Sri Lanka president warns of racial tensions amid economic crisis
Sri Lanka's ruling party supporters storm anti-government protest camp in Colombo
By Uditha Jayasinghe and Alasdair Pal
Tue, May 10, 2022,
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's president urged people on Wednesday to reject what he called attempts to foment racial and religious disharmony, as clashes broke out in many parts of the country over the government's handling of a devastating economic crisis.
Violent street protests killed eight people this week and even the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's elder brother as prime minister and a curfew have failed to douse public anger. The government has ordered troops to shoot at anyone damaging public property or threatening lives.
Sri Lankans have blamed the Rajapaksa dynasty for the economic meltdown that has left the country with only about $50 million in reserves, stalling most imports and leading to massive shortages of fuel, cooking gas, and other essentials.
Protesters set the family's ancestral home in the south on fire earlier in the week.
"This is the time for all Sri Lankans to join hands as one, to overcome the economic, social & political challenges," Rajapaksa said on Twitter.
"I urge all #Srilankans to reject the subversive attempts to push you towards racial & religious disharmony. Promoting moderation, toleration & coexistence is vital."
It was not immediately clear what prompted the president to issue the warning. However, Sri Lanka has a long and bloody history of ethnic tensions.
Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned as prime minister on Monday, were in key government positions when a 26-year civil war ended in 2009 after security forces overcame militants from the minority Tamil community.
Sinhalese Buddhists are the majority in the country of 22 million which also has Muslim, Hindu and Christian minorities.
A police spokesperson said two shooting incidents were reported on Tuesday night, including one in the southern town of Rathgama that wounded four people.
"The situation is now calm," Nalin Thalduwa said.
In Weerakettiya, a southern town that is home to the Rajapaksas, police and military patrolled the streets, with shops and businesses shut due to the curfew.
On Monday, video footage from local media showed the ancestral home of the family ablaze, while multiple attacks on houses and election offices of lawmakers were also reported.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe and Alasdair Pal; Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Sri Lanka's ruling party supporters storm anti-government protest camp in Colombo
By Uditha Jayasinghe and Alasdair Pal
Tue, May 10, 2022,
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's president urged people on Wednesday to reject what he called attempts to foment racial and religious disharmony, as clashes broke out in many parts of the country over the government's handling of a devastating economic crisis.
Violent street protests killed eight people this week and even the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's elder brother as prime minister and a curfew have failed to douse public anger. The government has ordered troops to shoot at anyone damaging public property or threatening lives.
Sri Lankans have blamed the Rajapaksa dynasty for the economic meltdown that has left the country with only about $50 million in reserves, stalling most imports and leading to massive shortages of fuel, cooking gas, and other essentials.
Protesters set the family's ancestral home in the south on fire earlier in the week.
"This is the time for all Sri Lankans to join hands as one, to overcome the economic, social & political challenges," Rajapaksa said on Twitter.
"I urge all #Srilankans to reject the subversive attempts to push you towards racial & religious disharmony. Promoting moderation, toleration & coexistence is vital."
It was not immediately clear what prompted the president to issue the warning. However, Sri Lanka has a long and bloody history of ethnic tensions.
Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned as prime minister on Monday, were in key government positions when a 26-year civil war ended in 2009 after security forces overcame militants from the minority Tamil community.
Sinhalese Buddhists are the majority in the country of 22 million which also has Muslim, Hindu and Christian minorities.
A police spokesperson said two shooting incidents were reported on Tuesday night, including one in the southern town of Rathgama that wounded four people.
"The situation is now calm," Nalin Thalduwa said.
In Weerakettiya, a southern town that is home to the Rajapaksas, police and military patrolled the streets, with shops and businesses shut due to the curfew.
On Monday, video footage from local media showed the ancestral home of the family ablaze, while multiple attacks on houses and election offices of lawmakers were also reported.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe and Alasdair Pal; Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Sri Lanka crisis not over despite PM Mahinda Rajapaksa's exit
There seems no immediate end in sight to the island nation's economic turmoil and escalating anti-government protests amid high public anger toward the president and his influential family.
