2022 Sri Lankan political crisis

The 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis is an ongoing political crisis in Sri Lanka due to the power struggle between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Parliament of Sri Lanka. The crisis was fuelled by the anti-government protests and demonstrations by the public and also due to the worsening Economy of Sri Lanka since 2019. The anti-government sentiment across various parts of Sri Lanka has triggered an unprecedented political instability creating shockwaves in political arena.[1]

2022 Sri Lankan political crisis
Protesters protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat
Date3 April 2022 – present
Location
Sri Lanka
Caused by2022 Sri Lankan protests
economic crisis
StatusPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa refuses to step down despite the calls from protestors and opposition to impeach the President.
Lead figures
Gotabaya Rajapaksa
(President of Sri Lanka)
Mahinda Rajapaksa
(Prime Minister of Sri Lanka)		 Sajith Premadasa
(Leader of the Opposition, Leader of Samagi Jana Balawageya)

The political crisis began on 3 April 2022, after all 26 members of the Second Gotabaya Rajapaksa cabinet with the exception of Prime Minister Rajapaksa resigned en masse overnight. However, critics noted that the resignation was not valid as they did not follow the constitutional protocol and thus deemed it a "sham,"[2][3][4] and several were reinstated in different ministries the next day.[5] There were even growing calls on forming a caretaker government to run the country or else to go for snap elections but the latter option was deemed unviable due to paper shortages and concerns over election expenditure which would often cost in billions.[6]

Protestors have taken to streets to show their anger and displeasure over the mismanagement of the economy by the government and the protestors urged the President Gotabaya to immediately step down for a political change.[7] However, Gotabaya was adamant and refused to step down.[8][9][10] Main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya had determined to abolish the 20th amendment by bringing a private members Bill in order to scrap the executive powers of Executive Presidency.[11]

Background

Post 2019 and 2020 elections

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna recorded a landslide victory with a majority during the 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election. The SLPP party gained the support of majority Sinhala Buddhists which was the election manifesto by the party during its election campaign.[12][13] The SLPP government gained the majority support also due to the handling of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.[14] Gotabaya was elected as the 7th Executive President of Sri Lanka during the 2019 presidential election who won with a majority of 6.9 million votes.[15] He cemented his popularity as a strong man due to his military background and also due to his role as defense secretary in ending the 26 year Sri Lankan Civil War in May 2009.[16]

He also gained enormous public support when he was nominated as presidential candidate for the 2019 elections especially after Sri Lanka was still reeling from the shockwaves aftermath the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.[17] The government was formed with former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa being appointed as the Prime Minister. Most of the Rajapaksa family members in addition to President and Prime Minister secured important ministerial portfolios in the newly formed government in 2020. Chamal Rajapaksa was appointed as Minister of Agriculture, Namal Rajapaksa was appointed as Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Basil Rajapaksa was appointed as Minister of Finance. The opposition accused the government for nepotism with five of the Rajapaksa family members being in the main ruling party government. But, the government replied that they were appointed based on the preferential votes and peoples mandate during the 2020 parliamentary election.

2021 onwards
Main article: 2019–present Sri Lankan economic crisis

The year 2021 marked the plummeting of the popularity of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa led government which gained widespread opposition from various stakeholders due to the inability and incompetence of the government when implementing policy framework.[18] Although the government was credited for its successful handling of the first wave of the pandemic and for its successful vaccination drives amid misinformation propaganda about vaccines, the popularity of the Rajapaksa led government began diminishing especially from 2021 due to its poor handling of the economy.[19]

Moreover, the decision to ban chemical fertilisers overnight created a huge backlash, especially from farmers who were critical of the government's decision to ban chemical fertilizers without a proper mechanism or planning. The decision was allegedly taken by Gotabaya who had consulted Indian Vandana Shiva instead of listening to subject matter experts on agriculture who repeatedly urged him to avoid such an ill-fated move.[20] Gotabaya intended to make Sri Lanka as the first country in the world to follow 100% organic farming. However, the chemical fertilizer ban turned out to be costly as harvest was severely hampered triggering acute food shortages throughout the country.[21] The impact of a sudden chemical fertiliser ban was felt with the purchasing behavior of public as Sri Lanka witnessed lengthy queues to buy important essential food items and other stuff including sugar, milk powder, kerosene oil and cooking gas.[22][23]

In September 2021, the government announced an economic emergency, as the situation was further aggravated by the falling national currency exchange rate, inflation rising as result of high food prices, and pandemic restrictions in tourism which further decreased the country's income.[24] Government invoked emergency regulations to control prices of essential food items. The government accused the traders and businesses for hoarding the essential food items such as sugar and milk powder which according to government led to massive food shortages.[25] The government also accused the media for stoking unnecessary fears among the public and denied of any shortages.[26] It was reported that the National emergency was declared on 30 August 2021 and the Parliament of Sri Lanka approved it on 6 September 2021.[27][28] In November 2021, Sri Lanka abandoned its plan to become the world's first organic farming nation following rising food prices and weeks of protests against the plan.[29][30]

