By Raju Prabath Lankaloka
The Ranil Rajapaksha regime has shown again and again that the only thing it knows is the taste of blood in brutal repression.
These rulers are well aware that they are not capable of solving any of the issues faced by people. On 28th July 2022, Fitch Ratings, which is a leading provider of credit ratings, for global capital markets also confirmed this fact, Their comment on Sri Lanka is as below.
“The government’s parliamentary position appears strong, but public support for the government is weaker. President Wickremesinghe was prime minister in the previous administration under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was brought down by protests. Parliament and the government also remain dominated by politicians from the Sri Lanka People’s Freedom Alliance, which is closely affiliated with the Rajapaksa family. This may increase the risk of further destabilising protests if economic conditions do not improve and/or reforms generate public opposition.
“We expect any reform package agreed with the IMF by the government to include elements such as higher taxes, expenditure rationalisation and a commitment to a greater degree of exchange-rate flexibility. There is a significant risk that such reforms could cause public opposition that might impede their implementation. In the absence of an IMF deal, we expect Sri Lanka to face a very strained external position in the near term. The country has little foreign exchange to pay even for essential imports such as fuel, food and medicines, with official reserve assets at just USD1.9 billion (just over one month of imports) as of end-June.”
Such are the opinions expressed by Fitch Ratings, which advises the world capital markets. According to them, any agreement with the IMF will further worsen the condition of the people and will fuel the mass protests. These protests will further destabilize the country as factions supported by the Rajapakshas dominate the government.
At the same time, Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department stated in an interview with Reuters that “China is a big creditor, and Sri Lanka has to engage proactively with it on a debt restructuring,”. He has also added that “Sri Lanka has to engage with its creditors, both private and official bilateral, on a debt workout to ensure debt sustainability is restored”.
China has already expressed its unwillingness to restructure the loans given to Sri Lanka. Therefore, IMF is asking Sri Lanka to do an impossible task.
The bogus claims of Ranil on his capacity to rebuild the economy and capability to get support from international institutions have become a mockery. Knowing that there is no solution to the problems faced by people, the only thing they can do for their existence is to launch a wave of repression on people’s protests as it seemingly will intensify in future.
Due to this reason, it is seen that a huge campaign is carried out to discredit the struggle on social media and mainstream media. Also, severe repression was unleashed on prominent activists. This repression shows the incapability of the Ranil Rajapaksha regime to solve the problems faced by the masses.
There is another reason for Ranil’s escalation of repression against the people. As we have mentioned before, Ranil Wickramasinghe is a person who has no mass base. His party could get only 2.1% of votes from the entire country in the last general election. His rule is entirely dependent on the approval of the Rajapaksas. Ranil will not be able to pass any bill without the votes of the MPs of SLPP. Hence Ranil needs to satisfy the wishes of Rajapaksha. In other words, Ranil is just a political puppet of Rajapakshas. Unleash the repression against mass protests, which Rajapakshas tried several times but failed, to portray this need of making Rajapaksha happy. When taking look at the statements given by individuals like Sanath Nishantha clearly confirms this need.
The illegal nature of the repression carried out by the Ranil Rajapaksa regime has been pointed out by the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission as well. As soon as Ranil became acting president, the emergency law was imposed on the country. Human Rights Commission made an announcement in this regard on 22-07-2022. It states that “The inappropriate declaration of emergency is contrary to the rule of law. And attempting to control/suppress the fundamental rights of the people by the continuous declaration of emergency violates the constitution. Withdraw the inappropriate declaration of emergency immediately.” The recommendation of the Human Rights Commission, which stated that the declaration of emergency law is a violation of the constitution was completely ignored by the Ranil Rajapaksha administration, also revealing the nakedness of the crooks who, claim to be the defenders of the constitution.
The Human Rights Commission had issued an announcement on 22-02-2022 about the attack on the Galleface protest within less than 24 hours after Ranil was sworn in as the successive president. It stated that “The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) condemns the brutal and despicable attack on the peaceful protesters at Galle-Face vicinity by the Military in the early morning hours today. A total violation of the fundamental rights of the people by the actions of the Executive. The HRCSL advises the State to identify the perpetrators and take appropriate action and ensure such actions by the Military or any action within the control of the State to violate the fundamental rights of the people will never occur in the future.”
Rather than taking action against the culprits as per the recommendations made by Human Rights Commission, the regime has started arresting the activists of the struggle and charged them under the emergency law. The Human Rights Commission issued an announcement about that on 22-07-2022 which stated that “Charging persons exercising fundamental rights under emergency law and not the regular law of the country undermines the rule of law. There is no justification to charge those arrested to be produced under emergency law. There is a general law in the country which is enforceable to deal with these situations.”
Thus, the repression carried out by the Ranil Rajapaksa regime is completely illegal, unconstitutional and a violation of human rights.
Meanwhile, the report of the Human Rights Commission regarding the attack on the Gotagogama protest on May 9, by a mob came from Temple Trees was also released on July 27. Among the many facts that were there, the following was also stated.
“ln these circumstances, as elicited in the report, the IGP was clearly in breach of duty by failing to provide adequate protection to the peaceful protesters and to uphold the rule of law. lt is recommended that the H.E the President directs an investigation into this aspect of the matter and take necessary steps to ensure that such actions by the Head of the Police Department will not occur in the future.
“It is also recommended to His Excellency the President to direct an investigation into the lapse on the part of all the senior police officers, including IGP downwards, who were on duty at the protesting sites in Colombo for their inability to provide adequate protection to the peaceful protesters on 9th May 2022. And, if victims can be identified, the Police to adequately compensate those victims for the injuries suffered.”
Implementation of this recommendation of the Human Rights Commission is an acid test for Ranil. People are waiting to see if Ranil will implement this recommendation, or if he will put those recommendations also to the dust bin to please the Rajapaksahs on whom he is politically dependent.
We know that revolutions always go hand in hand with counter-revolutions and struggles always goes together with repression. To bring a struggle to a successful conclusion, it is paramount important to defeat this repression. History has shown time and again that the working class has the biggest potential to defeat such oppression. Because of this, everyone should work towards mobilizing the working class and call for a general strike to defeat the illegal and unconstitutional repression carried out by the Ranil Rajapaksa regime.
