Dream – The iron barricade erected by the Sri Lankan army did not diminish the courage of the demonstrators. The angry masses who took to the streets on Saturday, July 9, 2022, continued to pour in from all directions. Their numbers reached hundreds of thousands of people. They surrounded the Presidential Palace of Sri Lanka in the capital city of Colombo from all sides. The army tried to contain the incoming masses by firing tear gas and spraying water.

But the determination of the masses is firm. One by one, they remove the barricades that obstruct them. In fact, the masses are able to occupy the mass control vehicles belonging to the authorities in charge of spraying water on the masses. The number of soldiers on guard is not balanced with the number of masses coming. As a result, the security forces' defense crumbles. The masses then invade the Sri Lanka Presidential Palace, which has always been known as closed and inaccessible to just anyone.

Finally, the crowd overflowed inside the Palace. They decided to enter the swimming pool. Some went into the bedroom and took selfies on the bed. Or relaxed on the luxurious sofa usually occupied by the President and his family. There were also people sitting at the meeting table. Playing cards on the living room table. Or trying out the gym equipment in the sports room. The crowd truly took over the Presidential Palace. A video of the crowd's actions inside the Palace went viral and spread widely on social media.

The atmosphere is truly festive. Similar to when the masses stormed the Malacanang Palace in the Philippines and ousted President Ferdinand Marcos from the country in 1986. In Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa - like Marcos - was also forced to flee from the palace and his country. He initially escaped to the Maldives, but after being driven away from the palace by the masses, Rajapaksa fled to Singapore. On Thursday, July 14, 2022, he sent his resignation letter as president via email to the speaker of parliament, five days later.

Not satisfied with storming the palace, on the night, the crowd also stormed the private residence of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Despite being tried to be expelled through tear gas shots by security forces, the crowd managed to enter and burn the private residence of the senior politician appointed Gotabaya Rajapaksa since last May. The private house was completely destroyed. After Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned, Ranil Wickremesinghe was then appointed by parliament as the interim President of Sri Lanka since July 15, 2022.

Although Wickremesinghe is supported by a ruling coalition led by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) nationalist party, demonstrators have called for Wickremesinghe to resign before the presidential election is held. And, in a secret ballot on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, the Sri Lankan parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has served as Prime Minister six times, as the new President of Sri Lanka.

The appointment of the new president occurred amidst an unprecedented economic crisis in the country. With inflation soaring above 50%, it has pushed over 2 million people from the 22 million population below the poverty line and caused widespread shortages in essential goods such as food, fuel, and medicine. The scarcity of these goods has itself triggered mass protests since March 2022.

The demonstrators have held a protest condemning the economic crisis for over 100 days before finally storming into the Presidential Palace of Sri Lanka on July 9, 2022. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as President in 2019 and began serving a few years after his brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, served as president from 2005-2014.

After his election, Gotabaya appointed his brother Mahinda as Prime Minister. Mahinda resigned in May of this year, as an effort to calm protests while keeping his younger brother in power. Gotabaya has also appointed other members of his family to key positions. His brother Basil Rajapaksa was appointed as Minister of Finance, Minister of Irrigation was held by Chamal Rajapaksa, and Minister of Sports and Youth was also held by Namal Rajapaksa.

The protesters blame the Rajapaksa family — a politically powerful dynasty with significant influence in Sri Lanka over the past two decades — for mismanagement and corruption that have plunged Sri Lanka into an economic crisis. "Income streams have declined but the cost of living has almost doubled," said Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political economist at the University of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. "People are asking: why is this happening to us? What went wrong?"

Sri Lanka has long received good scores in health and education development indicators, considering its free healthcare and education policies. However, the country is mismanaged economically. The impact of the pandemic on tourism, the war in Ukraine driving up food and fuel prices, and the government's policy to ban chemical fertilizers all contribute to the crisis experienced by this country.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused Sri Lanka to close its borders for over a year, resulting in a massive economic blow to the country that heavily relies on its tourism sector. In March 2020, the Sri Lankan government knew the situation was dire, according to experts. "They could have started limiting imports at that time to save foreign reserves, but both the government and the opposition were unwilling to do so. Because they were so trapped in the paradigm of trade liberalization from the World Bank and IMF, touching imports was a taboo until you really couldn't," said Kadirgamar.

On the contrary, the central bank started printing more money to deal with the depletion of foreign reserves caused by the decline in tourism, thus triggering record levels of inflation. Then, in an effort to save money and steer the country towards organic farming, the government banned chemical fertilizers as a widely criticized measure. The ban lasted from April to November 2021 and resulted in a drastic reduction in harvest yields and triggered food price inflation nationwide. The policy was eventually lifted after riots broke out.

Sri Lanka then failed to pay its debt for the first time in the history of the country, which was established in April 2022.***The evening was quite hot at Galle Face Green, the center of the youth protest movement in Sri Lanka. Above the sea of tents, the voice of a woman singing a unique struggle song could be heard. For months, these protesters have been at the forefront of the Aragaya movement, which consists of millions of people -- named after the Sinhala word for "struggle." They are the ones calling for the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The people of Sri Lanka consider Gotabaya and his brother, former president Mahinda, responsible for the destruction of their country's economy. With the departure of Rajapaksa, protesters have shifted their attention to Ranil Wickremesinghe, an unpopular former prime minister who now serves as the new president. He is seen as someone who has a close relationship with Rajapaksa.

The strength of the Aragaya movement lies in its organic and leaderless nature. That is what makes it so effective in spontaneous mass uprisings. However, it also makes it difficult to predict or control. In the past few months, the demonstrators have burned down the homes of parliament members, as well as the personal residence of Wickremesinghe and the ancestral home of Rajapaksa. But no matter the tough choices that lie ahead for the people of Sri Lanka in the coming days and weeks, they have achieved a lot.

