Sri Lanka Today: A Visitor’s View | K Srinivasulu

As one comes out of the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo one cannot miss a huge hoarding reading “Welcome to Sri Lanka” perhaps displaying how important tourism to the nation’s economy has been. Tourism contributing 10 per cent to the Sri Lankan GDP and being the third largest source of foreign exchange is said to provide employment to millions of people directly and indirectly with bulk of tourists coming mainly from India, Britain and China. Going by the bursting tourist traffic as evident in the airport and in places of tourist interest, it appears that the new government led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake elected as President in September 2024 elections has made a difference by assuring stability and security to attract foreign visitors to the island.
 
Tourism suffered a serious blow with a series of happenings that occurred in a succession. First were the series of bomb blasts caused by the ISIS led terror group that occurred on Easter Sunday in April 2019 targeting churches and star hotels killing 260 people with 42 of them being foreign tourists and several hundred wounded. This understandably created a strong impression that Sri Lanka a desired destination for international tourism being seen not any longer safe it was hitherto considered. The idyllic image Sri Lanka could retain, despite decades’ long separatist Tamil Eelam struggle, even though engaging the country in a civil war situation but largely confined to northern part of the nation, was shaken by the Easter attacks.

Then the COVID crisis engulfing the island, like all the countries on the planet earth were, in a series of lockdowns thus shutting down the country not only for the outsiders but also the natives of the island from one another. Though Sri Lanka is no exception to the extraordinary severity of shutdown but given the immense significance of dependence on tourism of a large segment of population spread all over the island its impact in terms of not only number but also spread could well be imagined.

The third factor that needs to be considered for its economic severity and expansiveness is the decline of Sri Lanka in the international political economy for its default on foreign debt becoming increasingly imminent. With the fast depletion of forex reserves and bleak prospects of any more lending forthcoming the consequences of this dire economic situation became clear in terms of shortages of essentials like fuel, cooling gas, food that made life unbearable. The sight of long queues at petrol stations, an image that has a strong sense of déjà vu for populations in many of the debt ridden countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America became normal. Needless to say this has worsened further with the ongoing war in Ukraine. Ironically enough the developed nations of Europe are no exception to the drastic impact of this war.

The anti-establishment riots that were witnessed in the length and breadth of the country were a clear demonstration of the popular disgruntlement at the then ruling regime. It is no surprise that the Rajapaksha regime, like all the governments in crisis ridden situations, sought to legitimize the crisis by shifting the blame on to the COVID and other natural factors as if their impact, if not their occurrence, is policy neutral. People’s response informed by a perception that no longer could be brushed aside as ignorant or ill-informed for the obvious reason that the fact that the Rajapaksha family regime, with two siblings Gotabaya and Mahinda as President and Prime Minister respectively and many other family members in powerful positions in the government since its coming to power in November 2019, has run the island nation and its economy in a centralized and personalized way and immensely insensitive to the popular aspirations, uncaring to their needs and unmindful of the possible consequences. If the sudden policy decision to ban the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture and thrust a complete shift to organic farming on the farmers unprepared for such a shift resulted in a serious decline in the output then this leading to a drastic fall in their incomes put them to severe financial distress.

The policy decision by the Gotabaya regime to go for capital intensive development model with accent on high cost infrastructural projects with long term gestation for instance like the development of Hambantota international port in the southern coast as a strategic hub and related high ways with a huge borrowing of one billion US $ from China’s Export Import Bank put a further stress on the already precarious external debt burden of Sri Lanka. In the process the local population mainly dependent on agriculture, fishing and salt farming were subjected to dislocation and displacement leading to the loss of their livelihoods, small businesses and habitat – a story that gets replicated ad nauseam in almost every case of so-called capital and technology intensive development and concomitant process of primitive accumulation. Yet the fact that there are certain pockets where there are successful attempts at safeguarding the interests of farmers, milk producers, fisher people, etc., through cooperative participation upholds the hope that these vulnerable working, self-employed producers could save themselves from falling victims to the all-pervasive sweep of big capital.

It has with no exaggeration become typical of the regimes that come to power with convincing electoral majorities turning to a process of decision making that is centralized – and personalized - unilateral and symptomatic of an authoritarian high and soon losing popular trust and becoming unpopular. The case of Gotabaya government proved to be another instance of this neo-liberal phenomenon of decline and fall of democracy. Under the prolonged pressure of popular street protests to save himself and his extended family the President had to resign and exit from the island under duress.

The popular detest of the regime still rings large and wide among the people whose economic and social decline is pinned on to the ruling family and its abrasive power display – an illumination of absolute power leading to absolute corruption – moral and material.

The adage that crisis brings the best out of people is evident in the high level of awareness among the common folks of the political structure in Sri Lanka when people have shown that the crisis that has engulfed their lives is largely due to the mismanagement of the economy driven by fancy idea of development that has inherently been unsustainable and resultant high ticket corruption; the message that the rulers have compromised with the present and future of the country is loud and clear.

The distrust of political class in Sri Lanka appears to be comprehensive and becomes transparent when an elderly woman vender remarks obviously referring to politicians and their greed “that they are all the same and alike.” The anxiety about their economic security and social safety caused by the high inflation evident in the prices of food, fuel and everyday essentials jacked up several fold, unpredictability of life even bothering otherwise secure middle classes. It is only through the conversation with the people in the street one comes to know what the scale and intensity of crisis they have passed through in their everyday life. When our tourist guide with a sense of sadness reveals that during the prolonged period of crisis a large number of people could hardly afford a meal a day one could not but feel this to be entirely believable!

With the new party in power that promises to be different in leadership, governance and ideological proclivities from the traditional oligarchic parties the beginning of a new chapter in the politics and economy of Sri Lanka could be hoped for. But the challenges facing it are daunting with an external debt of US $ 44.5 billion, mainly in the form of International Sovereign Bonds and to China. It is the ability to negotiate the restructuring of the debt servicing apart from relaxation of the IMF conditionalities on which depends the economic recovery of the distressed island nation. Making life of the people less unbearable that of course has to be one of the immediate priorities of the government,

It was evident that India’s solidarity and generous support to Sri Lanka in these trying times has won us enormous goodwill. It was all there to be seen in ones interaction with ordinary people. It must be noted that Indian rupee was seen preferred over Sri Lankan currency across the social and business spectrum – from small vendors on the street to shops in sprawling malls; Perhaps an evidence of trust in India’s economic stability and of course popularity. Quite puzzlingly, the acceptance of Indian currency (of course along the US dollar) when contrasted with an open no to the Sri Lankan rupee in the Colombo airport duty free shop compelled one to take note and pause for reflection.

In the meanwhile for an outsider visiting the island, the beautiful cities like Colombo, Kandy - once well illuminated – now swamped in darkness of dusk with street lamps unlit could not but be seen mirroring the state of the nation leaving one with a deep sense of sadness. Yet the well and neatly maintained roads and tidy traffic perhaps an indication of the country’s hope and possibilities of order cannot escape ones attention.

Yet one leaves the island with a heavy heart reminiscing the famous lines of Bertolt Brecht, “will there be singing in the dark times there will be signing about darkness” as an approximate description of the Lankan tragedy.

(This article is based on this writer’s recent visit to Sri Lanka.)

(Author: K Srinivasulu, Senior Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi; Formerly Professor, Department of Political Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India)