Newsman: Sri Lankan protesters occupied the entrance to the president’s office for a second day on Sunday, demanding Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign over the debt-ridden country’s worst economic crisis in memory. thousands of angry cries and anti-government slogans filled the streets of the Sri Lankan city Colombo on Saturday. The rallying cry of the protests has been “Gota go home”, a reference to his dual US citizenship. The crisis and protests triggered the Cabinet’s resignation last Sunday. His entire cabinet resigned last week And more than 40 politicians defected from his ruling coalition to become independent, with one warning that “if we don’t act now, there will be a river of blood in the country”. But Rajapaksa has insisted he has no intention of resigning.Four ministers were sworn in as caretakers but much of the key portfolios are vacant.
Hundreds of demonstrators weathered heavy rain with raincoats and umbrellas and chanted anti-government slogans. Some called for the entire Parliament to disband to make way for a younger leadership
Rajapaksa proposed the creation of a unity government but the main opposition party rejected the idea. Parliament has failed to reach a consensus on how to deal with the crisis after nearly 40 governing coalition lawmakers said they would no longer vote according to coalition instructions, significantly weakening the government.
Many fears that Sri Lanka is facing political deadlock as, under its system, Rajapaksa cannot be voted out by parliament. The main opposition party is preparing a no-confidence motion against his party in parliament. The opposition’s aim is that, with the president in a weakened position, he will either step down or accept legislation that will reduce his powers, enabling them to form a new government out of his grasp.
The impacts of Sri Lanka’s financial meltdown have barely left a corner of the country unscathed. There are the power cuts darkening homes and shop fronts for up to eight hours daily and forcing people to cook on scavenged wood while miles-long queues form outside petrol stations. School exams and newspapers have had to be cancelled because the government and media houses can’t afford the paper to print them on. Doctors have declared a medical crisis as pharmacies and hospitals are empty of crucial drugs, and warnings have been issued that starvation could be imminent for the country’s 22 million residents as food supplies dwindle. In Colombo, police stand at road junctions because the traffic lights have been turned off.
But nowhere can the seismic shift in the country be felt more than out on the streets. In recent weeks, protests unlike anything seen in Sri Lanka’s history have taken place across the country, driven not by an organised movement but fuelled instead by a collective rage at the politicians they blame for driving their country into the ground, leading many to describe it as “Sri Lanka’s Arab spring”.
The wrath of the protesters across the country has mainly been targeted at Rajapaksa, the country’s strongman president who was elected in 2019 on the back of a fierce nationalist agenda. Part of Sri Lanka’s most powerful family, and in charge of the military during the final years of the civil war – in which he is accused of committing war crimes – he was long the most feared man in national politics.
In the past two years, he amended the constitution to strengthen his own executive powers and five of his family members took up senior government posts, including his brother Mahinda, who is prime minister.
But his government’s devastating economic decisions since taking power – including scrapping austerity measures when he came into power, cutting taxes to just 8% of GDP, printing vast amounts of money pushing up inflation, refusing to restructure the country’s mounting foreign debt and using up all the foreign reserves – have now made him the most derided man in Sri Lankan politics.
