The situation remains uncertain this Sunday, July 10 in Sri Lanka where President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to resign next week, after being forced to flee his residence invaded by crowds on Saturday, in the wake of monster demonstrations in Colombo caused by the crisis. catastrophe hitting the country.
The United States on Sunday urged the country’s future new leaders to ” work fast to solutions to restore economic stability and address popular discontent over deteriorating economic conditions, “ including shortages of electricity, food and fuel a State Department spokesperson said.
” To ensure a peaceful transition, the president said he would step down on July 13 “said Parliament Speaker Mahinda Abeywardana on Saturday on television.
Two people close to the president resigned without delay: the head of the press service Sudewa Hettiarachchi and the media minister, Bandula Gunawardana, who also left his post at the head of the presidential party. For his part, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tried to pave the way for a government of national unity, by urgently convening a government crisis meeting with the opposition parties to which he proposed his resignation.
But that was not enough to calm the anger of the demonstrators who in the evening besieged his residence, in his absence, and set fire to it, without causing any injuries.
Earlier, President Rajapaksa, in the hot seat for months, had just enough time to flee a few minutes before several hundred demonstrators entered the presidential palace, a symbolic building normally reserved for receptions but where he had moved in April after his private home was stormed.
” The president was escorted to safety “, indicated Saturday a source of the Defense to the AFP. Soldiers guarding the official residence fired in the air to deter protesters from approaching the palace until it was evacuated. According to this source, the president boarded a military ship heading for the territorial waters in the south of the island.
► To read also: Sri Lanka: President flees residence stormed by protesters
A failed state
This crisis is unprecedented since the independence in 1948 of this island of 22 million inhabitants. Sri Lanka has been unable to protect its people from the effects of inflation for months. One of the drivers of protest is also the corruption that has plagued the political and economic system for decades. The International Monetary Fund, called to the rescue by the authorities last April, first demanded reforms from Colombo to put an end to corruption.
The crowds whose daily life has become unlivable denounce the disastrous economic choices of their president and the excesses of the management teams. In fact, decades of mismanagement of public resources, bad governance and lack of transparency that must be reformed at all costs. Just behind inflation, the International Monetary Fund, whose teams were in Sri Lanka last month, pointed to “loopholes” in the system that allow corruption to persist.
These flaws have been denounced by NGOs for years. Political choices have been made not to launch reforms and, on the contrary, to curb the few institutions capable of controlling the action of those in power. So, for example, the 20th Amendment, decided by a president with reinforced power. This text put an end to the Court of Auditors and the Commission of Inquiry into Corruption.
In recent weeks, discussions were still ongoing between the IMF and the now fugitive management team. Whatever the next interlocutors, the calls multiply to put the fight against corruption at the heart of the next agreement between the country and the experts of the IMF.
Once a middle-income country with a standard of living envied by India, Sri Lanka has been devastated by the loss of tourism revenue following a jihadist attack in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic.