What's the way out of Sri Lanka's economic crisis? | Inside Story
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
- The Island nation of Sri Lanka is in crisis.
There have been food and fuel shortages for weeks and power cuts have become the new norm.
Many say they're struggling to get by.
And they blame the government for mishandling the economic situation - calling on president Gotabya Rajapaksa to resign.
There was a general strike on Friday that shut down much of the country.
In response, the president's office re-imposed a state of emergency - saying it's needed to 'ensure public order'.
But what brought the nation to this unprecedented situation?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Bhavani Fonseka - Senior Researcher and Attorney at Law with the Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Ahilan Kadirgamar - Political Economist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Jaffna.
Jehan Perera - Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
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#AlJazeeraEnglish #InsideStory #SriLanka #EconomicCrisis
20 years ago Sri Lanka was the economic star.
Now Bangladesh is the economic powerhouse.
Things have changed.
India and China will always be the economic powerhouses in the region dude.China at a very large worldwide level and india at a smaller regional level
No ig not india .
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh should create a economic union
@@satwiktahkur8756 Well obviously. They have 6 times our (BD) population. But India's GDP is just a fraction of China. China has a 23T size GDP.
@@ramatgan1 That because china opened it's economy way before india did..
Millions of Sri Lankans are suffering in hunger and poverty and sadly will continue to do so because the rajapaksa Family of Thieves have robbed Seven Billion Dollars from the Sri Lanka coffers in the past two years.
20 years ago Sri Lanka was the economic star.
Now Bangladesh is the economic powerhouse.
Things have changed.
They are not only thieves but also killers of thousands of women and children of Tamil origin.
@@ramatgan1
Still Bangladeshis are trying to enter India ? Why ?
@@modimonopoly4648 What you are telling is a lie proved wrong infinite times.
Like India
It reminds me of Indonesia in the era of transition from Soeharto to BJ Habibie, it chaos, rupiah was in pain, inflation, crimes at every corner. So dark. Thank God we can get thru it, wish Srilanka solves it sooner even it's harder. Anyway, Rajapaksa in _Bahasa_ means _Forced King_ LOL
Tamils in north and east lived in such conditions without medicines and essential items for decades. These items were blocked by politicians and leaders from South.
Tamil civilians were not allowed to protest due to military thugs.
Not really. After the end of war government made huge investments in North. they built new hospitals ,roads , bridges,schools etc. When north was under the rule of LTTE , the people of North didn't have any of these faculties. There was a huge shortage of medicines, even the little amount of medicine available was used for the treatment of wounded LTTE carders. So everytime there was an emergency medical situation, people in the north had to cross the border and go to government held areas.
@@satansfans you are correct about after the war but completely wrong during the war. I experienced this and I was hoping for the government to support civilians.
We didn't have books and papers to study. Instead, government terrorized civilian from sea , land and air. I was 8 on my way to school in white and blue uniform and a military helicopter shot us. This is just one incident but such action by military thugs fueled many youngsters to took different path and I witnessed it.
Government failed to understand that 99% of us wanted to live normal life just like you had in South.
I checked out the documentary Killing Fields of Sri Lanka. I’ve definitely changed my mind about visiting the island after that. I’m amazed that the world simply looked the other way on such horrific war crimes!
You are wrong. Tamils in North and East also protested. The military did not do anything to stop them.
@@katzhunter4473 Terrorist Blood loving 4 channel's (channel 4) documentary was glorifying, praising and whitewashing the LTTE terrorists. The LTTE was the world's most dangerous terrorist and extremist organization at that time, more dangerous than 9/11's Al Qaeda, so defeating the world's most dangerous terrorist group is not a war crime and if America can kill Islamic terrorists in the middle east, if India can kill Khalistani and Kashmiri rebels why Sri Lanka cannot kill LTTE terrorists.
Also LTTE killed thousand of people, children, infants, pregnant mothers like cutting vegetables, attacked mosques and Buddhist temples, attacked many public places, attacked buses and trains, etc
When Terrorist Blood loving 4 channel's (channel 4) 's country UK was attacking islamc terrorists and killing unarmed civilians in the middle east, where was the Channel 4 and will they ever call it a war crime.
Sri Lanka has sun shining 365 days of the year. Please use this time to do something with Solar Power. If electric vehicles can be invented, so can solar power. Then we don’t need to rely on fuel! Bring in the Young professionals to govern the country. Many young professionals are protesting outside the Parliament. Just usher them into the Parliament and hand over the reigns to them.
