The road to Hambantota may be paved with Chinese money, but its value is being debated. Nestled among the paddy fields and coconut palms of Sri Lanka’s deep south, the place is known as the stronghold of the Rajapaksa clan, who have spent years using borrowed money to build monuments of their own. The lesser-used Matala Rajapakse International Airport, the often overgrown Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium, and the memorial to Rajapaksa’s elders that were burned and destroyed by a furious mob of protesters on May 9, testament to the horrific waste that Is.
The statue of Mahinda, a former member of parliament and father of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and recently resigned Prime Minister, was also targeted. It is now lying on the ground, covered in torn tarpaulins. The clock tower in his home town of Veerketiya has been demolished, with “Gota Go Home” spray-painted on it. Once upon a time, it was unimaginable to see this sentiment expressed in the Rajapaksa citadel. While some locals say the infrastructure projects have created jobs, others swear they will no longer stand up for what they see as such a blatant misuse of public funds.
Less than 10 km away, local farmers and traders prepare for the worst. The president’s decision last May to switch to organic farming by banning chemical fertilizer imports took everyone by surprise and hurt the agriculture sector. The ban was lifted six months later, but by then, the damage had been done – yields had plummeted and Sri Lanka had plunged into a food and foreign reserve crisis that ended in its default on 19 May. “She destroyed her own village with that decision,” says Anura Vidana Arichi, a cinnamon farmer and local opposition leader, pointing to the rice paddies. Farming for now. Only 10% will be planted next season, and even then we don’t know what will grow without fertilizer.”
Since inflation was close to 40% last week, the government urged farmers to plant rice. This effort to avoid an ever deeper food crisis will have little effect; There is no money to import fertilizer and without it, the island would not produce anything close to the crops to feed its 22 million people. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned of an acute shortage of food by September, while the president has asked officials to stock up on essentials.
The South Asian nation needs up to $4 billion to see it through its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. Negotiations are ongoing with the IMF and major bilateral creditors, China, Japan and India, but it will take a lot to clear their tens of billions of foreign debt and capital market borrowings for unprofitable infrastructure projects and the tangled web of Chinese debt. The Rajapaksa government’s decision to cut taxes in 2019, especially for the wealthy and corporations, resulted in an annual revenue deficit of $2.2 billion. The new arrangement is trying to reverse that decision to meet the IMF’s bailout conditions.
In Colombo, doctors and lawyers have made an unprecedented push to persuade the government to make real reforms. An urgent letter sent to the country’s diplomatic community in April marked an alarming shortfall in the medical supply chain of 273 critical items, prompting embassies and high commissions to act quickly. Some drug donations arrived and anesthesia stocks were temporarily replenished, but most elective surgeries have been canceled due to the crisis.
The anger of the people is clearly visible. People have seen politicians’ mansions and luxury cars and all those ruined billions, and now they are feeling the pain of missing out in every aspect of their lives.
A court case accusing the president of misusing nearly $91,000 in public funds to build a museum for his parents was dropped shortly after his election in November 2019. There are other serious charges against the Rajapaksa family and their associates, including money laundering, the illegal transfer of state-owned weapons worth millions, and a separate case of mismanagement and corruption at Sri Lankan Airlines. Bhai denies all claims of corruption.
There is still no accountability of those who put the country in such trouble. A movement to withdraw the extraordinary powers granted to him by the president and to ban dual citizens in seats in parliament is already receiving pushback from another Rajapaksa brother, no less. Basil Rajapaksa, who oversaw the country’s economic downturn as finance minister, is also an American citizen, so he is fighting for his career. His volunteering move aimed at preserving power, rather than stabilizing the country, will only fuel outrage. So should It’s time to put Sri Lanka first and Rajapaksa second.
Ruth Pollard is the editor of Bloomberg Opinion.