The prime minister's decision to step down has so far done little to calm public anger
The resignation of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday amid mass anti-government protests and rising public fury marks a watershed moment for a powerful dynasty that dominated the island nation's politics for years.
The move to quit his post came on a day when clashes between government supporters and opponents killed seven people, including a member of parliament from the ruling Sri Lanka People's Front party (SLPP), and injured over 200.
The violence broke out in the capital Colombo on Monday afternoon when over 1,000 supporters of the SLPP broke into an anti-government protest camp outside the office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is Mahinda's younger brother.
Armed with iron bars, clubs and sticks, they attacked the protesters and burnt down the tents used by them. Anti-government protesters then attacked buses carrying government supporters who were leaving the capital after meeting with the prime minister.
Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the skirmishers, after having initially done little to hold back the government supporters, Reuters reported.
In the violence, more than 50 houses belonging to SLPP members, including that of former cabinet ministers, have been set on fire across the country and at least 40 vehicles of the ruling party supporters have been destroyed.
Curfew and state of emergency
The prime minister's decision to step down has so far done little to calm public anger.
To bring the situation under control, the government gave emergency powers to its military and police.
The military can detain people for up to 24 hours before handing them to police, while private property can be searched by force, including private vehicles, the government said in a gazette notification on Tuesday.
The president had already declared a state of emergency on Friday — the second time it has been imposed in just over a month.
"Mahinda's resignation is the first step but this should have taken place a long time ago. Now, the president has to step down. People are on the streets because institutions of governance, including law enforcement, are seen as corrupt," Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, a constitutional lawyer, told DW.
"Imposing curfews and a state of emergency simply will not stop that," he added.
Rights groups and foreign diplomats based in Colombo have expressed concern about the potential for human rights abuses after the government granted sweeping powers to security forces.
"The nature of Mahinda Rajapaksa's departure has made things far worse. It is hard to see how his brother, Gotabaya, can hang on in office further given the volatile atmosphere in the country," a foreign envoy in Colombo, who asked not to be identified, told DW.
"There are still discussions about forming a unity government but it has become more difficult with the chain of events and the path has become more complicated," said the diplomat.
A crippling economic crisis and shortages of food, fuel and medicine
Sri Lanka has been facing one of the worst economic crises since it became independent in 1948.
The country of 22 million people is confronting acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine as it struggles to pay for essential imports amid a severe debt and balance of payments crisis.
This has led to skyrocketing inflation and lengthy power blackouts, stoking public discontent with the government dominated by the Rajapaksa family.
In April, Sri Lanka announced it was defaulting on its $51 billion (€48.3 billion) foreign debt.
Former Finance Minister Ali Sabry, who resigned on Monday, along with the rest of Rajapaksa's cabinet, told Reuters that Sri Lanka had as little as $50 million in foreign reserves.
"Over 60% of Sri Lanka's workforce are daily wagers, and in rural areas there is unspeakable distress. Given the galloping prices of almost everything, it won't be long before there are full scale food riots," Faraz Shauketaly, a senior journalist, told DW.
The economic crisis has stoked public discontent with the government dominated by Mahinda Rajapaksa (l) and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (r)
The government said it hopes to restructure the country's huge debts and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is seeking further financial assistance from China and India.
Gotabaya refuses to step down
Despite growing public anger and calls for his resignation, President Gotabaya has refused to step down, instead repeatedly calling for a unity government led by him.
But the opposition has so far refused to join such a government.
"For a unity government to function, there must be confidence in the political establishment and independent oversight institutions. Plugging that trust deficit and ensuring the rule of law is the need of the hour. The time for political deal-making is over,” Jayawardena underlined.
Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an NGO, told DW that there has been a hardening of public sentiment against the government.
"A unity government under President Gotabaya's leadership is a non-starter and it's difficult to envisage it including members of the former Rajapaksa government," he said.