Absolutely. We have ALL three ingredients required to run photosynthesis and Ali Sabry says sri Lanka does not have natural resources because we have no oil. Hemp oil is excellent and does not destroy the soil unlike palms. Biogas will remove the need for domestic gas and probably enough gas if we connect Mahinda to one end.
The sad truth is the government doesn't invest on solar power or let anyone else to do so because of commissions they take for them selves when importing fuel( or any other thing for that matter)
Power sector is controlled by government MAFIA. ( engineers and the senior management of the Electricity Board)... they do not allow to set up large scale alternative energy projects, they prefer coal power , diesel power etc, so that they can make commissions regularly from fuel contracts when purchasing Coal and diesel (millions of dollars), and also they make large commissions / bribes from suppliers who supply parts and electrical equipment to the Electricity board.... this has been happening for over fifty years now and no Minister can change policies since they ( Civil Servants working for the Electricity Board) blackmail to go on strike if anyone tries to upset their apple cart
I pray that Sri Lanka will arise from all this problem. Show it to the world💪🏻. You can do it. Allah will help you💪🏻
Our money had been robbed by Rajapakse family. The government should take back all the money robbed. Mara was only a Goda Perskadoruwa but now he is the 6th richest person in Lanka.
Putting our time and affort in activities and investments that yield a profitable return in the future is what we should be aiming for
investment is the key of achieving success with the current pandemic slowing down so many businesses aww
The market is profitable if you are using a good broker from a company or an account manager to help your trade or provide signals
@Arnav Francois Talking about been successful, I know I am blessed if not I wouldn't have met someone is as spectacular as Mr Lopez James
How if I may ask, I’m very new to investing and a lot is confusing me
@Pavl Flores When someone is straight forward and good at what he or she does, people will definitely speak of them, for me I would say give Mr Lopez James financial education a try and you will be happy you did
Lets not forget the doubling of the public sector employees to reward those who voted this govt. We have 1.5 million govt employees for a population of 21million .compared to UK with 70million which has less than 500k
In the UK we have 1/10000 of the services we have in Sri Lanka. I prefer to have services run by the public for the public.
What’s wrong with public services? I get that if it’s provided by the government as a return of favour for voting for them, that is corrupt but public services are the best for any nation and economy. They can empower people living in poverty and hunger.
It's 30% in France and 40% in Norway
We have 1.4 million govt employees in Bangladesh. But our population is more than 168 millions 🥱
Gotabaya had a chance and opportunity to run the economy for several years. He failed. Now he wants another chance. Too late. Unreasonable request. People will starve as long as he doesn’t resign.
Appriciate this talk at the end. Veryctrue and reasonable. This is real eyes. REALIZING
50 million us dollars in reserve
!!!!!!
That close to be being a beggar in
World market
Don't worry...I have my own family members in powerful gov't positions now...everything will be OK.
federalism and abolishing executive power is the way to decentralize power and give it back to people
True news
Curse due to genocide of tamils on 2009 Buddha is smiling now You can't escape sinhala people who was sharing sweets with soldiers after genocide
True
So sad to hear this.
It is a high time for power hungry politician to take leave.
All power & adminstration be handed over to their renown economists & technorats untill economic stability is established.
This is a warning to every country that signed China's Belt and Road.
If you are rationally analyzing you will find out absolute most of Sri Lanka's debt are owed by Western governments and Western dominated financial institutions IMF for example. only difference is there's no massive Western media coordination propaganda report this fact or exaggerate this narrative of Western debt trap.
@@greentraveler4114 Thank you for pointing this out to the dumb plebs out there.
the curse of Elam Tamilians is haunting the Rajapaksa
It was only good did by Rajapaksa......
It is so so SAD to see what the Rajapaksa’s have done over the YEARS to Sri Lanka and it’s economy and it is it’s people who will SUFFER for the REST OF THEIR PAINFUL LIVES! They truly have turned Sri Lankans into BEGGERS of the world where from now on they will have to go BEGGING on their knees around to each world leaders for money for the REST of their lives ‼️‼️💔💔
Rajapaksa was the nationalist leader for sinhale buddhist people's now all community is suffering
Sri Lankan bare the consequences in tough time, they will rise, corrupted politicians ruler's will vanish, this long historical country never fall, never brake, this will a stand point for them, rise up Sri Lanka.
Srilanka people hopefully not fooled again by politicians. Hope no body from the current politicians again will not be selected for the parliament. If again this happened that means struggle was in vain. Currently all the current parliament behave to gain power to safeguard there positions and not to help people and do not discuss the issues in Srilanka.
we want new government...
