Former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumartunga comments upon the current crisis faced by the Island Nation. She calls out the corruption and unwillingness to work for the solution.
The Former Sri Lankan President expressed their disappointment at the state of affairs in her country at the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Madanjeet Singh Memorial Lecture of 2024 which was hosted by the South Asia Foundation and the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.
She emphasized the fact that the Island Nation had one of the best Socio-Economic factors among South Asian Countries in spite of Colonial exploitation for 450 years by European powers, Sri Lanka had become a failed state in its 75th year of Independence from the UK.
Sri Lanka attained Independence on February 4, 1948, from the UK. The state remained as a British Dominion with the British Monarch as the Head of State till 1972 when Sri Lanka became a republic.
What Happened to Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka was embroiled in a Financial Crisis due to several miscalculations related to fiscal policies. The country’s Debt to GDP Ratio has been increasing since 2010 due to its frequent borrowing habits, usage of hot money and high dependence on FDI in the hospitality sector. The Debt to GDP ratio in 2021 was 101%, And in 2022 it has increased to 115.2%.
Due to the Easter Bombings and the COVID-19 Pandemic, the hospitality sector has witnessed a sharp downfall which impacted a large part of the Sri Lankan Economy, at the same time there was a fall in remittances. The War in Ukraine also has impacted tourism as Russian and Ukrainian tourists visited Sri Lanka in large numbers as well as Russia was a major importer of Sri Lankan Tea.
Lankan leaders also took policy miscalculations which triggered the crisis, such as the reduction of VAT to 8%, the Abolishment of Pay as You Earn Tax which reduced government revenue, and the excessive printing of money despite warning from the IMF. Another Major decision was to change the agricultural model to Organic with the Ban on Chemical-based fertilizers.
All of these decisions were disastrous for the Economy which led to the crisis in the present day where day-to-day essentials also come at dear prices.
Ex-President’s Outlook on the Future
She called out on the corruption in all major tenets of the Sri Lankan Governance system consisting of the judiciary, the police, and the public service as well as the failure of uniting all the Sri Lankan people where the majority Sinhala-Buddhist Community dominated over the minorities leading to a multiple decades-long Civil War which was also a part of her Presidency.
“The solution they adopted was to arrogate all the privileges of economic and social development exclusively to themselves. The just resolution to the minorities’ question would have been to guarantee equal rights to all citizens and a system of political power-sharing with the minorities. We have failed to do this for 75 years,” she quoted in her speech at the event.
She also called out the fact that five families ruling in all 14 governments formed in the history of the state, a reference to the country’s famous ruling clans, including her own family, with her parents and herself leading the government in the past.
She called the 2022 protests “a cataclysmic socio-political upheaval that shook the nation to its core”.
At the end of her speech, she called for a total change in the political landscape of the country with new and conscious leaders in the government.
