One looks in disbelief at what is happening in Sri Lanka and asks oneself: how did it come to this? Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his clan had placed themselves at the head of the small country, filling all important positions with family members and confidants, creating a system in which those on good terms benefited. A perspective for the country and the people? Never foresaw this system.
An agricultural reform that was pushed through a year ago and also celebrated abroad because it banned artificial fertilizers caused prices on the markets to rise. And so much so that the poor can no longer afford anything. Nor have they benefited from tax reform, which was just as hastily introduced to keep other voters happy.
The few who managed to get a job in the state apparatus benefited. This made it easier for them to get an apartment and later maybe even a comfortable pension. The Rajapaksa brothers built this apparatus with nefariousness and oiled it with money on credit.
Europe invested happily – without asking where the money was going
Admittedly, this way of doing politics was not entirely foreign to Sri Lanka, and there are also some states in the region that could soon find themselves in the same downward spiral. Small countries like Nepal and the Maldives, but also big ones like Bangladesh and Pakistan, whose collapse would concern the rest of the world much more. In all these countries, a system of borrowed money – much coming from China, some from India and from the financial markets – is kept alive.
The Indian government, which itself is struggling with poverty in the country, has repeatedly called on the European Union and the USA to scrutinize their investments in the region and to attach tough conditions. But many rich EU countries, including Germany, have preferred to invest without making regulations, especially in China. And from there the money flowed on to bridges and ports, railway lines and airports. The actual price that the emerging countries pay for the expansion of their infrastructure? They are now dependent on an autocratic state that many observers in the region see as a potentially greater threat than Russia.
Nuclear power Pakistan is directly dependent on the Politburo in Beijing
A principle has been established that might seem familiar to divorced parents: the child first asks mum, then dad, if it wants something, of course it promises cooperation and good behavior – and if things go well, in the end both parents get something out of the Ribs worn. A nuclear power like Pakistan is now directly dependent on the Politburo in Beijing and on Russian energy. And Sri Lanka, which survives only on Indian loans, has to think carefully about how independent it can be of Delhi in the future.
Unless Europeans start positioning themselves much more strongly in the region, get involved and only invest wisely, they will become irrelevant to well over half the world’s population. And if the international community doesn’t come up with a plan for future loan conditions, there will always be politicians who use this loophole to grease a machine for their personal gain. And neither the people in the affected country benefit from that – nor in the rest of the world.