The people's uprising for the first time has brought together three major communities - Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim - for a common purpose. Men, women, children, Buddhist monks, Christian priests and nuns, as well as Muslim businessmen, all joined together. They expelled the president from the Palace. *** On June 21, 2022, hundreds of tuk-tuk riders (similar to bajaj), motorcycles, cars, and buses lined up at a gas station on the outskirts of Kurunduwatta, Colombo, a tree-filled neighborhood with old houses.

While the tuk-tuk drivers chat with each other as they stand near their three-wheeled vehicles, the motorbike riders browse their phones. Flies and mosquitoes buzz around them in the scorching heat. They have all taken time off from their work and daily responsibilities to wait for days on end to fill up their tanks.

"Kami berhasil selamat dari pandemi, tetapi kondisi sekarang ini lebih buruk," kata Sarath Nanayyakara, seorang sopir bus sekolah swasta berusia 61 tahun, yang telah dipaksa untuk menjual barang-barang berharga dan mengambil pinjaman untuk bertahan hidup selama beberapa bulan terakhir. "Jika saya bekerja selama dua hari, saya harus mengantre selama dua hari lagi untuk mengisi tangki.""Dari gaji bulanan saya sebesar 50.000 rupee (Rp 2 juta)], saat ini saya menghabiskan 30.000 rupee untuk bahan bakar," kata Morgan Anusha, seorang akuntan berusia 28 tahun yang mengandalkan sepeda motornya untuk berangkat kerja setiap hari. "

The fuel supply of the country has been restricted since May, but in recent weeks, the scarcity has escalated into a major crisis. On June 27, the government announced that the country only has a limited amount of fuel and will provide supply for essential services such as public transportation and the healthcare sector, limiting it for others.

Schools have been closed. Interprovincial bus services are limited. Many people have been asked to work from home. The country is at a standstill until the next fuel delivery arrives on July 22. As Vagisha Gunasekara, an economist at the United Nations Development Programme in Sri Lanka, said, "Fuel crisis has crippled the economy." Fuel shortage is just one part of the economic crisis that has turned daily life upside down in this country.

For months, the people of Sri Lanka have been facing shortages of fuel, gas, and medicines, as well as skyrocketing inflation - now around 55 percent - which drastically increases the cost of living. Sri Lanka has long experienced a current account deficit. Although the country established a ready-made garment sector in the 1980s, overall it has failed to diversify its exports, which are mostly limited to colonial-era commodities such as tea, rubber, and coconut.

While government spending has increased over the years, tax revenue as a percentage of GDP has declined since the 1990s due to the government's failure to implement progressive tax policies, resulting in budget deficits. Experts point to a close relationship between businesspeople, politicians, and bureaucrats, creating a class of officials who are unwilling to burden their political allies. This country also has a problem with foreign debt, which has worsened over the past decade.

The current foreign debt obligation amounts to approximately U$ 51 billion or Rp 764 trillion, up from U$ 22 billion in 2010. Recently, Sri Lanka stated that it only has remaining foreign reserves of U$ 50 million or Rp 750 billion. When Rajapaksa took over in 2019, he implemented a series of tax cuts for populist reasons, thus worsening the budget deficit. The following year, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Sri Lanka's tourism industry, which is a stronghold of the national economy.

"In 2020, Sri Lanka lost access to international markets. The government then refused to restructure its debt and used funds from reserves to pay off the debt. In March 2022, the government had no reserve plan and no dollars to import basic necessities. In April 2022, Sri Lanka failed to repay its debt. The International Monetary Fund held discussions in Colombo in June—discussing several reforms with the government, including anti-corruption measures, before potential support—but no real negotiations have taken place."

The economic crisis has devastated the lives and livelihoods of the community. In addition to long queues for fuel, gas for cooking, and kerosene, there is a significant shortage of basic necessities. Every day, there is a one-hour power outage across the island. The prices of staple goods such as rice and fish have skyrocketed. Vegetable prices have more than doubled. In 2021, Rajapaksa banned chemical fertilizers in an effort to transition Sri Lanka fully to organic farming.

The prohibition has resulted in a sharp decline in harvest yields. Since then, farmers have had to pay for chemical fertilizers, which were previously free, and the number of active farmers has decreased. While the policy has been abandoned, the agricultural system has not yet recovered. The healthcare sector in Sri Lanka, which has been affected by the pandemic, is also suffering. There is a shortage of medicines, especially for heart, stroke, and cancer patients.

In certain hospitals, routine surgeries are postponed and only emergency surgeries are allowed. Some cancer doctors have to seek donations from abroad to obtain the necessary medications for treatment. Many patients are forced to seek previously free medicines from private pharmacies at exorbitant prices. There are also significant barriers to education. Schools have been closed because students and teachers cannot access public or private transportation due to recent fuel shortages.

The university has suspended face-to-face classes, and online classes are facing regular disruptions from daily power outages and issues with internet service providers. Now, in September 2023, the recovery of bankrupt Sri Lanka's economy is "uncertain." The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned after the first review of a $2.9 billion or Rp 45 trillion bailout aimed at improving the finances of the devastated island nation.

The economic collapse last year has triggered food, fuel, and medicine shortages, as well as civil unrest for months that eventually toppled the then-president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has raised taxes and eliminated energy subsidies, but the IMF says that the country's income is still below expectations.

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has indeed caused a political crisis. It is clear that when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to leave the palace by the masses, it is not impossible for his successor to face a similar fate. Complicated. (eha)Source: Al Jazeera, Time, BBC, Washington Post, Foreign Policy