Colombo: Most Sri Lankan businesses and schools were closed, and public transport was disrupted on Thursday as activists joined a general strike and called on the president to step down over the island’s growing economic and political crisis.
Angered by skyrocketing inflation, stalled imports of fuel, medicines and food, and hours of power cuts, people have been protesting since last month demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government.
United trade unions and mass organizations, which represent labor groups in the public and private sector, said in a statement on Wednesday that they were calling for the removal of the government, which had made “life difficult for the general public”. .
Bankers, teachers, public transport workers and other professionals flocked to the main protest site next to the presidential office in the capital Colombo, where protesters have gathered for weeks.
“Today we started a one-day symbolic strike. We are made up of employees from 54 banking organizations,” Channa Dissanayake, president of the Ceylon Bank Employees Union, told Arab News.
“What started as an economic breakdown has become a political breakdown, and has now become a social breakdown. The newly appointed governor of the central bank has temporarily put a moratorium on debt repayments. Although no one wants to say this, But it means we have gone bankrupt. What’s left to talk about? We need a complete revamp.”
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948 and is about to default on its loans. The country of 22 million has suspended repayments on its foreign debt, of which $7 billion was due this year, and currently has foreign reserves of less than $1 billion.
Government officials say they are discussing rescue plans and loan repayments with the International Monetary Fund.
According to bankers, it is too late.
“It is a big tragedy that has come to the fore in the country. Economists had long warned that this would happen, but they did not listen. Economists asked to go to the IMF, but they didn’t. Everything is broken now,” Disnayke said.
“As a responsible trade union, we have stepped in to say that we want a change in the system.”
Medical workers also joined the strike, but they did not suspend their services.
“While we have decided not to stop work today, we are lifting and demonstrating, and are fully in support of trade union action,” Dr Naveen de Soyza, assistant secretary of the Government Medical Officers Association, told Arab News told.
The doctors went on strike for only two hours during the lunch break.
“The only reason we haven’t stopped work is because it is the patients who will suffer. They are already facing shortage of medicines and other supplies. But if the government does not listen to the people, then we will have to consider the next option and take a difficult decision,” De Soyza said.
“The government should listen to what people are saying. People want the government to fall.
The striking unions have announced that they will hold a massive protest on 6 May if their demands are not met.
Rajapaksa reshuffled his cabinet and offered a unity government to quell the protests, but opposition parties refused to be part of a setup led by the president and his brother.
Rajapaksa is the most influential political dynasty in the country. The president’s elder brother, Mahinda, serves as the prime minister, while the younger brother, Tulsi, was the finance minister until his resignation earlier this month.