The change in composition of gas cylinders which led to explosions in houses and hotels also caused negative publicity to the government as many people started to use electric cookers and ovens due to fear of using biogas.[31][32] The government also abruptly failed to preserve the crucial foreign reserves which led to curtailing of imports. The first segment as part of import ban was imposed on motor vehicles which angered the motor vehicle importers which severely affected their livelihoods. The threat of Delta variant also further fueled any hopes of recovery in terms of reviving tourism industry.[33] In addition to the tourism, the foreign remittances also began declining in 2021 which further dented the GDP of the country. The government also faced the heat with the continuous strikes by school teachers demanding higher salaries and the teachers also carried out online education strikes which affected the education of school children who were already deprived of physical place education vibes.[34][35]

On 14 April 2021, the Sri Lankan Airlines in its official Twitter handle claimed that Sri Lankan cargo had made history by operating three successive cargo charter flights to Entebbe International Airport which is Uganda's only international airport uplifting over 102 metric tonnes of printed papers in February 2021.[36] The information on whether what kind of printed papers were not revealed by Sri Lankan Airlines due to confidential reasons. However, the cargo carrier deleted the tweet for unknown reasons and it created doubts about the transparency of Sri Lankan Airlines and speculations arose about the transfer of "printed papers" cargo charter flights which departed to Uganda in February 2021.[37]

Sri Lankan Airlines later issued a statement clarifying that the printed material which was deported to Uganda included only the Ugandan currency notes and it further revealed that due to security reasons with bordering Kenya, Ugandan government preferred to obtain printed Ugandan shilling currency notes from a global security printer.[38][39] The Biyagama branch of the De La Rue company is responsible for printing currency notes to countries including Uganda.[40] SriLankan insisted that the consignment was purely commercial in nature and brought much needed foreign revenue to the airlines as well as for the country.[41]

Several sources claimed that Mahinda Rajapaksa had maintained close ties with Uganda especially during his second tenure as President from 2010 to 2015. Mahinda Rajapaksa also reported to have befriended Sri Lankan Ambassador to Uganda, Velupillai Kananathan during the former's first official Presidential trip to Uganda in 2014.[42][43][44]

Uganda has been earmarked for a possible blacklisting by international systems for falling to comply with anti-money laundering laws and for continuously engaging in various financial crimes.[45][46] The news of Uganda to be blacklisted due to money laundering went viral in Sri Lanka among protestors and social media users with speculations started to build up that Rajapaksa family members and influential politicians in the government could have possibly transferred the ill-gotten wealth to Uganda on cargo flights via the Sri Lankan Airlines flight.[47]

In May 2022, Australian prominent leading investigative journalism program ABC Four Corners in a documentary claimed that Australian based medical company Aspen Medical had involved in a high-profile money laundering scandal after its involvement in a multi-million dollar hospital project for the construction of Hambantota General Hospital during the Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2012.[48] As per the documentary, the company had obtained amounting to $18.8 million insurance guarantee through the formal Australian governmental support from the then Export Finance and Insurance Corporation.[49]

The first transaction of Aspen Medical in Sri Lanka amounted to a whopping amount of 1.4 million euros (which is equivalent to $2.1 million) to a suspectable mysterious British Virgin Islands domiciled company Sabre Vision Holdings which was owned by Nimal Perera, a Sri Lankan businessman who also has close ties with Rajapaksa family.[50][51] Nimal Perera claimed that in 2016, he collected funds for Namal Rajapaksa and as a result Namal was arrested by the police but was released on bail shortly afterwards. However, soon after the release of the documentary, Namal denied wrongdoing and insisted that it is a conspiracy to undermine his reputation by Yahapalanaya government.[52]

Protests
Main article: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

Sri Lankans finally took to the streets to vent their frustrations demanding President and the entire government to step down.[53] Many youngsters including university students took part in peaceful protests calling for a major overhaul of the system and urged lawmakers to pave way for youngsters to lead the country.[54][55] Protestors also demanded to abolish the 20th Amendment as well as the Executive Presidency. Few protestors also urged all 225 MPs to go home to elect new faces in the parliament. During the protests, there were growing calls to elect educated academic people to parliament and also there were calls to reveal the net worth and assets of the politicians.

