Saner counsel prevails amid financial crises - EDITORIAL

Our country is wrestling with its worst economic crisis since Independence in 1948. Presently foreign currency reserves sit at their lowest level on record due to what many see as gross economic mismanagement and corruption by Government, resulting in a dire financial crisis on multiple fronts, triggered partially by the impact of Covid-19, which battered the economy, as well as mounting foreign debts.  
At the same time, we are facing a political; crisis on a scale never witnessed before.   

The country is facing a shortage of fuel, cooking gas, food, basic medicines, a skyrocketing cost of living and galloping inflation of around or over 25%.   
At the same time wages remain stagnant or have been halved. Small and medium-term industries are closing down and many people are being thrown out of employment  
There is barely a citizen in the country who hasn’t felt the bite of catastrophic inflation, fuel, food and medicine shortages over the past month or more.  
For the farming community, their problems began in April last year when President Rajapaksa, who now stands accused of pushing the country into financial ruin, implemented an ill-conceived plan to suddenly ban the importation of chemical fertiliser.   

Making matters worse the Government appears to have run out of ideas as to how they can tackle the worsening crisis.   
In turn, this has led to all sections of the population irrespective of racial, ethnic and religious differences- taking to the streets and demanding the Government be dissolved.   
A situation summed up in the cry -’ Gota go home’.   

The President and his Government were equally adamant in refusing to meet the Opposition halfway.   
The intransigence of the Government led to trade unions calling for a ‘hartal’ which brought the country to a standstill two days ago.  
With the poorest of the poor being worst hit and pushed toward pauperisation, political parties which were steadfastly refusing to negotiate, seem to be coming to their senses.  
The Daily Mirror on Saturday (7 May), reported President Rajapaksa at a special cabinet meeting had asked his Premier to step down, to pave the way for the formation of an interim multi-party Government.  
The report has as yet not been denied.  

Later the same day the leader of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) -the main Parliamentary Opposition political party- announced that in light of the worsening country situation, they would be willing to join in the effort to form a multi-party interim regime.  
This bodes well for the country.   
The refusal to negotiate forced various trade unions to call for work stoppages in different fields which not only hit the poorer sections of the country hardest but also threatens to adversely affect the country’s second-largest foreign exchange earner -tourism- very badly.   

An example is when immigration officials refused to man their desks causing havoc to incoming tourists.  
In light of the fact that our national debt amounts to over 64.23 billion US dollars and tourism, revenues averaged 179.09 USD Million from 2009 until 2022, reaching an all-time high of 475.20 USD Million in December of 2018 the country can ill-afford causing even the smallest damage to this very important segment of our economy, especially as income from tea exports -the largest income earner- has dropped to its lowest levels in 23 years.  
The tea trade used to bring in US$ 1,3 billion annually until the present downturn in the economy -again a fallout of the not-so-clever fertiliser import ban last year to save foreign currency. 

The Sunday Island- revealed first-quarter tea exports dropped to 63.7 million kgs as compared to 69.8 million kg in the January to March period last year. Earnings dropped to $287 million this year from $338 million during the same period last year.  
It is therefore imperative, that politicians, even at this late stage put aside their ambitions of financial aggrandisement and power politics and work toward making an effort to help Lanka climb out of the morass they have severally and jointly cast her into.