11 July 2022 12:01 am Views - 1422
On Saturday hundreds of thousands of protestors descended on Colombo demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa -the culmination of a non-violent protest movement demanding his resignation- blaming him, his brothers and cabinet colleagues whom the country holds responsible for leading it, to its worst economic crisis since independence.
Protestors laid siege to the President’s official residence and finally stormed what is seen as the bastion of presidential power. Late in the evening, the Speaker of the House conveyed a message from the president –whose whereabouts are still a mystery- that he would step aside on 13 July to allow the smooth transition of power. At the same time, the Prime Minister also announced he would resign to facilitate a new regime taking power.
Riotous scenes of victory broke out among crowds traipsing through the presidential residence and those gathered at Galle Face Green –the HQ of the ‘Gotagohome’ movement and on the streets of Colombo.
Even after the announcement that the president and prime minister had agreed to step down, a crowd gathered around the prime minister’s private residence demanding the premier resign. Our sister paper the ‘Sunday times’ reported police fired teargas to disperse the crowd. They also attacked journalists at the scene injuring a number of them. As news of the police attack spread, protesters set fire to a police bus and attacked the policemen with stones. At this stage, unknown persons began egging the people to take retaliatory action, which led to a small group entering the premises of the Premier’s residence and torching the building.
When the fire brigade arrived, the group prevented firemen from dousing the flames.
The setting on fire of the Prime Minister’s house and other acts of sabotage needs to be condemned by all right-thinking people. Whether we support the government or not is immaterial. The law has to be abided by, or else it will lead to a situation of anarchy with people taking the law into their own hands.
It is our inalienable right to demand the government, which has brought immense suffering to the country to resign. Through short-sighted measures, the government has created shortages of all essential items. These range from basic food items, to essential drugs, to a complete loss of fuel and cooking gas. School children’s education has been severely interrupted. Job losses to workers amidst the ongoing skyrocketing cost of living have worsened the crisis. Therefore, the call for the president and his ministers to resign is justified.
But acts of arson cannot be condoned. Burning of private and or public property remains a serious crime and needs to be punished with the full force of the law.
Let’s face it we have to pay off so far. $3.4 billion between June and December this year. $5.8 billion in 2023. $4.9 billion in 2024. $6.2 billion in 2025. $4.0 billion in 2026. $4.3 billion in 2027. The total debt burden of the government at the end of 2021 was Rs 17.5 trillion and by March 2022 it has increased to Rs 21.6 trillion.
This is the real situation. In addition, we are facing the effects of many problems that have worsened in the past two or three years. These are not problems that can be solved in two to three days.
We need help from international agencies to overcome the debt burden we are faced with. To continue these discussions, we need to have a responsible form of government. If a situation of anarchy prevails, no agency will be willing to help us rise ‘out of the ashes’
Demonstrations are a means to getting things off our chests and forcing leaders to correct themselves, but they in the case of our country, will not bring us the dollars needed to repay the debts our country is faced with.
Demonstrations, though a necessary form of pressure, will not in themselves bring us the fuel and cooking gas we need so badly. Neither will it help us help bring in fertilizer our farmers need to grow the food we sorely need.
What we need immediately is a stable government with whom international agencies like the IMF, the World Bank or friendly countries would be willing to negotiate and help.
With the premier and president on the verge of bowing out it is up to our political leaders to put personal agendas on hold, and probably for the first time in our history, put the needs of the country and people first.
We need a coalition of parties joining together in a bid to save the country.