rupee.
On Friday, the World Food Program said in a status report that 6.3 million people (28.3 percent) in the country are food insecure and the crisis is likely to worsen as it unfolds.
It is unlikely that the future government will be in a position to provide economic relief in the short run. The process of economic recovery seems distant and painful.
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