Police use water cannon to disperse farmers taking part in an anti-government protest demanding the resignation of Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 6, 2022. (Photo by AFP) (Getty Images)
This weekend’s scenes of chaos in Sri Lanka have been a complete u-turn from the country’s prosperity just over a year ago. As a consequence of a disastrous combination of government policies and an unforgiving global situation, Sri Lanka’s (now former) Prime Minister declared the nation bankrupt 2 days ago. Now, both the Prime Minister and President have fled the country and protestors have taken over the Presidential Palace and Central Bank. Inflation is currently over 50%.
How It Started vs How It Is Now
The image on the left is from AgBioWorld, as Sri Lanka’s government forced its entire agricultural sector to farm organically last year. The image on the right is a screenshot from a video, of protestors storming the Presidential Palace on Saturday.
Agricultural output from key sectors such as tea and rice were slashed as a result of a ban on synthetic fertilisers. Sri Lanka went from being a net exporter of rice to having to import rice to sustain its domestic consumption. Without sufficient export earnings and tourism devastated due to travel restrictions, Sri Lanka’s debt spiralled upwards. The government attempted to compensate its farmers for the massive losses incurred and reversed the synthetic fertiliser ban for some of the country’s critical exports. That move was too late however, to prevent the catastrophic collapse of the entire economy.
Michael Shellenberger, author and political commentator, provided another succinct description of the source of the collapse in his substack article “Green Dogma Behind Fall Of Sri Lanka”:
“…the underlying reason for the fall of Sri Lanka is because its leaders fell under the spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and “ESG,” which refers to investments made following supposedly higher Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria. Sri Lanka has a near-perfect ESG score (98) which is higher than Sweden (960 or the United States (51)…”
Out Of Fuel
Video published in the last week showed shoppers in a supermarket in the dark, as the country ran out of diesel to power generators.
Earlier fuel restrictions had meant the economy slowed even further then ground to a complete halt. This came about when the government ran out of money to pay for fuel imports.
Leadership Has Resigned & Fled The Country
Mobile phone footage captured Sri Lanka’s government officials ignominiously fleeing the country yesterday. This footage allegedly shows the President leaving on a navy vessel.
This followed massive protests that took over the Central Bank.
These protests culminated in the occupation of the Presidential Palace, as the President and the Prime Minister resigned.
Government security forces fired on protestors just before they were overrun.
The Prime Minister’s residence was also set ablaze.
There have been comparisons between what is happening in Sri Lanka with what happened in the Philippines at the end of the Marcos era.
Philippines in 1986. Sri Lanka in 2022. Some things don’t change — and ousting thieving, corrupt dictators remains the only viable option for the peoples of the world. pic.twitter.com/HxLq0vP4M5
— karl #MarcosMamamatayTao (@eicvsfascism) July 10, 2022
