More than 100 demonstrations have broken out across the island nation since last week
\n COLOMBO:
\nIn 2020, Mahinda Rajapaksa won elections to become Sri Lanka\u2019s prime minister, serving under his brother and president Gotabaya. In 2021, another sibling, Basil, was named finance minister, tightening the family\u2019s hold on power.
\nLess than a year later, the country\u2019s pre-eminent political dynasty is in trouble, as protesters take to the streets making demands that would have been unthinkable before the economic crisis struck: that the president steps down.
\n\u201cGota go home!\u201d hundreds of people chanted along a leafy boulevard in Sri Lanka\u2019s commercial capital Colombo this week as cars drove past, honking their horns in support.
\nFrom beachside towns in the south to the Tamil-speaking north, more than 100 demonstrations have broken out across the island nation since last week, according to the WatchDog research collective.
\nThe unprecedented wave of spontaneous protests reflects people\u2019s anger at spiralling inflation, fuel shortages, power cuts and what they see as rulers\u2019 mismanagement of the crisis that has made it worse.
\n\u201cSri Lankans are very, very patient. You\u2019ve really got to push them into a corner before they react,\u201d said Chantal Cooke, a protester, holding a banner demanding that the Rajapaksas resign.
\nWithin parliament, too, the family is losing ground.
\nBasil resigned on Sunday along with other members of the cabinet, and on Tuesday at least 41 lawmakers walked out of the ruling coalition, leaving the government with a minority in the 225-member house and opening up the possibility of a no-confidence motion.
\n\u201cThe more it (the crisis) gets dragged on, the worse it will be for the Rajapaksa family,\u201d said political analyst Kusal Perera, who has written a book on Mahinda, himself a former president.
\nThe president\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the crisis and on calls for him to resign.
\nBut chief government whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said Gotabaya, now 72, had been given a mandate to govern by 6.9 million voters, the number who supported him in presidential elections in 2019.
\n\u201cAs a government, we are clearly saying the president will not resign under any circumstances,\u201d Fernando told parliament on Wednesday. \u201cWe will face this.\u201d
\nNINE SIBLINGS
\nThe fifth of nine siblings born to a political family in Sri Lanka\u2019s Buddhist-dominated south, Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa joined the Sri Lankan military in 1971 and took part in operations against the Tamil insurgency during the country\u2019s 26-year civil war.
\nIn 2005, years after he retired and emigrated to the United States, Gotabaya returned to Sri Lanka and joined Mahinda\u2019s government as defence secretary, overseeing the brutal end of a civil war that killed between 80,000-100,000 people overall.
\nThe United Nations has accused both sides of war crimes during the conflict, and Gotabaya faced civil prosecution for alleged wartime atrocities. He has maintained his innocence, and the case was dismissed due to political immunity.
\nRiding a nationalist wave in the wake of deadly attacks by Islamist militants earlier that year, Gotabaya swept to power in 2019 with a landslide mandate.
\nMonths later, the Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party crushed the opposition in parliamentary elections, helping his brother Mahinda become prime minister.
\n\u201cWe will ensure (Sri Lanka) will not stand disappointed during our tenure,\u201d Mahinda said after his victory in 2020. The island nation was already on the path to crisis by then.
\nDEBT AND DEMONSTRATIONS
\nHistorically Sri Lanka has had weak finances where expenditure has exceeded income.
\nSome critics say that frailty was compounded when Gotabaya enacted deep tax cuts soon after taking office, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to further decimate the tourism-reliant economy.
\nDespite vocal appeals from some experts and opposition leaders, the government declined help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for months, even as the financial crisis worsened, leaving foreign exchange reserves perilously low.
\nThey stood at around $2.31 billion as of February, while Sri Lanka faces debt payments of around $4 billion during the rest of this year.
\nAfter a shift in stance, Sri Lanka is due to start talks with the IMF this month.
\nIn a televised address in mid-March, Gotabaya said he understood the pain that ordinary Sri Lankans were facing, as imports stalled because of the lack of foreign exchange and as inflation rocketed.
\n\u201cI am well aware of the shortages of essential items and increase in prices,\u201d he said. \u201cI am also aware of issues such as gas shortages, fuel shortage and power cuts.\u201d
\nBut he distanced himself from the problems, saying: \u201cThis crisis was not created by me.\u201d
\nFor some protesters and opposition politicians, that changes little.
\n\u201cThe red line has been crossed. Public confidence in this government has dropped to absolute zero,\u201d said Udaya Gammanpila, a former cabinet minister in the Rajapaksa administration.
\nBack on Colombo\u2019s streets, outside a theatre that bears Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s name, protester Cooke said the Rajapaksas had to go.
\n\u201cPeople are not going to settle for anything other than them all leaving,\u201d she said. \u201cThey want all of them out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 100 demonstrations have broken out across the island nation since last week COLOMBO: In 2020, Mahinda Rajapaksa won elections to become Sri Lanka\u2019s prime minister, serving under his brother and president Gotabaya. In 2021, another sibling, Basil, was named finance minister, tightening the family\u2019s hold on power. Less than a year later, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-253414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n