An uncertain, uneasy future
Meanwhile, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has called for the abolishment of the executive presidency, arguing that there should be a separation of powers among the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
Malik Cader, a leading lawyer, shared a similar view.
With Mahinda Rajapaksa resigning, the parliament will now elect a new prime minister and cabinet until next elections are held.
"The new government is expected to bring amendments to abolish the executive presidency," Cader told DW.
Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political analyst at the University of Jaffna, said the protests will likely continue until the president steps down.
"The Rajapaksas have lost all legitimacy to govern and the longer they remain, the more the chances of the country being pushed toward a state of anarchy," Kadirgamar told DW.
"There needs to be a new leadership to pull Sri Lanka out of this crisis. Protests are likely to continue until the president resigns."
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru
There seems no immediate end in sight to the island nation's economic turmoil and escalating anti-government protests amid high public anger toward the president and his influential family.
The prime minister's decision to step down has so far done little to calm public anger
The resignation of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday amid mass anti-government protests and rising public fury marks a watershed moment for a powerful dynasty that dominated the island nation's politics for years.
The move to quit his post came on a day when clashes between government supporters and opponents killed seven people, including a member of parliament from the ruling Sri Lanka People's Front party (SLPP), and injured over 200.
The violence broke out in the capital Colombo on Monday afternoon when over 1,000 supporters of the SLPP broke into an anti-government protest camp outside the office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is Mahinda's younger brother.
Armed with iron bars, clubs and sticks, they attacked the protesters and burnt down the tents used by them. Anti-government protesters then attacked buses carrying government supporters who were leaving the capital after meeting with the prime minister.
Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the skirmishers, after having initially done little to hold back the government supporters, Reuters reported.
In the violence, more than 50 houses belonging to SLPP members, including that of former cabinet ministers, have been set on fire across the country and at least 40 vehicles of the ruling party supporters have been destroyed.
Curfew and state of emergency
The prime minister's decision to step down has so far done little to calm public anger.
To bring the situation under control, the government gave emergency powers to its military and police.
The military can detain people for up to 24 hours before handing them to police, while private property can be searched by force, including private vehicles, the government said in a gazette notification on Tuesday.
The president had already declared a state of emergency on Friday — the second time it has been imposed in just over a month.
"Mahinda's resignation is the first step but this should have taken place a long time ago. Now, the president has to step down. People are on the streets because institutions of governance, including law enforcement, are seen as corrupt," Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, a constitutional lawyer, told DW.
"Imposing curfews and a state of emergency simply will not stop that," he added.
Rights groups and foreign diplomats based in Colombo have expressed concern about the potential for human rights abuses after the government granted sweeping powers to security forces.
"The nature of Mahinda Rajapaksa's departure has made things far worse. It is hard to see how his brother, Gotabaya, can hang on in office further given the volatile atmosphere in the country," a foreign envoy in Colombo, who asked not to be identified, told DW.
"There are still discussions about forming a unity government but it has become more difficult with the chain of events and the path has become more complicated," said the diplomat.
A crippling economic crisis and shortages of food, fuel and medicine
Sri Lanka has been facing one of the worst economic crises since it became independent in 1948.
The country of 22 million people is confronting acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine as it struggles to pay for essential imports amid a severe debt and balance of payments crisis.
This has led to skyrocketing inflation and lengthy power blackouts, stoking public discontent with the government dominated by the Rajapaksa family.
In April, Sri Lanka announced it was defaulting on its $51 billion (€48.3 billion) foreign debt.
Former Finance Minister Ali Sabry, who resigned on Monday, along with the rest of Rajapaksa's cabinet, told Reuters that Sri Lanka had as little as $50 million in foreign reserves.
"Over 60% of Sri Lanka's workforce are daily wagers, and in rural areas there is unspeakable distress. Given the galloping prices of almost everything, it won't be long before there are full scale food riots," Faraz Shauketaly, a senior journalist, told DW.
The economic crisis has stoked public discontent with the government dominated by Mahinda Rajapaksa (l) and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (r)
The government said it hopes to restructure the country's huge debts and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is seeking further financial assistance from China and India.