Political instability

Political instability grew with resignation of 26 cabinet ministers on 3 April 2022.[56] However, the resignation of the ministers were termed not legal and invalid according to the provisions of Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka as the ministers tendered their resignations to Prime Minister instead of President. The Sports and Youth Minister and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's son Namal Rajapaksa, brothers Chamal Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa also resigned.[57]

The president immediately made major steps to form an all-party interim government and invited all the parties to form a new government as a temporary solution up until the 2024 Sri Lankan presidential election and next Sri Lankan parliamentary election in 2025.[58][59] The all party interim government would still have both President and Prime Minister unchanged but the cabinet of ministers would have included members representing various parties. However, the main oppositions SJB and JVP declined the proposal and urged the entire government including the President to resign.[60] There were rumours and speculations regarding the fact that Mahinda Rajapaksa would resign from his position as Prime Minister but the rumours were deemed false as it was revealed that Mahinda would stay in power.[61][62]

On 4 April 2022, a temporary cabinet with four ministers was formed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa and these four ministers who were part of the cabinet ministries which resigned due to the crisis had been reshuffled to different ministerial positions. In the cabinet reshuffle, Ali Sabry was appointed as Finance Minister, G. L. Peiris was appointed as Foreign Minister, Dinesh Gunawardena was appointed as Education Minister, and Johnston Fernando was appointed as Minister of Highways. On 5 April, Ali Sabry tendered his resignation as Minister of Finance, having served only one day in office.[63][64] In addition, he also intended to resign from his national list MP post.[65] However in a dramatic U-turn, Sabry revoked his resignation and remains as the current finance minster of Sri Lanka.[66][67]

On 5 April, the parliament reconvened for the first time since the state of emergency began and were set to discuss the current state of affairs.[68] The ruling SLPP government began losing the support of its key allies consisting of 41 MPs: 9 MPs of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) decided to move away from the government and to work as independent persons, while the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) and the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) left the government and moved into opposition.[69][70][71] MP Harin Fernando urged to make Harsha de Silva as Sri Lankan President for at least six months with the former indicating Harsha's wide knowledge and understanding about the economy.[72]

On 6 April 2022, the opposition party SJB held placards and protested inside Parliament demanding that Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign immediately.[73] The SJB party said that it would try to bring a no-confidence motion in Parliament if the President and Prime Minister do not step down.[74][75]

On 7 April 2022, the private sector of Sri Lanka collectively in writing made a request to restore political stability in order to foster the economy. Around 38 organizations collectively representing exporters, importers, manufacturers, shipping and logistics sector and tourism sector have appealed to the parliament to resolve the economic crisis to prevent catastrophe.[76] On 7 April 2022, the Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) had also made an appeal to the government to solve the current economic and political crisis and had warned that if the issue had not been addressed with due diligence it could lead to closure of businesses.[77]

Newly appointed Finance minister Ali Sabry had pleaded for political stability and insisted that Sri Lanka needs an immediate bailout or a moratorium from multilateral agencies such as the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. He also insisted that there are no other options except to seek assistance from multilateral agencies to cope up with the crisis and especially he called on the government to restructure the US$1 billion ISB bond repayment which matures around July 2022.[78]

On 8 April 2022, former World Bank official Shanta Devarajan had warned that the biggest risk Sri Lanka is going to face is the social unrest and turmoil. He highlighted that cash transfer program can be initiated aiming at helping the poor people in addition to reduction in subsidies on food and fuel in order to avoid the collapse of the economy.[79] Moody's Investors Service had warned that the wave of resignation of cabinet ministers would only heighten policy uncertainty and as a result it will make hard when obtaining or borrowing external finance.[80]

New government

On 18 April 2022, Gotabaya appointed a new 17 member cabinet despite the protests calling the entire government to resign including the president alongside all 225 MPs in parliament.[81][82] Dinesh Gunawardena was appointed as Public Administration, Internal Affairs minister while Douglas Devananda was appointed as Fisheries minister, Kanaka Herath was appointed as Highways minister, Dilum Amunugama was appointed as Transport & Industries minister, Prasanna Ranatunga was appointed as Public security and tourism minister, Channa Jayasumana was appointed as Health minister, Nalaka Godahewa was appointed as Media minister, Pramitha Tennakoon was appointed as Ports and Shipping minister, Amith Thenuka Vidanagamage was appointed as Sports & Youth Affairs ministry, Kanchana Wijesekera was appointed as Power & Energy minister, Asanka Shehan Semasinghe was appointed as Trade & Samurdhi Development minister, Janaka Wakkumbura was appointed as Agriculture & Irrigation minister, Vidura Wickremanayake was appointed as Labour minister, Mohan Priyadarshana De Silva was appointed as Water supply minister, Ramesh Pathirana was appointed as Education & Plantation Industries, Wimalaweera Dissanayake was appointed as Widelife & Forest Resources Conservation minister and Ahamed Nazeer Zainulabdeen was appointed as Environment minister.[83][84] In the new cabinet portfolio, female representation was completely excluded with all 17 ministers are being males.[85]

See also

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