New President, shortages of essentials and the right to protest - EDITORIAL

Our country has a new president. On July 20, Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected the eighth Executive President of the country. Though Wickremesinghe is not a popularly elected president, the country has shown that its trappings of democracy and constitutionality are in tact. 
The people used their democratic right - the freedom of speech, expression and freedom of assembly to change a president without bloodshed etc.

President Gotabaya on his part, bowed to popular demand and stepped aside leaving the path open for the election of a new president by parliament. And so, it was Ranil Wickremesinghe, the sole member of his party in parliament - the incumbant Prime Minister - was constitutionally appointed Acting President. On July 20, Wickremesinghe was elected president of the country in accordance with constitutional requirements.  Numbers revealed; as NPP leader Anura Kumara Disanayake pointed out, a number of parliamentarians voted for the new president across party lines. On the streets, hardcore members of the ‘Aragalaya’ condemned the appointment of the new president and promised to throw him out of office in the near future. However public participation at the ‘Aragalaya-called demonstration opposite the Fort Railway Station demanding the new president’s removal fizzled out. 

It would appear with the gaining of their original demands - the ousting of (ex PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and and president Gotabaya Rajapaksa), the people are willing to give the new president a chance to fix the chronic financial crisis via his accumulated knowledge of working with international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

The dire need of this country today, is fuel. The long queues outside petrol sheds are a telling indication of the shortage of this precious liquid in our country.  Without fuel, factories cannot produce. Farmers - even if they are able to produce sufficient quantities of compost for agricultural needs, they have no means to transport their produce to markets nor can the purchasing agents transport the produce to the main sales outlets in the cities.

Resultantly, prices of locally produced basic food necessities, are beyond the reach of more than 50% of the population. Imported food items are scarce and way beyond the purchasing capacity of a majority of the public. The education of the country’s children has been disrupted and brought to a near standstill due to unavailability of transport. Though efforts were made to make online education available, a study by ‘LIRNEasia’ reveals “less than half of all households with children in Sri Lanka can avail of e-learning opportunities.
“... Poorer, rural households are systematically worse off, in fact the number drops to 21% in the lowest socio-economic group”.The lack of fuel has resulted in economic activities coming to a near halt. Additionally it has adversely affected tea and rubber production - two of the largest exports of this country. As a result, the export earning was hit.

It is time therefore, the country begins taking its faltering first step to getting the economy back on its feet.  We need to ensure the new government commences negotiating with the IMF and the World Bank for a debt restructuring facility. We need to put in place measures to ensure friendly nations are able to provide us with life-saving assistance to help the nation rise out of the deep pit, which our politicians pushed this nation into.
In western countries, democracy and human rights play an important role regarding where aid goes. We therefore need, to ensure that, we are not seem to be continuing the brutal crackdowns committed against the JVP uprisings or in the crushing of the LTTE of yesteryear.

The unnecessary crackdown on the protesters on Thursday by the security forces together with the attack on journalists, including international correspondents is not a good harbinger for the new regime. The US and the EU have already expressed strong concern regarding the attack on unarmed demonstrators. The US Ambassador went even further visiting the site itself.
Whilst accepting the fact, the government has to restart the economic activities and negotiate a debt restructuring facility, it is the INALIENABLE RIGHT of the public to protest the sufferings forced on them by our politicians, one of whom is the new president himself. The new president needs to take action against wrongdoers who attacked pressmen and unarmed demonstrators urgently. He needs to ensure there is no repeat of such incidents in the future. A repetition may lead to the western nations on whom the president is depending on the help save the country, calling for commissions of inquiry rather than providing urgently needed help. Such a turn of events would spell disaster.