Sri Lanka sangat menyedihkan😢😟
Revolution to remove the Robber Barons
*Every square inch of Jerusalem under Israel control but 2 billion momins cannot March toward Qibla e awwal and reclaim it . Indeed Allah is the best of planners*
Why did ¨Allah¨ plan Covid?
How can a non existent thing plan well? It's your hallucination. Grow up from stone age
@@madhavyu he’s a troll
@@YonikMalik Allah Hu SNAUKbar.
Main cause is indiscriminate borrowing to sustain theft
🌏Al Jazeera English!!. 🤔
Maybe yes!. 🤔🤔
“In the END we must REMEMBER that no amount of rules or their enforcement will defeat those who STRUGGLE with *JUSTICE* ⚖️ on their side.”
By # 🌍Nelson Mandela✓
at the 50th anniversary of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade),
🌍Geneva, Switzerland,
🌍19 May 1998.
Thank you.
And good health always!.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
...
Way out? If there was one, these people have destroyed it.
There are many pandits who give all sort of theories but never demand from the blooming Rajapakses to return the robbed money that they have stashed in foreign rogue banks. Actually these pandits havent the guts to standup and demand. The authorities have been effected with leprosy and retribution is such, have made them to go out with a begging bowl.
Farming and fishing is the only option left i guess... go back few steps
Another regime change? I went to SL few times between 16 and 18 years ago as guest of a srilankan family. As a European I could appreciate everything of the simple yet rich life I found. Fresh, organic vegetables (no need of fertilisers with that soil and rain, you could sow and harvest same day), abundant fish, pristine environment for all 20 millions srilankans. Cheap electricity, medicines and schools provided by govt, tourism was going to resume after the Tamil war. What could have possibly gone wrong?
@@catchubru every thing.
It is in interest of Sri Lanka to join Indian Union or have treaty as like EU, which will allow citizen to travel, work and economic to integrate..
Only Tamils in Sri Lanka would maintain such interest.
Sri lanka need a king
Yes, a Tiger King 😂
@@katzhunter4473 Nah Lion King sounds much better! Besides, the Tiger King was chopped up after the bullet to the head and then fed to the old Lion housed in Dehiwala Zoo. Didn't you hear about that. The poor Lion had diarrhea for five days!
Revolution for Sri Lanka , take of government get rid off thieves , liars and corruption .
Rajapaksas getting the power is like beggars storming into a restaurant or locusts raiding a corn field. Sadly, Sri Lankans haven't learned a thing although they protest.
20 years ago Sri Lanka was the economic star.
Now Bangladesh is the economic powerhouse.
Things have changed.
@@ramatgan1 true. I was amazed by Dhaka in 90s and thought why they called them poor while Colombo is still looking like a big shanty. No metropolitan city standards. Sri Lankans dont have sense of development or forecasting. Some of them descended from Bengal but didnt have your spirit.
Horun allanawa kiyanawa namuth allapu Horek nehe. This is Lanka deshapalanaya.
The Sri Lankan people should read Marx, Engels, and Lenin.
This is the only way out.
Exchange Sri Lanka gold reserves for oil from Russia
If an ordinary man committed such crimes, he would’ve been arrested and jailed for life. The world survived without this organic palaver. The Rajapaksas became over confident I suppose because China was ready to lend money, so they jump in to the organic trap, head first. Hearing news about the Rajapaksas, I’m horrified.
Plzzzzz international media,,,plzzzzzzz support us...these rulers are harming innocent civil peaceful ppl..plzzzzzzz support us!!!!! Plzzzzzzzz....it's sad to live here now.....🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏😭🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🇱🇰🇱🇰🇱🇰🙏🙏🇱🇰🙏🙏🇱🇰🙏🙏🇱🇰🙏🇱🇰🇱🇰🙏
What’s the war spending rajapaksa government has done during 2008 and 2008 ? Is this money spent only from tax revenue or is there a international loan involved? Find the answer for this and you can get to a solution. 🧘🏿 karma is a boomerang.
why are you guys brining in lawyers to speak on economic issues ???
Government causing serfdom and poverty at a nasty clip.
What is the radical changers you are talking about?
If President Gothabaya is in this call, world can see how ignorant he is - lacks basic understanding of governance, its a pity SL ended up in such a disastrous situation 🤔
No remedy unless wide spread corruption is addressed. Many Indian states would suffer like Sri Lanka if they were independent
Only way out for srilanka is become federal state of India
They admitted, but the PM escaped with his family in an army helicopter! How much did they pay to hire the army helicopter? He was no longer the PM when he took an army helicopter to get away.
