report
As of: 07/16/2022 5:37 p.m
Sri Lanka has been in crisis for months. After the president’s resignation, people hope that someone will lead the country to a better future. Until then, they have to somehow deal with the emergency.
Mohamad Safar has not moved his tuk-tuk for seven days. The 42-year-old family man stands in a kilometer-long queue in front of the petrol station in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. A week ago it was said that a new petrol delivery would come – since then he has been waiting here day and night. Vain.
“I’m disgusted by the situation in the country. And also by my own situation,” he says. “I have no gas, I have no food.” That’s how it is for most people in the country. “Every day I come home maybe an hour or two. I spend the rest of the time here on the street.”
Because he has no petrol to transport guests, his family has almost no income. The cooking gas ran out long ago. His wife Razeema has been preparing the food over an open flame for weeks. Now the groceries in the six-person household are also becoming scarce. “We are suffering a lot. We can neither pay the water nor the electricity bill,” says Razeema. There would be other expenses as well. “At the moment we’re just about able to put very simple meals on the table.”
The three children are also feeling the effects of the crisis. You cannot go to school at the moment. Even for teachers there are hardly any transport options. And so most schools in Sri Lanka have been closed for weeks. “We are so lonely. We can learn something at school and play with friends,” says Safar’s youngest son, Anas. How long the schools will remain is not clear at this time.
Trust in politics is gone
The crisis has had Sri Lanka under control for months. Thousands of people have been demonstrating against the government for 100 days now. Last weekend, the population’s anger erupted in mass protests. Demonstrators stormed the presidential palace on Saturday and the prime minister’s office on Wednesday.
Even though former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has since announced his resignation and fled abroad, many top politicians are still clinging to their posts. Just like the previous Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe. He has taken over the office of President on an acting basis. Now he seems to have ambitions to continue it. Although he has long since fallen out of favor with the people.
“People have no choice but to be angry. They’re disappointed, disgusted. That’s why they’re taking to the streets,” says Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, founder of the Center for Political Alternatives in Colombo. “But what is the government doing? They just say that a group of fascists is demonstrating to take power away from them.”
Sri Lanka needs a fresh start
Saravanamuttu has been involved in Sri Lankan politics for several decades. Mismanagement, corruption and constant new billions in loans have driven the country into ruin, so that it is now almost bankrupt. What the island nation desperately needs, says the political analyst, is a fresh start with politicians willing to overhaul the system from the ground up.
“We have to manage to change our mentality. We need extensive economic reforms. All of this will be a huge challenge. But without hope, without the will to really tackle things, we won’t make any progress here,” he says.
“No one hires me”
Back in the fuel line where Safar is still waiting for gas. Night has fallen. Once again the promises didn’t come true, once again no supplies came. With every additional day without fuel, he loses more and more confidence. “For us, petrol means that we can earn money. We need it. It’s our only chance. We can’t find a job anywhere else, nobody hires me. That’s the situation we live in here,” he says.
His only hope for the future: that a new president, who could be elected by parliament as early as Wednesday, will finally find a solution to the crisis.