“Sri Lankans are desperate, they have nothing left to lose”, analyzed Tuesday May 10 on franceinfo Olivier Guillard, specialist in Asia and researcher at the Center for Studies and Research on India, South Asia and its Diaspora within the University of Quebec in Montreal. The UN is concerned about what is happening in Sri Lanka and denounces the escalation of violence. Seven people died in the protests on Monday May 9. Deadliest protests in recent years. Peaceful protesters demand the resignation of the Sri Lankan president. They were attacked by government supporters, leading to violence. The Ministry of Defense orders shooting on sight to suppress these demonstrations.
franceinfo: Where does this crisis come from and what triggered it?
Olivier Guillard: A large number of factors have combined. It is a country that is open to international globalization, like many others in Asia. Unfortunately, this island of 23 to 24 million people has received the shock waves of the Covid-19 pandemic which has completely neutralized its economy, in particular its tourist sector on which it is very dependent. Three years earlier, in the spring of 2019, we were talking about these terrible attacks which had struck Colombo and brought back the specter of the scourge of terrorism in the country, 249 dead and several hundred injured. Then there was added, and it is the street that expressed it best in recent months, anger against the government team, whose management is questionable to say the least. You had, a few weeks ago, seven individuals of the same family between the presidency and various ministerial portfolios, plus nephews who were entrusted with a certain number of things in various functions. So an economy that is functioning poorly, an economy impacted by Covid-19 and by the disappearance of tourists and which has launched in recent years into financing sumptuary infrastructures, at costs far exceeding the ability to reimburse or Sri Lankan Rupee financing.
Is the country ruined?
One thinks in particular of loans contracted with China that the country is unable to repay. Since then, the economy has defaulted and can no longer provide anything. Sri Lankans no longer have access to medicines or access to basic products, nor can they afford electricity or gasoline, which has completely disappeared for several weeks. So it is a fed up on which is grafted the evidence of this bad governance which is linked, to a large extent, to the patrimonial and personal management of the team in power for about fifteen years. .
There is general anger today in Sri Lanka? Does it cross the country?
It is a country which, between the beginning of the 80s and the end of the 2000s, went through three decades of civil war, so the fault lines are ethnic, religious and political. There are always those who take advantage of a system, those who denounce it. So all of this is exacerbated by the post-Covid-19 environment, this stalled economy. It is this economy that is filing for official bankruptcy. The IMF, China, other major contributing nations are trying to put some order back in order to be able to finance, put some credits back into the nation’s empty coffers. All this is done in an atmosphere of neglect and anger. The population had been crying for months that they could not see the end of this crisis. Today you can no longer find anything to eat at a good price. Inflation that devours the little you have left in your wallet. You are looking for some responsible people. Those responsible are notably on the side of the family which is today the ruling dynasty. This dynasty has shown its negligence to a very great extent for ten years. She has an important responsibility in the torments of the moment.
Are you worried about the short-term future of Sri Lanka?
To some extent yes. Since this country has already gone through nearly 40 years of crises, leaving bruises in all families, in the Sinhalese as in the Tamils, in the Buddhists as in the Muslims or in the Christians. Political violence is often significant. Elections rarely go smoothly. Today, Sri Lankans, to a large extent, are desperate. They know that the crisis will last, that it will still bring its share of victims and misfortunes. And above all, for everything to restart, all the indicator lights would have to be open. Today everything is in the dark, if not in the darkest yet. So the Sri Lankans are desperate, many of them have nothing to lose. So much so that they no longer hesitate, as we have seen again in recent hours, to directly confront, with their bare hands, the police who have rather a nimble hand in this South Asian country, where political violence is still very well known.