A few thoughts about the crisis & emergency in Sri Lanka

Raju Korti
In 2009 the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who then was the Defence Secretary, had made out a case before the international media that everything is a legitimate target if it is not within the safe zone of the government. Now that he has imposed an internal emergency in the crisis-ridden island, his statement can be safely interpreted as the safe zone of the government actually means his personal comfort zone.

For some time now, the neighbouring island nation has been reeling under the worst ever economic crisis that has triggered a spate of violent protests. After the ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils in the mid-eighties, the nation seems to have returned to anarchy. The present crisis hurtle it back to those days except that the nature of crisis is different.

Rajapaksa felt the heat when he found the violent public protests that demanded his immediate resignation, had gotten too close for comfort. Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history. With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts people have reached their tether. Rajapaksa, finding his throne under threat, has taken the predictable route most politicians do when their asses are on fire. He has washed his hands off the crisis saying it was not of his making. The country's economic fortunes depend majorly on tourism revenue and inward remittances are plummeting by the day.

Rajapaksa has a fair history of riding rough shod over country's democratic systems. Assuming the presidential office hasn't helped him get rid of the army uniform he wore in the past. He is not known to believe much in media freedom and has often threatened it of reprisals and has also been accused of corruption in defence procurement. When I met his elder brother and Prime Minister Mahindra Rajapaksa in 2006 in Mumbai, I recall how he had outlined his plans to get the younger brother into Lanka's political mainstream.

The Sri Lankan President cannot deny his role in the crisis. His decision to introduce massive tax cuts in late 2019 led to a sharp drop in the government revenue further compounded by the Covid pandemic. I see some similarities between the modus operandi and thought process of late Indira Gandhi and the younger Rajapaksa. By imposing an emergency to perpetuate his rule, he has taken a leaf out of what Indira did in 1975. The Congress government in India in those times is known to have indulged in blatant currency printing to offset economic deficit. Rajapaksa has taken the same route and with unsustainable borrowings, has thrown the country into a debt crisis with a possibility of sovereign default.  

With the security forces given a free hand to put down public protests, the Sri Lankan government is asking for bigger trouble as such measures of retribution never work in the longer run. The crisis has its frills as the Lankan government has chosen to be magnanimous towards Ukrainian and Russian tourists by giving them free visa extensions. They are now stuck in the country, cut off from funds after American sanctions on international payment networks. It is difficult to believe the levels of stupidity governments get to in crises of this magnitude.

To me that's government inspite of the people.