By Mohamed Harees –

Lukman Harees

“If a society normalizes indecencies, then indecencies will be the norm, without countermeasures.” – Henry Johnson Jr

Sri Lanka’s self-made economic crisis, heightened by the pandemic, world headlines. Not long ago, the island nation was an economic success story. Under the Rajapaksas, it became a cautionary tale of corruption and financial fragility. Sri Lanka is today facing its worst economic crisis since independence and has been enduring runaway inflation, power blackouts, and fuel rationing since last year.Rampant inflation, food shortages and rural economic collapse saw hunger and immiseration reach destabilising levels. he United Nations Tuesday warned of a worsening food crisis in bankrupt Sri Lanka and said the number of people needing urgent humanitarian help had doubled to 3.4 million. The deepening economic crisis is forcing people to make heartbreaking choices between going hungry, buying life-saving medicine, or finding the money to send children to school. 

A recent IFRC Report provided first-hand evidence of how the most vulnerable people, who were already under the poverty line, are being driven further towards despair. As a result, people are resorting to borrowing heavily, eating less food and fewer times per day, pawning valuables and assets, and using other survival strategies just to scrape by. “Our main priorities remain meeting humanitarian needs at its worst. Unless this is done effectively and quickly, people who are struggling now will find themselves on a demeaning pathway to destitution from which there is no escape. The time to act is now”

As International Crisis Group report says, “some of the more visible aspects of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis (may) have eased since (President) Wickremesinghe assumed the presidency on 20 July, with a new rationing system shortening the queues for petrol and diesel, power cuts becoming less frequent and cooking gas more readily available. But as the burdens on the urban middle class eased somewhat, hardship continued to grow for poorer Sri Lankans, many of whom have had to go deep into debt after suffering major drops in income, aggravating already high levels of debt incurred during the COVID-19 lockdown. Politically too, Sri Lanka is in a crisis proportions.” given how much the public resents the Rajapaksa family, (President) Wickremesinghe’s reliance on that clan’s political party for his parliamentary majority weakens his political credibility with large sections of the public. It will be hard for him to win popular support for painful changes that run counter to widely held beliefs about the state’s role in the economy and in terms of social protection. The lack of transparency around possible reforms – the government has refused calls in parliament to release details of the IMF deal and plans to implement it – can only increase public anxiety and frustration.

A recent UN Report quite rightly acknowledges that Sri Lanka is at critical juncture in its political life, and is in the midst of a serious economic crisis which has severely impacted the human rights of all communities and people of all walks of life. This has spurred broad-based demands by Sri Lankans from all communities for deeper reforms and accountability, and gives the Government a fresh opportunity to steer the country on a new path. The Report says, Sri Lanka’s new Government should embark on a national dialogue to advance human rights and reconciliation’. “Fundamental changes will be required to address the current challenges and to avoid repetition of the human rights violations of the past”. The report calls on the Government to immediately end the reliance on draconian security laws and crackdowns on peaceful protest, reverse the drift towards militarisation and show renewed commitment to, and deliver on, security sector reform and ending impunity. The SL government has on the contrary created political obstacles to accountability, and actively promoted and incorporated some military officials credibly implicated in alleged war crimes into the highest levels of government.

The Report stresses, in the absence of progress towards accountability at the national level, the report urges other States to cooperate in accountability efforts, including by using available avenues of extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction, to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law committed in Sri Lanka. Additionally, the report urges States to explore further measures targeting those who are credibly alleged to have been responsible for gross violations and abuses of international human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Many experts say quite rightly that Sri Lanka’s road to ruin was political, not actually economic. Some trace the roots of the current crisis lying with ethnocracy, which entails domination and subordination. The associated mytho-history enables a powerful ethnoreligious narrative undergirded by Buddhism. As meritocracy and professionalism were undermined, many among those qualified moved abroad. Tamils had little choice, but Sinhalese who valued integrity and competence also bolted. This brain drain amid ethnocentric recruitment saw standards decline throughout government sectors. Since the conflict ended in 2009, Rajapaksa-led governments, liaising with extremist Buddhist monks, whipped up Islamophobia. Being anti-minority became patriotic, which is why the Rajapaksas combined their Sinhalese Buddhist credentials with cavalier racism to keep winning elections for two decades. Political kleptocrats seek to stay in power because they fear being held accountable. Precisely why Ranil was brought in with SLPP support to ensure Rajapakses were shielded from prosecution and all those who are standing up against state corruption and dictatorship are being put behind bars. Much of the recent crisis can be blamed on Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency and his family, with several family members holding multiple government portfolios. The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics for several decades, carving out a massive constituency among the majority Sinhalese community by espousing populist ethnomajoritarianism. Many of Gota’s policies have had catastrophic effects on Sri Lanka’s democracy and economy.

