*Paromita Das
After a day of intense drama, Sri Lanka’s political and economic crisis provided an odd scene: protesters were everywhere, cooking in the prime minister’s garden and even relaxing in the president’s bedroom, while the leaders were nowhere to be found.
It was unclear who was in charge of the country because both Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa were in hiding after making resignation announcements. But it didn’t matter to the thousands of people who have descended on Colombo, the capital city, since Saturday: For months, they had assumed they were on their own as they waited in long lines for fuel and cooking gas, reduced the size of their meals, and rushed to find life-saving medication.
Leaders of the opposition scurried to understand Rajapaksa’s goals.
Was his silence a sign that he was considering his options for a protracted fight, or would he actually quit on Wednesday, as the authorities have claimed? The speaker of the parliament was thought to be the most likely candidate to serve as interim president, as discussions on who might succeed him were also developing.
But it is obvious that whoever assumes control of the government will be stepping into a crisis, according to analysts, inheriting a collapsed economy with no quick fixes and a frustrated and worn-out populace.
On Sunday, however, the protesters were occupied with celebrating what appeared to be their victory over a strong political dynasty that had dominated the nation for the majority of the previous two decades.
Rajapaksa’s official residence, a British colonial structure, is now essentially a free museum. A call had to be made to encourage people to visit the other top compounds that activists had taken control of, the president’s offices and the prime minister’s residence, due to the overwhelming number of visitors who were crammed into the hallways and stairways.
They painted the words “Open to the public” in big, bold letters on the walls of the prime minister’s residence. Instability on a global scale has served as the backdrop for Sri Lanka’s downward spiral. The world has been plagued by inflation, skyrocketing energy prices, and food shortages as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the economic sanctions that followed. The pandemic had already disrupted the supply chain before that.
The 22 million-person island nation of Sri Lanka was once hailed as a possible economic success story that other developing nations could emulate. As a result, regional powers have vied for control over the country. However, due to the weighty government debt incurred to fund massive infrastructure projects with dubious utilities, its economy has been in free fall for months. Additionally, the pandemic destroyed the nation’s vital tourism industry.
Currently, Sri Lanka serves as more of a warning.
Some guests to the Presidential mansion on Sunday admired the fine art, the chandeliers, and the intricately painted ceilings as army guards quietly patrolled the interior. Others spread out on the president’s canopied bed or peered into teak armoires or cabinets in the kitchen, where a man was cooking rice in a big wok. Aside from some graffiti calling for the president to step down, some plastic bottle debris, a few curtains being torn down, and a few paintings being slightly off-centre, the damage, if any, appeared to be minimal. The protesters helped clean up the mansion’s trash, sweep the floors, water the plants, and after counting the notes, they even gave the police about 17 million rupees (nearly $50,000) that they had discovered there.
The protesters attribute their misery to Rajapaksa and the larger Rajapaksa family, who held important positions in his administration.
The Rajapaksas initially refuted claims that the economy was in freefall in the face of escalating unrest over the previous year. The President tried to make small concessions as protesters took to the streets in the spring by asking his family members to resign from their government jobs and rearranging his Cabinet. The President refused to resign even after the protesters forced his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, to step down in May.
Rajapaksa ally and Parliament speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena claimed late on Saturday that the President had informed him he would step down on Wednesday.
But neither Gotabaya Rajapaksa nor any of the other officials who work with him have made this explicitly clear.
Political figures close to the president, including security officials, have been mum on his whereabouts, either out of ignorance or a refusal to return calls. However, there were widespread rumors in Colombo that the president had moved to a military base outside of the city. These rumors came after Saturday’s rumors that the president had left the city, which were sparked by videos showing luggage being hurried to a naval ship and official vehicles scurrying toward the airport.
The new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
The Prime Minister, Wickremesinghe, would typically take over as acting President under the succession rules outlined in Sri Lanka’s constitution. Many thought Wickremesinghe was preparing for just such an eventuality, but on Saturday he also announced his intention to step down. His private residence was set on fire as a result of the rage directed against him.
The 76-year-old speaker of Parliament, Abeywardena, is now the most likely candidate to serve as interim president.
According to the constitution, the speaker of the Parliament can serve as President for a month if the president steps down and there is no Prime Minister, according to Jayadeva Uyangoda, a political science professor at the University of Colombo.
The election of a president from among the members of parliament will be organized by the acting president and will take place within a month. According to analysts, the victor will finish the two years of Rajapaksa’s term that are left before elections are scheduled.
Both the new President and the new Prime Minister, who will also be a Member of Parliament, would be entering a “crisis trap,” according to Uyangoda.
While the Rajapaksa family’s abuses have received the majority of attention during the protests, the demonstrators are equally fed up with rivalry within the larger political class. Activists want the executive’s authority restrained, as well as increased accountability and checks and balances in the political system.
Uyangoda predicted that the overwhelming economic crisis would make it difficult for new leaders to keep their promises. He claimed that “the entire political class has also lost public trust.” Between the political class and the politically aware citizens, there is a contradiction. We will continue to experience instability if this contradiction is not resolved constructively.
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