Sri Lanka is experiencing a severe economic crisis worsened by the pandemic, while the political class is seen as increasingly corrupt. This has fuelled an outbreak of protests.
It is not an easy time for Sri Lanka. The island nation in the Indian Ocean is experiencing the worst economic crisis in its history and public discontent has led to widespread street protests, suppressed at times with violence.
In recent hours the government announced its resignation, but Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa appears unwilling to leave his post. This is no small detail, given that the Rajapaksa dynasty and its long history of corruption and discrimination lie at the very heart of the protesters' grievances.
With the outbreak of the pandemic, Sri Lanka plunged into a deep economic crisis. Tourism is a cornerstone of GDP, accounting for more than 12 per cent in 2019, and the halt to transnational movement of people caused by Covid-19 hit the country's finances hard. Particularly severe monsoons in the pre-pandemic period and a new law banning the use of chemical fertilisers in agriculture then led to a drastic reduction in harvests, and this combination of factors, coupled with the health emergency, drove up inflation and sent food prices soaring.
On 7 September 2021 parliament approved a state of emergency and introduced a series of measures to control food costs and ban the hoarding of these goods, going so far as to allow for the seizure of food from traders and the arrest of anyone stockpiling excessive quantities of foodstuffs. An authoritarian measure that emerged in a context already fragile in terms of the state of democracy.
At the start of January the government led by Gotabaya Rajapaksa presented an aid package to support the population, given the steady decline in foreign currency reserves needed to import essential goods that are increasingly scarce or expensive in the country. In recent weeks a loan of one billion dollars from India also arrived, while talk began of an intervention by the International Monetary Fund. In the meantime, however, the crisis has continued to worsen and the population is grappling with power cuts of up to 13 hours a day, due to a lack of resources to obtain the energy needed.
Exhausted by a critical health and economic situation that has now been going on for some time, the people of Sri Lanka decided to take to the streets to make their voices heard. On 31 March crowds gathered outside the presidential residence.
The Rajapaksas are a dynasty that has held power for decades and has gradually placed family members and trusted figures in every key role. Today Gotabaya Rajapaksa is president, his brother Basil Rajapaksa is finance minister and another brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is prime minister (he was previously president). The family has on several occasions been accused of corruption and discrimination against the country's Muslim minority, and at a moment like the present, with Sri Lanka on its knees, these elements have come back to the fore and the Rajapaksas and the political class they represent have become the primary focus of popular protest.
Dozens of people were arrested during the demonstrations and several others were injured. The government imposed a 36-hour curfew and a temporary but sweeping block on the main social networks, in an attempt to hinder the organisation of the protests. The protests nonetheless continued, drawing ever-larger crowds, to the point that in recent hours the government resigned. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa proposed to the opposition the formation of a new national unity government, still to be led by his brother Mahinda. The proposal was rejected, not least because it would have done nothing but pour more fuel on the protests against an entrenched political class that refuses to step aside. The most likely outcome is therefore that the country heads to fresh elections.