Gotabaya refuses to step down
Despite growing public anger and calls for his resignation, President Gotabaya has refused to step down, instead repeatedly calling for a unity government led by him.
But the opposition has so far refused to join such a government.
"For a unity government to function, there must be confidence in the political establishment and independent oversight institutions. Plugging that trust deficit and ensuring the rule of law is the need of the hour. The time for political deal-making is over,” Jayawardena underlined.
Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an NGO, told DW that there has been a hardening of public sentiment against the government.
"A unity government under President Gotabaya's leadership is a non-starter and it's difficult to envisage it including members of the former Rajapaksa government," he said.
An uncertain, uneasy future
Meanwhile, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has called for the abolishment of the executive presidency, arguing that there should be a separation of powers among the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
Malik Cader, a leading lawyer, shared a similar view.
With Mahinda Rajapaksa resigning, the parliament will now elect a new prime minister and cabinet until next elections are held.
"The new government is expected to bring amendments to abolish the executive presidency," Cader told DW.
Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political analyst at the University of Jaffna, said the protests will likely continue until the president steps down.
"The Rajapaksas have lost all legitimacy to govern and the longer they remain, the more the chances of the country being pushed toward a state of anarchy," Kadirgamar told DW.
"There needs to be a new leadership to pull Sri Lanka out of this crisis. Protests are likely to continue until the president resigns."
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru
Issued on: 10/05/2022
At the height of their power, four brothers from Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa dynasty held the presidency and the prime minister’s office as well as the finance, interior and defence portfolios, among others. But just when the Rajapaksa clan seemed invincible, an economic crisis of their own making led to their undoing. But does that spell the end of South Asia’s most powerful political family?
On August 12, 2020, an extraordinary display of family power was under way at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka, in the central city of Kandy, the political capital of ancient kings in the island nation.
Following a landslide victory in August elections, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa swore in a cabinet that included two of his brothers and two nephews, sharing multiple portfolios among the family.
The Rajapaksas have a tradition of temple swearing-in ceremonies, a symbolism-heavy acknowledgment of the Sinhala Buddhist populism that kept propelling them into power. Over the past few years, as the family’s political fortunes enlarged, the investiture entourage of officials, diplomats and media teams dutifully trekked to sacred temples on historic sites, where yet another Rajapaksa was granted yet another portfolio.
The concentration of power and mismanagement though, have been unholy.
At the inauguration of the new cabinet, the president took on the defence portfolio, contravening a constitutional amendment barring the country’s head of state from holding a cabinet post.
His powerful brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, became Sri Lanka’s new prime minister and was also named head of three ministries: finance, urban development and Buddhist affairs.
The president then swore in his eldest brother, Chamal Rajapaksa, as minister for irrigation, internal security, home affairs and disaster management. Chamal’s son Sashindra was made junior minister for high-tech agriculture. The prime minister’s son Namal became minister of youth and sports.
Barely a year later, Basil Rajapaksa was named finance minister, taking over the important portfolio from his brother, the prime minister.
At the height of their power, the Rajapaksas appeared invincible as they signed mega infrastructure contracts and amassed fortunes while cracking down on minorities and journalists – and successfully evaded accountability in a state where they held all the reins.
For several years, human rights defenders condemned the reprisals, massacres, crackdowns, corruption and cronyism of South Asia’s most powerful political dynasty. Their calls went unheeded by an electorate willing to overlook assaults on liberties and persuaded by the cult of strong leaders preferring action over compromise.
But that was before the island nation descended into its worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948. As an acute foreign currency crisis sparked fuel shortages, power cuts and spiraling inflation, the tide finally began to turn against the Rajapaksa clan as Sri Lankans struggled to cope with a disaster of their elected government’s own making.
This week, as peaceful anti-government protests turned violent, symbols of the Rajapaksa family power came under attack in scenes unimaginable two years ago.