He looted an entire country and you are worried about a helicopter?
Question: What's the way out of Sri Lanka's economic crisis?
Answer: There is no way out...
Sell dosa vadai burger in each street as like in trukey if want to live in dessert go there
Sri-Lanka has a long history of divisive politics and violence.
The seed of Sri-Lanka’s destruction was planted soon after independence in 1948 by the introduction of the Ceylon Citizenship Act and the Sinhala Only Act.
Anti-Tamil and Anti-Muslim propaganda wins elections and divert attention from the real economic and social issues. Using anti-minority propaganda to win elections is unlikely to change.
Just two years ago, the vast majority of the Sinhalese voted for the Rajapaksa brothers knowing their records of corruption and violence, when they were in power from 2005 to 2015. The Rajapaksa brothers were elected primarily because of Sinhala ethno-nationalism.
Sri-Lanka’s failure was inevitable and was predicted by the former Prime Minister of Singapore, the late, Lee Kuan Yew - in his book From Third World to First, The Singapore Story:
In 1965, we had 20 years of examples of failed states. So, we knew what to avoid - racial conflict, linguistic strife, religious conflict. We saw Ceylon.
SWRD Bandaranaike’s promise to make Sinhala the national language and Buddhism the national religion was the start of the unravelling of Ceylon.
Excellent Analysis!
What are you talking about? Buddhism has been the state patronised, national religion of the island since it was introduced to the island 2300 years ago!
@@lt8865 ya but excluding tamils and not recognising their citizenship and their language was what triggered the racial and linguistic riots and started the downfall. Imagine where sri lanka would have been had the civil war not been there and stupid strong men hadn't been elected by people who just inflamed the hate to get votes
@@michaelrichards6482
Thanks!
@@lt8865
Making Buddhism the national religion and Sinhala the national language was done after independence in 1948.
SWRD Bandaranaike was born as a Christian and converted to Buddhism to win power!
J. R. Jayewardene was also born as a Christian and converted to Buddhism to win power!
In Sri-Lanka, merit does not count! To get any top job, the number one requirement is that the person needs to be a Sinhala Buddhist!
Now everyone can see the results of Sinhala Buddhists trying to run a country!
The Sri-Lankan higher education system was destroyed by the Sinhala only nonsense!
A language spoken by 20 million poor people cannot conquer the world!
In Singapore, English is given priority, while Mandarin Malay and Tamil are official languages alongside English.
In Singapore, many Tamils have held important positions even though they make up less than three percent of the population. People such as: S. Rajaratnam, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, K. Shanmugam, et al.
In Singapore, meritocracy is the number one requirement and this has moved the country from third-world to first world within 30 years of independence.
In contrast, Sinhala nationalism has pushed Sri-Lanka from third-world to fifth world!
The RAJAPAKSES MUST GET OUT- that’s the way out
yep partially true but it's not like money's (dollars) gonna fall onto our hands when they leave.
Did you vote for this government?
6.9 million people did
military dictators rarely make good gov leaders. Sadaam Hussain, Edi Amin, the list goes on and on. But it's easy to blame a president. It's the entire parliament, legislatures, and politicians. Sri Lankans are the only people who can fix the crisis. Pretty sad...
umm, china??
The collapse has started for them an will follow onward to other as a domino effect .
it´s interesting if india is becomeing more poor as it already was kinda poor , mabe not even by the war means , theres this neighbour when u change your leader , like the horse don´t drink dirty water , like the turban meaning , they might push for counter camaradery , 2 years of crisis is afghanistan , maybe u should better take a stance.
20 years and not 2 years
20 years ago Sri Lanka was the economic star.
Now Bangladesh is the economic powerhouse.
Things have changed.
There are 2 rules:
1. Never trust China.
2. Don't forget rule no. 1👍👍
Chinese are human,they are living and some cannot be trusted similar to any other human. The race or culture is a matter of preference. You don't have a choice of changing who you were born as.
Why blame China? They never said, take my money. Sri Lanka itself was taunting India and Pakistan about how progressive they are using Organic farming, climate action, wokeness, and how westernized they are.
Corrupted govt. 1/3 holidays. Don’t blame others, who elected your govt?
Never look the problems within your country while blaming others, unfortunately, you are not strong as USA can do that at the will.
The Rajapaksa brothers and many people in the military are suspected war criminals.
