A nation now nears meltdown

FOR weeks now the country has been in the grip of a catastrophic economic crisis. It has left the government on the brink of collapse, and a state largely bankrupt and at risk of becoming a failed one.

At the epicentre of the crisis is Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa who has faced intensifying protests in recent weeks calling on him to resign over an economic meltdown that has led to severe shortages of everyday essentials and double-digit inflation, and pushed the government close to default.

Such is the seriousness of the situation that already it has taken the political scalp of Gotabaya’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who stepped down as prime minister last week after a wave of violence, triggering the dissolution of the cabinet.

Mahinda argued that his resignation would pave the way for a cross-party government to restore calm while keeping Gotabaya in power. But the continuing failure to form a new government has only further fuelled calls for the president to quit also.

“This is the time for all Sri Lankans to join hands as one, to overcome the economic, social and political challenges,” Rajapaksa wrote on Twitter last week. “I urge all Sri Lankans to reject the subversive attempts to push you towards racial and religious disharmony.”

But such appeals appear to be falling on deaf ears as the country breaks down and the army is deployed to enforce a nationwide curfew with orders to shoot looters on sight.

As much of the public ire continues to be directed at the Rajapaksa brothers, who are blamed by the protesters for leading the country into the economic crisis, the question now is what comes next for Sri Lanka?

The short answer is that to bring the country out of the crisis the first step would be to have a stabilised government at the centre. President Rajapaksa has appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister, marking the fifth time he has held that role and he can now form a cabinet.

Wickremesinghe is seen as an ally of Rajapaksa – which puts a question mark over whether the move can quell protests.

Time is not on his side and Sri Lanka’s hopes of transforming itself from a war-scarred country into one of Asia’s economic powerhouses is diminishing with every day that passes. Whatever Rajapaksa’s course of action is, the country’s politicians need to act fast to find a solution.