On Monday night, crowds stormed the prime minister’s official Temple Trees residence in Colombo, forcing the army to conduct a predawn operation to rescue Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. The prime minister by then had already submitted his resignation letter to his younger brother, the president, clearing the way for a “new unity government”.
Meanwhile in the southern province of Hambantota, mobs attacked the Rajapaksa Museum in the family’s ancestral village of Medamulana. Two wax statues of the Rajapaksa parents were flattened and mobs trashed the building as well as the ancestral Rajapaksa home nearby.
It was a violent assault on a clan that has held feudal power since colonial times and has used patronage and privilege to rise from local to national power, placing family members in strategic positions along the way.
His powerful brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, became Sri Lanka’s new prime minister and was also named head of three ministries: finance, urban development and Buddhist affairs.
The president then swore in his eldest brother, Chamal Rajapaksa, as minister for irrigation, internal security, home affairs and disaster management. Chamal’s son Sashindra was made junior minister for high-tech agriculture. The prime minister’s son Namal became minister of youth and sports.
Barely a year later, Basil Rajapaksa was named finance minister, taking over the important portfolio from his brother, the prime minister.
At the height of their power, the Rajapaksas appeared invincible as they signed mega infrastructure contracts and amassed fortunes while cracking down on minorities and journalists – and successfully evaded accountability in a state where they held all the reins.
For several years, human rights defenders condemned the reprisals, massacres, crackdowns, corruption and cronyism of South Asia’s most powerful political dynasty. Their calls went unheeded by an electorate willing to overlook assaults on liberties and persuaded by the cult of strong leaders preferring action over compromise.
But that was before the island nation descended into its worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948. As an acute foreign currency crisis sparked fuel shortages, power cuts and spiraling inflation, the tide finally began to turn against the Rajapaksa clan as Sri Lankans struggled to cope with a disaster of their elected government’s own making.
This week, as peaceful anti-government protests turned violent, symbols of the Rajapaksa family power came under attack in scenes unimaginable two years ago.
On Monday night, crowds stormed the prime minister’s official Temple Trees residence in Colombo, forcing the army to conduct a predawn operation to rescue Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. The prime minister by then had already submitted his resignation letter to his younger brother, the president, clearing the way for a “new unity government”.
Meanwhile in the southern province of Hambantota, mobs attacked the Rajapaksa Museum in the family’s ancestral village of Medamulana. Two wax statues of the Rajapaksa parents were flattened and mobs trashed the building as well as the ancestral Rajapaksa home nearby.
It was a violent assault on a clan that has held feudal power since colonial times and has used patronage and privilege to rise from local to national power, placing family members in strategic positions along the way.
From rural roots to national power
The Rajapaksas are a rural land-owning family from southern Sri Lanka whose ancestors have represented their native Hambantota on state and regional councils since pre-independence days.
Prominent families have always played an important role in Sri Lankan politics. But the Rajapaksas were not part of the urban political elites in the decades following independence. While families such as the Bandaranaikes – which produced three Sri Lankan prime ministers and one president – dominated the national scene, the Rajapaksas were part of the rural elites in the country’s Sinhalese Buddhist southern heartland.
The current president’s father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was a parliamentarian representing Hambantota district. But it was his second son, Mahinda, who catapulted the clan into national dominance when he rose from opposition leader in parliament to prime minister in 2004.
A year later, Mahinda won the 2005 presidential poll with a narrow margin, aided, according to his opponents, by a call for an election boycott by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), a militant group better known as the Tamil Tigers.
It was Mahinda’s first win in the bloody fight against the Tamil Tigers based in Sri Lanka’s neglected north, home to the country’s Tamil minority.
Brother in arms
As president, Mahinda initiated a pattern of leadership that would serve his family’s political fortunes, earning him the moniker of “clan leader” of the rising Rajapaksas.
The transition from a rules-based order to one of family networks began shortly after the 2005 presidential inauguration when, according to family lore, Mahinda emerged from the investiture room and spotted his younger brother, Gotabaya.
A former army officer, Gotabaya had moved to the US only to return home ahead of the 2005 to work on his brother’s election campaign.