When a “new government” came to power led by Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2015, they fooled everyone by pretending to investigate the Rajapaksa brothers for war crimes.
Sri-Lanka has a culture of impunity dating back to the 1970s.
Sri-Lanka has the second largest number of missing people in the world after Iraq!
It also has mass graves all over the country.
No Sri-Lankan government will ever prosecute perpetrators of political violence.
In 2020, Gotabaya Rajapaksa released from prison a War Criminal, Sunil Ratnayake, a former army sergeant convicted of the brutal murder of eight Tamil civilians, including three children.
The Western countries should only offer assistance after all the suspected war criminals are handed over for trials outside the country.
If no money is given, we will have to eat Jaffna fried Tamils. Finger licking good!
@lt what’s wrong with kavum and kokis?!
@@lt8865
First you can loot Tamil and Muslim-owned businesses, as you have done since 1948!
You can also send another million Sinhalese to work as maids in the Middle East to join the one million Sinhalese maids already there working to help the Rajapaksa brothers to have a nice life!
Then you will become the next Singapore in about 1,000 years!
20 years ago Sri Lanka was the economic star.
Now Bangladesh is the economic powerhouse.
Things have changed.
@@ramatgan1
What evidence do you have to show that Sri-Lanka was an economic star?
Sri-Lanka has asked the IMF for bailout 16 times in the last 52 years. This shows that Sri-Lanka has been an economic basket case for the last 50 plus years.
It has now asked again for an IMF bailout!
Building fancy residential apartments by borrowing, debt-fuelled consumption and money printing cannot deliver prosperity!
Successive Sri-Lankan regimes have printed money and mismanaged the economy. In 1950, one US dollar bought Rs 5. Now, one US dollar can buy more than Rs 360.
Sri-Lanka has been living beyond its means for the last 50 years.
Income per person (measured in PPP) in Bangladesh is around US $5,000 per year.
Does it make Bangladesh an economic power house?
The disastrous conditions of Ceylon started after independence when political power went to the Singhalese.
Frist British left then Tamil people left or were forced to flee the country because successful Sinhala Sri Lankan Government and the country was in turmoil
It's so dumb to judge an economic situation based on race. Only shows just how racist you are. Social problems don't make much sense when in relation with economy. Didn't the so called post independent government gave you free healthcare and free education ?
Russia invaded Ukraine openly for regime change but supper power America do the same cowardly in Pakistan regime change. Sanctions should also impose on America like Russia because if China does the same would not America impose sanctions on China?
!diot Emrand Khand is trying to save his face by blaming America because that is what failed people do.
@@simpmaster7995 childhood mentally
Pust traveler from India and Bangladesh
With no visa
Ltte Malaysia tak mau tolong ke.. 🤭
👣
this is not balanced reporting may coverage is given to Socialist elements in this video and creating a bad impression of Sri Lanka. which is not the case. shame Al-Jazeera
This is punishment by GOD' Ukraine and Sri Lanka get Reward for what they did in 2009....hahahahahahah enjoy it
gotabaya rajapaksa go home!!!!
20 years ago Sri Lanka was the economic star.
Now Bangladesh is the economic powerhouse.
Things have changed.
Happy to see some light being shed on the war crimes and human rights violations committed by the Sri Lankan government. Tamil people and many other oppressed individuals in Sri Lanka have waited for this moment for years. Many activists have been pushing for this. Unfortunately, it had to come to this extent for a shift in people's outlook and understanding. The government has been going to extreme measures to silence the protestors in Colombo. Does anybody want to guess what might have happened in Tamil areas where it was easier to silence people and get away before the time of smartphones and social media? Idiots.
GOTA IS A THIEF. They are ALL THIEVES
2nd
They need to have the Queen as head of state and the Prime Minister to run the country - its common knowledge that that this is a better system of government - no country should have a executive President - it should always be non-political.
The Queen??? Have you read or studied what the QUEEN DID?
the US has a executive president.
Do you want to be colonised again??? 🙈🙈🙈🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂😭😭😭🇱🇰
Lol karma.
Trump: chinaaaaaaaaaaa…..
Pakistan in line of crisis
Population control
Families don’t have more than one or two children. Family planning has been in SL since the late 1950s. Because of good health services, there’s an increase in the elderly population of over 60s. This is the problem in SL . About one third of the population are elderly. ✅👍👍
@@dabey873 compare sl population vs that of Greece.
There such thing as a country named Sri Lanka? I always thought it's a dumping site.