In the end, the Sri Lankan crisis leaves a battered economy and an uncertain future for the country. The people’s lack of trust in their government only exacerbates the dire conditions its citizens are facing, irrespective of the efforts made by the new government. In this historic context, what Aragalaya achieved was phenomenal. Amid this unprecedented crisis, Sri Lankans’ political activism re-awakened, prompting months-long peaceful protests. Sri Lankans have shown an admirable solidarity in response to this unprecedented crisis. They desired meaningful political and economic change that will allow them to buy basic goods and to live their lives with dignity. The government needs to listen to the people by respecting their human rights and undertaking meaningful change so Sri Lanka can put this crisis behind them. Ranil and those in power however have been attempting to devalue its significance and role in bringing about some material changes in the administration. The State is trying hard to project Aragalaya as the efforts of few persons who had ulterior political objectives, forgetting the fact the spirit of the Aragalaya encompassed the combined and collective aspirations of a nation of 22 Min people who were suppressed and marginalised by a political elite. Thus, ultimately, what Sri Lankans. The Aragalaya proved that nationalist (pseudo patriotic) sentiment cannot overcome hunger and scarcity. The protests brought together clergy and citizens from all faiths. Despite troubling trends of authoritarianism, democratic backsliding, and ethno-majoritarianism sweeping across Sri Lanka, key moments in recent history have united diverse groups in a show of peaceful pushback. These events have enabled the most recent wave of citizen mobilization, which has the potential to significantly transform Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka’s larger history of protests, this mobilization is remarkable for its diversity, perseverance, and relatively peaceful methods. Much of the energy and creativity of the protests can be attributed to youthful participants, yet the protests have attracted demonstrators from a wide range of ages, including some in their eighties and nineties. The movement also has united members regardless of ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, and profession. This political activism was a refreshing trend viewed further in the context of Sri Lanka’s fragmented political parties and weak trade unions. The shortcomings of these groups coincided with the emergence of new entities and groups for protesting government actions, such as citizen-led initiatives and youth mobilization. Citizens’ use of public interest litigation has also grown in recent years, with many activists filing cases to challenge proposed amendments to Sri Lanka’s constitution and legislative proposals as well as unjust and arbitrary government practices.  

The so-called Ranil’s new government is generally viewed as a continuation of the old guard and as said, a lifeline for the Rajapaksas and their supporters. These dynamics will continue to affect the direction of the citizen’s movement for effective political changes and help determine whether they can be sustained, and have a bearing on their effectiveness. Nevertheless, as an article (as part of the Politics of Opposition in South Asia initiative run by Carnegie’s South Asia Program) says, “regardless of the setbacks and uncertainties, Sri Lankan citizens have an opportunity to build on this moment and create a new vision for their country. They can address structural inequalities and violence while demanding social and economic justice, political accountability, and a new culture of governance. This task will not be easy, nor will the results be immediate. However, the changes brought about in the last few weeks give hope that sustained, innovative, and inclusive citizen mobilization has a chance to transform Sri Lanka”.

Christopher G. Moore, in his novel ‘Spirit House’ sarcastically quips, “asking if there is corruption in Thailand is like asking if there is dough inside a bakery. Pies and cakes don’t come from heaven and neither do deals and contracts”. Sri Lanka is no different or even worse. Isn’t Sri Lanka, a nation filled with politically blind people still going behind the same set of politicians who have taken their country to ruination and bankruptcy, when the nations in the neighbourhood are on the fast track to recovery after the recent serious pandemic which engulfed the world. The nations in the developed world are dealing on facts and figures, discovering cures for diseases, building people with great minds through science, proposing theories, debating over them, testing them and proving them thus using such theories to invent and innovate technologies. Sri Lanka is still consulting astrologists to realise new year hopes. 

As author Angelica Hopes says, “In the end because of blind immunity to reality and impunity of “justified” corruptions in the government, it is always the hard working, suffering, struggling, less privileged citizens who are all the sacrificial lamb in times of disaster and calamities through their well catered embezzlement system.” It is said that a nation which accepts to live a third-class life is just a third-class nation! If a nation wants to be called honourable nation, it must use the option to refuse any kind of policy which is against human dignity! No refuse, no honour! If the people do not  refuse a bad government, don’t they deserve it all the way!”. Forcible intercourse with one individual is called as “Rape” & Raping thousands of individuals at a time is called as “Politics”.” Political corruption works by having an equally corrupt administrative and even a legal system to protect it.” 

The Political leadership particularly in the major two parties which took turns to rule Post-Independence Sri Lanka has miserably failed with their credibility tarnished beyond measure. Any mutations within will not be able to recoup the lost public credibility in the foreseeable future. Sri Lanka in the Year 2022 cannot be anything different in 2023 under the same tainted leadership. The citizens movements will have to play a major decisive role in creating a potent force and provide a credible political alternative to the status quo, to ensure a way out for Sri Lanka. “Citizens make the autocrats, citizens can crush them.Citizens are the cause, citizens are the effect. There is no destiny, only determination of the citizens.When citizens command with conscience, corruption falls.Citizens are the altar, citizens are the idol.When the citizens come down to the streets, dictators fall.Autocrats and dictators rule because the citizens allow it. Once the citizens wake up from hibernation, it’s time for their last wish.” ― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

Heralding a New year and a change in the month and date in the calendar will not change the destiny of this beleaguered nation, wounded by the corrupt and inefficient political elites which ruled Sri Lanka. An awakened populace and public activism certainly can.