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Gotabaya Rajapaksa: Desperado of Sri Lankan economy

Meer Moniruzzaman || BusinessInsider

Published: 17:05, 29 April 2022   Update: 17:05, 29 April 2022
Gotabaya Rajapaksa: Desperado of Sri Lankan economy

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Photo: Collected

Schools without exams, hospitals without OT and life-saving medicine, a newspaper without papers, and a government without a majority are impossible everywhere but it may be possible in Sri Lanka.

The country is now on the brink of a serious economic crisis. People are starving, dying in the queues waiting for fuel and essential foods. High-profile economists all over the world are now trying to find out the reason behind the crisis.

However, the perception of common people of the island country is very direct, very candid, and nonpolitical. They just blame their President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. People in Sri Lanka call him Gota. They believe Gota is the wagging hero of devastated Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is known as a terminator to his family. Retired Lt Colonel Gota is the cruellest man in Sri Lanka. Tamil people call him a devil. They think he can kill people without blinking an eye. He was allegedly the mastermind of the Muslim and Tamil cleansing mission. The White Van policy was his brainchild. Most people also claimed him to be a self-destructive person who did everything to destroy his country.

Recently, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya admitted his mistakes and said he should not have banned chemical fertilisers in an attempt to make Sri Lankan agriculture fully organic. He also said, “In the last two and a half years, we had to face vast challenges. There was the Covid-19 pandemic, the debt burden, and some mistakes on our part. Now we need to regain the trust of the people."

Can Gota regain the trust? Confidence is a very fragile thing. When it evaporates, it usually evaporates quickly. It is hard to get it back once it is lost. To repair the economic crisis, the country needs enough cash and enough authority. It is a far cry from the Gota government.

Again foreign policy should have a big change. It is very noticeable that in the last couple of years Sri Lanka has been marked by a series of missteps, misdeeds, and misfires.

Raja Paksha's government-supported China and openly criticised western countries. The government was desperate to criticise even the United Nations. They didn't bother about America and global development agencies like the World Bank, IMF, and other foreign agencies. Now common people have to pay the price for his mistakes.

Financial experts say the government's ban on imported fertilisers had badly hurt farmers, triggered a food crisis, and had a big effect on exports. They also blamed the government for taking large loans for infrastructure projects which have not brought in any money. The tax cut plan was rampant for the economy that impacted GDP negatively by around 12 percent.

The young generation is very vocal against the present government. Dinesh from Colombo castigated his President on the street. He said to the global media, “I voted for Gota and I thought he was a lion. Now I can see that he is worse than a dog. He has dragged this country down into the gutter and we are all suffering."

On the other hand, common people in Sri Lanka believe that they are passing through a very unique problem. The economy has gone into free fall. Now many people can barely afford three meals a day. Common people are just fed up with long-simmering frustration over politics, leaders, and government. They are also sick of the corruption, nepotism, and ultra-nationalism policy of the government. They are now protesting against the government on the street. But the terminator does not feel to pay heed to the demand of the people.

Moreover, the business community is very fearful of the present situation. There is a grave concern for the survival of the private sector. The private sector cannot continue its production without power, gas, and raw materials. People are losing jobs every day and industries will face devastating consequences if the situation continues.

Some people claimed the “white van” policy is mostly responsible for the Easter Sunday attack and that drives the present situation. The white van is a big horror for Muslim and Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The mission took a big role in the disappearance of 40,000 people in the last 17 years. The government made a secret list of anti-government people. The White van mission had helped to implement the government's minority cleansing plan. The white van mission was just white vans without number plates that picked the people forcefully and dumped them forever.

Sri Lanka has been facing a serious economic and humanitarian crisis. Easter Sunday series bombs hit the economy like a thunderstorm and it is still reeling. The government tried to restore economic stability but failed to do so.

Sri Lanka is a middle-income country with 2.2 crore people. Just five years back, the island country's economy was just flying. Sri Lankan economy was global headlines for booming tourism sectors and mega infrastructure projects. Now the country has nosedived into a serious economic crisis with more than $50 billion in external loans whereas the GDP is $81 billion.

Also, the foreign exchange reserve has declined to near $1.6 billion. Presently, the country is unable to repay foreign debt as well as import payments. In this situation, there is no fuel, no electricity, and no medicine for the people. Again, there is an acute food shortage and its prices are going sky-high.

Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019, was a black day for Sri Lanka. On that day three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo were targeted in a series of suicide bombings. A total of 269 people were killed including at least 45 foreign nationals. There was the billion-dollar question, why did Islamist militants plot the attack in Sri Lanka? Tamil and Muslim people claimed it was a revolt after 30 years of organised oppression of Tamil and Muslim people. The ultra-nationalist Sinhalese and Buddhist activists, bloody monks and Raja Paksha family are mostly responsible for the present situation in Sri Lanka.

 

The writer is the editor of the daily Share Biz. The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. He can be reached at [email protected].

Nagad
Walton