Eyewitness to history: Sri Lankan novelist calls for generational change in his native land

Sri Lanka is an island nation that emerged from a decades-long conflict and enjoyed an economic boom its government expected to go on indefinitely.

The boom has turned to bust and the public is demanding to know where all the money went. Tax cuts have hollowed out government revenues, foreign investors have lost confidence and there is a seething anger with politicians for the sorry impasse at which the country now finds itself. The developing country has now defaulted on its debt.

Protesters have forced president Gotabaya Rajapaksa into exile and want his family, who have dominated the country’s politics for the last 15 years, gone for good. A plane carrying Rajapaksa (73), his wife Ioma and bodyguards arrived in Singapore from the Maldives on Thursday, according to AFP reporters.

Many Sri Lankans blame Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda for incompetence, profligacy and corruption. The Covid-19 pandemic destroyed tourism, the country’s main foreign currency earner, and a ban on chemical fertiliser — introduced suddenly rather than as part of a slower transition to organic farming — saw a collapse in yields for rice and tea.

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A civil war, which lasted for 26 years, between Tamil separatists and the Sri Lankan government ended in 2009. Tourism then provided one of the main drivers of economic growth and Sri Lanka had designs on being the Dubai or the Singapore of the Indian Ocean. Instead, in 2019 an attack by Islamic State on the country’s Christian community during Easter services led to the deaths of more than 300 people and delivered a huge blow to the country’s tourism potential. The Covid-19 pandemic provided the coup de grace for the tourist industry.

[ Sri Lanka bombers linked to Isis as row over security failings grow ]

Inflation is more than 50 per cent, the country is running out of fuel, food and medicine. The humanitarian crisis is growing daily and six million people out of the population of 22 million are at risk of hunger. In what was one of south Asian’s most prosperous nations, power cuts are now regular and the public is exhausted after months of turmoil, according to the Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka.

Karunatilaka’s debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, has been acclaimed as one of the greatest books about cricket ever written. His new novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, set in the Sri Lankan civil war will be published in August.

Karunatilaka has not observed the Sri Lankan revolution in progress from a distance, but was present this week as events unfurled. He was among the crowd when protesters entered the main seats of government in the capital, Colombo. Footage showing demonstrators taking a dip in Rajapaksa’s swimming pool was shared around the world.

“I went in the morning to the three sites at that time, Temple Trees [the formal residence of the country’s prime minister], the prime minister’s secretariat and the presidential palace,” he said.

“I came back home when things started getting nasty and they started storming the prime minister’s house. That’s where the tear gas started to happen.

“On Saturday, when protesters took over the presidential palace the mood was quite inspiring. It was great to see the sheer number of people and the will to breach these government institutions,” he said.

Sri Lanka has been in crisis since Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency on April 1st. Global inflationary pressures have devastated the country’s economy, and Sri Lanka lacks the foreign currency to import essentials such as food, energy and medicine so what goods are imported can only be done so at crippling prices.

Many observers fear Sri Lanka will be just the first of a number of countries facing crises as a result of rising food costs, which are exposing fragile economies in the global south.

“This is the result of successive governments over the last 30 years. People can call it the perfect storm. I see it as one foolhardy decision after another foolhardy decision,” Karunatilaka said.

“There was exhilaration that we got rid of the [former] prime minister [Mahinda Rajapaksa] and the president is stepping down, but there is impatience. Why can’t we move on?

“It’s a bit dubious now when you are bankrupt to get the same guys who got us into this mess to negotiate our way out of it.

“I’m exhausted thinking how long this is going to go on for. When you go on a protest, you have the young and the radicals, but you have also mostly ordinary people. People want this thing to change and want some control.

“The street is not going to govern this country out of this crisis. The street is just expressing what it wants. We are impatient. These guys should have stepped down months ago and we should be on our way to elect competent leaders.

“In Sri Lanka the jovial moment is always there, but it could easily turn sour. I think the leaders need to heed and give the people what they want and get someone in charge.”

[ MPs to elect new president after Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees ]

As in Ireland in 2010, the International Monetary Fund is in town but there will be no bailout until political unrest ends and a new president and prime minster are installed. The prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, another political veteran and currently acting president, has agreed to resign when a new government is formed.

Karunatilaka says there is a longing for generational change in the leadership of the country. Many see the Rajapaksas as part of a generation in their 70s who have ruled for generations, neither wisely nor well. “I don’t see any in that pack of jokers who can rule this country and the public feels the same way.”

Is there a saviour for Sri Lanka? “Find him for me. We have this conversation regularly. We need somebody untainted and that means somebody under 50 who is not tainted. No man really comes up. What we are saying is that this guy is not as corrupt as the other guy.

“Hopefully greater minds than we will solve this problem. There is always talk of getting a cricketer in there, but we saw how that worked elsewhere. Though we do have 200 politicians to choose from, you may have to parachute one in. It will have to be somebody who commands respect in the parliament and the protesters in the street will accept.

“It will need to be somebody humble enough to get rid of the executive presidency and to pick people better than themselves to govern things rather than picking their relatives to run the country.”