Thousands of Sri Lankans have protested outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office, demanding that he and his brother, Mahinda, who is prime minister, quit for leading the island into its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
But as protesters seethed, the president and prime minister have changed tact in recent weeks. They havethey made that exacerbated the crisis, such as implementing a short-lived ban last year on importing chemical fertilizers that badly hurt farmers and conceding that they should have sought a bailout sooner.
The Rajapaksas were a powerful land-owning family which for decades dominated local elections in their rural southern district, before rising to the helm of national politics in 2005 when Mahinda was elected president. He remained in power until 2015, overseeing the end of the civil war against ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009, before losing to the opposition led by his former aide.
Tourism had dropped sharply after the bomb attacks and Sri Lanka needed badly to boost revenue to service a slew of foreign loans for splashy infrastructure projects. Some involved Chinese money and were commissioned under his brother’s presidency, but had failed to create profits, instead collecting debt.
The move triggered immediate punishment from the global market as creditors downgraded Sri Lanka’s ratings, making it impossible for it to borrow more money as its foreign exchange reserves continued to dwindle. Then the coronavirus hit, further crushing tourism as debts snowballed. “Their entire political ideology and credibility is in serious crisis,” said Jayadeva Uyangoda, a veteran political scientist.
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