Damage control as new prime minister is sworn in
MANY Sri Lankans thronged buses in the main city Colombo yesterday to return to their home towns during a brief relaxation in curfew, imposed after the prime minister quit and went into hiding and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa warned of anarchy.
The island nation off India, which overlooks shipping routes between Europe and Asia, is battling its worst economic crisis since independence.
Violence erupted earlier this week after supporters of former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president’s elder brother, attacked an anti-government protest camp in Colombo.
Days of violent reprisals against government figures aligned to the powerful Rajapaksa clan followed.
The army was called out to patrol the streets and police said nine people were killed and more than 300 injured in the clashes. Security forces have been ordered to shoot to prevent violence and looting. Hundreds of people thronged the main bus station in Colombo after authorities lifted an indefinite curfew yesterday.
Streets in the commercial capital were calm, though there were queues at supermarkets as people ventured out to buy essential supplies before the curfew was reimposed in the afternoon.
Frustration remained at ongoing fuel shortages that have crippled the country’s economy.
“We have hit the bottom economically,” said Nimal Jayantha, an autorickshaw driver queuing for petrol after the curfew was lifted. “I don’t have the time do my job. By the time I stay in the fuel queue and get petrol, curfew will be imposed. I will have to go home without any money.”
Protesters have sprayed graffiti over Mahinda Rajapaksa’s home in a southern town and ransacked a museum dedicated to his father. They have vowed to keep up the protests until the president also quits.
Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down after the fighting erupted and is in hiding in a military base in the north-east of the country. Yesterday, a magistrate’s court issued orders blocking him, his son Namal and other key allies from leaving the country.
“I personally will extend my fullest co-operation to any investigation that is taking place,” Namal Rajapaksa said in a tweet following the order.
The president has said he will appoint a new prime minister and cabinet this week, “to prevent the country from falling into anarchy as well as to maintain the affairs of the government that have been halted”.
The Colombo stock market, closed for the last two days, ended over 3% up yesterday on optimism over a new cabinet, traders said. Sri Lanka’s central bank governor said failing to find a solution to the crisis in the next one to two weeks would lead to power cuts of up to 10 to 12 hours a day, as well as his own resignation.
President Rajapaksa has called for a unity government to find a way out of the crisis, but opposition leaders say they will not serve until he resigns.
The nation has been hit hard by the pandemic, rising oil prices and tax cuts by the populist Rajapaksa government. Useable foreign reserves stand as low as $50 million (about R808m), inflation is rampant, and shortages of fuel, medicine and other essential goods have brought thousands onto the streets in a month of anti-government protests, that had remained predominantly peaceful until this week.
Yesterday, Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn-in prime minister for the sixth time, replacing Mahinda Rajapaksa, although the veteran politician has never completed a full term in office. The 73-year-old’s political career appeared to be drawing to a close before this week, when he agreed to helm a unity administration and help steer the nation through a crippling economic crisis.
“We want to return the nation to a position where our people will once again have three meals a day,” Wickremesinghe said after his appointment. “Our youth must have a future.”
He is the sole parliamentary representative of the United National Party, a once-powerful political force nearly wiped out in Sri Lanka’s last elections. The former lawyer hails from a political family and his uncle Junius Jayewardene served as president for more than a decade.
He was first appointed premier in 1993 after the assassination of then-president Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was killed in a bomb attack by Tamil Tiger guerrillas during Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war. Underscoring the dynastic nature of Sri Lanka’s politics, Premadasa’s son Sajith is the current opposition leader and had also been touted as a possible prime ministerial candidate this week.
Wickremesinghe’s first term in office lasted little more than a year. He returned to power in 2001, earning a reputation for sound economic management after steering the country out of recession. Conflict with the president saw him sacked before his term was over, and he spent the next decade in the political wilderness.
Wickremasinghe lost two presidential contests and led his party to a string of election defeats. He was nonetheless sworn in as prime minister again in 2015 after the election defeat of president Mahinda Rajapaksa, after the opposition rallied behind him as a unity candidate against the authoritarian leader. But later that year his administration was rocked by an insider trading scam involving central bank bonds.
A key accused in the multimillion-dollar scam was the central bank chief at the time, Arjuna Mahendran, who was Wickremesinghe’s schoolmate and choice for the job. He was accused of cronyism during his tenure and failing to prosecute members of the previous Rajapaksa regime who had been accused of graft. Political conflict with the Rajapaksa family also threw the country into crisis in 2018, with Mahinda taking over the premiership for six weeks before the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional.
Wickremesinghe will be taking charge of a bankrupt nation in default of its $51 billion foreign debt and without money to import essential goods. His status as a pro-West, free-market reformist could smooth bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and foreign creditors.
But he has already warned there will be no quick fix to the economy. “We have very high inflation now and hyperinflation is on its way,” he said last week. “We should start addressing the issues now.”