According to biographers, the new president tapped Gotabaya’s shoulder and told his brother – who had left the army as a lieutenant colonel – that he was going to be Sri Lanka’s new defence secretary.
The Rajapaksa’s consolidation with the military had begun. It wasn’t long before Mahinda was ready to unleash a war that would “end” the Tamil Tigers, as he promised his electorate.
Enter the ‘terminator’
By the time Mahinda was elected president, the Tamil Tigers had dropped their demands for an independent state in the north and were asking for greater autonomy under the terms of a Norway-sponsored ceasefire.
The agreement, it was hoped, would usher in a peace deal that would end a brutal civil war that had killed tens of thousands of people over two decades.
The Rajapaksa brothers instead oversaw a military operation that would defeat the Tamil Tigers, earning the support of Sri Lankans eager to end the civil war. But for the country’s Tamil minority, it unleashed a period of state violence against civilians that drew condemnations from the UN and international human rights groups over the abductions and disappearances of suspected Tamil Tiger supporters as well as “journalists, activists, and others deemed to be political opponents” by “armed men operating in white vans, which became a symbol of political terror”.
Gotabaya was particularly implicated in the infamous 2009 “White Flag Incident” when Tamil Tiger members and their families, after contacting the UN, Red Cross and other Western governments, agreed to surrender to Sri Lankan authorities only to be gunned down by the army.
The Rajapaksa brothers have repeatedly denied responsibility for the disappearances. They also maintain that they did not give the shoot-to-kill order during the “White Flag” surrender.
Falling into the ‘Chinese debt trap’
Gotabaya’s tough on security position boosted his popularity in the 2019 presidential polls just as it helped his politically more experienced brother, Mahinda, win parliamentary elections the next year.
But it was economics, not security, that proved to be the Rajapaksa clan’s undoing.
Horrified by the gross human rights violations in Sri Lanka, Western governments began dropping Sri Lanka from aid disbursement lists. With aid and concessionary borrowing avenues drying up as Sri Lanka upgraded to lower-middle-income status, the government began relying heavily on commercial borrowings to finance the national budget.
The Rajapaksas were also increasing their reliance on Chinese investment. A massive port project in the family’s native Hambantota soon emerged as a textbook example of the “Chinese debt trap”, with Sri Lanka borrowing from Chinese banks to pay for commercially unviable projects at onerous rates.
Chinese investments in a number of unfeasible mega projects, mostly in Hambantota, are the subject of numerous economic reports, with analysts apportioning blame to different parties. But in the real world, there was no doubt that life was getting increasingly difficult for Sri Lankan citizens.
As the country’s sovereign debt ballooned, the Rajapaksas resisted national and international calls for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement and debt restructuring, insisting that Sri Lanka would service its debt.
Meanwhile, Basil Rajapaksa, who was made finance minister in 2020 despite the corruption cases against him, was dubbed “Mr. Ten Percent” as allegations circulated that the family was siphoning off state funds.
His nephew, Chamal Rajapaksa’s son Sashindra, was involved in a disastrous ban on chemical fertiliser imports, which hit the country’s critical agricultural sector.
As the pandemic shut down tourism, Sri Lankans began to despair of their country’s ruling clan.
On May 9, when Rajapaksa supporters attacked peaceful protesters assembled in Colombo, the floodgates of rage against the powerful political dynasty opened.
A day after the deadly violence, Mahinda’s son Namal, who was sports minister before his resignation earlier this year, insisted the family was merely going through a "bad patch".
At 36, Namal is widely seen as the primary Rajapaksa successor, and he has a vested interest in downplaying the troubles the family is facing.
But analysts familiar with Sri Lanka’s culture of dynastic patronage are not yet willing to write off the Rajapaksas as a political force. "The Rajapaksa brand still has support amongst the Sinhalese population," Akhil Bery from the Asia Society Policy Institute told AFP.
"Though much of the blame can be placed on the Rajapaksas now, their successors will inherit the mess, leaving space for the Rajapaksas to remain politically relevant."
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