Resignation in Sri Lanka: Rajapaksa leaves a country in crisis

Barriers and shots couldn’t stop them: Thousands of demonstrators stormed the presidential palace in Colombo yesterday. The resigned President leaves behind a run-down country.

The drone recordings of the news agencies show incredible images: the asphalt of the streets in the capital Colombo is no longer visible for all the people. Tens of thousands of demonstrators surrounded the President’s official residence yesterday, even though he had previously declared a curfew. Barriers, tear gas and gunshots, around 20,000 soldiers and police officers on duty: none of this could stop the people, they stormed the presidential palace.

Videos posted on social media show protesters jumping into the presidential swimming pool, pacing the hallways and stairwells, and handing out food from the kitchen. The goal of the angry people: to oust the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from office. A protester in a video tells Reuters news agency:

Worst economic crisis the country has ever seen

Most people in Sri Lanka have not only had to do without luxury in recent months, they are missing the bare essentials: hardly any medication, very little fuel, almost no cooking gas. Instead of working, they have to stand in line for days. As with the protests in recent weeks, several people have already died. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and can no longer pay its foreign debt.

The consequences of the corona pandemic ultimately drove the country into complete bankruptcy. But people mainly blame the president for the misery. Yesterday he fled on a naval ship just in time before the storming of the palace.

nepotism for decades

Rajapaksa is a military man through and through. “Terminator” is his nickname at home with the richest family of politicians in the country. He was defense minister in Sri Lanka for ten years, and in 2009 he and his brother ended the island’s civil war that had lasted more than 25 years. And his brother was also the country’s prime minister until recently, but resigned in April because of the protests.

Politics professor Jayadeva Uyangoda says they’ve practiced nepotism for decades. “Under them, Sri Lanka has become an oligarchy. Brothers, sons, just ten family members who sit in parliament.”

For months, Rajapaksa had clung to his office. He has now announced that he intends to step down next Wednesday. He leaves Sri Lanka in the worst economic crisis the country has ever seen.