Sri Lankan papers run out of newsprint; the economic crisis exacerbates, there is no food, electricity, fuel, people are fighting to survive.
Tourism, COVID and Already Deep Debt destroyed Economy
The South Asian nation Sri Lanka of 22 million Sri Lankan people are facing their most catastrophic economic downfall since independence from Britain in 1948 after its foreign reserves hit rock bottom. Sri Lanka depends heavily on imports such as essentials like sugar, daal, petroleum, paper, medicines, cement and other products and the depletion of foreign currency has hit these imports heavily.
The tourism industry, which represents over 10% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and brings in foreign exchange, has been destroyed by COVID-19 affected the Forex reserves of over $7.5 billion in 2019 to drop to around $2.8 billion in July 2021.
With the economic crisis surging in Sri Lanka, Indian officials say the 2,000 to 4,000 refugees may land in Tamil Nadu. India also earlier announced another $1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka when the Sri Lankan Finance Minister (FM) Basil Rajapaksa made a trip to New Delhi — his second in four months.
Notably, the meltdown has been driven by a shortage of foreign currency, which has led to a reduction in the imports of essential items, rising food prices, a depreciating currency, and crushing Forex reserves. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of various essential goods.
It is also said that the Russian Ukrainian war hit the $81 billion economy in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankans Face the Fire
The Sri Lankan government has had to cancel all examinations for schools for millions of children simply because they didn’t have paper. There have been long queues of people waiting to buy food and fuel. Angry protests have also exploded out on the streets.
The Rajapakse family (Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s family) is accused of selling Sri Lanka off to foreign powers to stay in power for a few more years. They blame the corruption, genocide, violence, and now the worst economic crisis in 7 decades. This government is not for the people. Are we finally realizing this or are you going to continue saying “all is fine in Sri Lanka?
Motorists have to queue at gasoline pumps and at least four people have died in the past week while waiting long hours to top up.
Energy ministry officials said they managed to raise $42m by Friday to pay for a cargo of diesel and aviation fuel, held up at the Colombo port for nearly two weeks because there were no dollars to pay for it.
Kamalika Banerjee from India wrote on Twitter, “Just spoke to a friend in Sri Lanka. There is no gas/fuel, 10-hour power outage every day in Colombo. She mostly eats frozen bread, uses the hot plate occasionally. This is an upper-middle-class woman. The plight of the poor is unimaginable. Why no global outrage over this?
Just spoke to a friend in Sri Lanka.There is no gas/fuel, 10 hour power outage every day in Colombo. She mostly eats frozen bread, uses the hot plate occasionally. This is an upper-middle class woman. The plight of the poor is unimaginable. Why no global outrage over this?
— Kamalika Banerjee (@kamalikasonai) March 27, 2022
Two major Sri Lankan newspapers are suspending their print editions because of a lack of paper, their owner said, the latest casualties in the island nation’s economic crisis. Other main national dailies have also reduced pages after costs soared by more than a third in the past five months and because of difficulties securing supplies from abroad.
The dollar shortage has caused energy shortages affecting all sectors and led to skyrocketing prices with inflation at a record 17.5 percent in February, the fifth consecutive monthly high.
Earlier this month, the government allowed the rupee to depreciate and announced it will seek an IMF bailout to restructure its foreign debt.
Sri Lanka needs nearly $7bn to service its external debt this year while the country’s foreign reserves have hit $2.3bn, down from $7.5bn when the current government came to power in November 2019.
Anger from Sri Lankans
There is anger everywhere and protesters are shouting slogans against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in front of Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. Here are some of the comments from the anguished Sri Lankan citizens:
Protest marches organized by the #Socialist Youth Union (SYU), the youth wing of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (#Communists) in Colombo against the Government for its failure to control the rising cost of living and demanding to solve the economic crisis.
Protest march organized by the #Socialist Youth Union (SYU), the youth wing of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (#Communists) in Colombo against the Government for its failure to control the rising cost of living and demanding to solve the economic crisis.#SriLankaEconomicCrisis pic.twitter.com/f0x8JuGjK9
— Spartacus 🇮🇳🇵🇸🇻🇳🇷🇺🇨🇺 (@SDey83) March 27, 2022
How its started. V. How it’s going. #SriLankaEconomicCrisis pic.twitter.com/aY0G6w61ai
— Ejaz Hasan 🫶🏻 (@_ejazhasan) March 21, 2022
Srilankan political officials have to pay the price for the decisions they took then,that led to current scenario#SriLankaEconomicCrisis #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/KKI4mbPTtK
— Ajay (@Ajaytweets0o) March 21, 2022
The collective development #srilanka has had. #SriLankaEconomicCrisis pic.twitter.com/zUh8S25bb8
— Angelo T de Silva (@angelotdesilva) March 25, 2022
A Sri Lankan wrote, “This was yesterday at Gampola. People are so frustrated being lied to by the government. I don’t see any effort made by the government to solve this situation. How long this can go on without converting it to a riot?”
This was yesterday at Gampola. People are so frustrated being lied to by the government. I don't see any effort made by the government to solve this situation. How long this can go on without converting it to a riot?#lka #SrilankaCrisis #EconomicCrisisLK #SriLankaEconomicCrisis pic.twitter.com/DyCW762U6H
— Prasad Welikumbura (@Welikumbura) March 27, 2022
To top it all, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa own policies is heading towards the road of bigotry causing minorities to fear him are working against him. It is said he is an “unforgiving, ruthless man’: Muslims and Tamils tell that the memories of Rajapaksa family’s rule, connected with his recent comments, are ‘chilling’. Notably, Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa oversaw the brutal operation that ended the civil war but left 40000 dead.